In its "Vietnam’sOnline Advertising Revenue Report 2009" released recently, Cimigo said that thetotal revenues from online advertising in the country in 2009 were estimated at15.5 million USD, up 71 percent from the previous year.
However, thestudy, which is based on a large survey of online publishers and media agenciesand is the first of its kind in Vietnam, pointed out that the full potential ofVietnam’s online advertising market has not yet been tapped into and its growthrate has failed to keep up with the country’s economic expansion.
TheInternet plays an increasingly important role in Vietnamese people’s lives, butadvertising via the Internet in Vietnam only makes up a small part of the totalinvestment in advertising compared with other regional countries.
According to statistics produced in 2008, online advertising accountedfor just 1.5 percent of the advertising market share, while television andpublications held over 80 percent of the total.
More than a half of theVietnamese population have access to the Internet and spend hours surfing itevery week, said Cimigo’s Online Director Lukas Mira, adding that, advertisersstill remain doubtful about using this method of advertising to approachcustomers.
Industry experts are optimistic about the prospects for thedevelopment of the online advertising market as the number of Internet users isrising fast. A study conducted by the Vietnam Internet Centre shows that morethan 23 million Vietnamese people, equivalent to 27 percent of the totalpopulation, have regular access to the Internet and go online every day.
However, Nguyen Hung, Director of the Kiemviec.com Company, said that inthe recent past, online advertising had been controversially preferred toadvertising in the printed press, as most Internet users are higher than averageincome earners and like to shop. Moreover, online advertising costs much lessthan conventional forms of advertising, he said.
But now, a number ofmulti-national automobile and mobile phone manufactures such as Ford, Toyota andNokia, are making the most of the advantages of online advertising, added Hung./.