VNG embraces technology to lead the gaming industry

Now that technology is booming, what are the challenges and growth opportunities facing the gaming industry in general and VNG in particular?

VNG has been in the gaming industry for 19 years, and has witnessed many changes over that time.

Giap Le Trong, head of the Game Publishing Platform at VNG Corporation

In my opinion, the greatest challenge for the industry is how to understand the gaming culture of Vietnamese people as it has changed many times.

Previously, it focused on products like PC games, but now it's all about mobile devices. The current development of mobile games makes user behaviour much more different compared to before.

In the wake of this, VNG has been active in terms of technology transformation to meet our changing goals. In our vision, we aim to focus on bringing tech products to the world's playground, in which games form the spearhead.

How will VNG overcome the obstacles and maintain its position as the leader in the local game market? And how important is technology in VNG’s future vision?

Faced with these hurdles, VNG has made changes, transforming from PC game related products to mobile games and focusing more on mobile users.

In addition, VNG invests in technology to allow an in-depth analysis of user behaviour, ensuring we understand them and can improve their experience.

For example, since 2020, AWS and VNG have been strategic partners to bring together VNG's applications and games in both the Vietnamese market and overseas regions. Some key AWS technologies that VNG is applying are CloudFront, AWS Lambda, AWS Aurora, AWS Managed Services, IAM, CloudWatch, Direct Connect, EBS, Amazon EC2, and Amazon RDS.

Currently, VNG and AWS have short- and long-term plans to bring VNG products and games to the world market. With AWS's global deployment experience and VNG's game development expertise, the two sides are developing and supporting each other. Specifically, we plan to build a Data Lake system to help us better understand users’ behaviour and serve our business in international markets.

Besides this, VNG now has a big tech development team that enables us to develop some of our own technologies, including those related to Zalo, user identification, and user confirmation.

Going international is one of the approaches that many big companies are taking to tap into new opportunities amidst mounting competition. Does VNG have a similar approach?

We have expanded globally and have offices in Bangkok, Beijing, Jakarta, Taipei, and Shanghai. We are also focusing much more on Southeast Asian markets in our international expansion strategy.

Before branching out into the overseas market, VNG is carrying out research and making assessments on the gaming markets, culture, and development capabilities of the countries. After that, it will select the most suitable markets.

The Southeast Asian markets are the closest to Vietnam and have a cultural similarity. Businesses in Vietnam also have a lot of experience expanding and developing in Southeast Asia, so they will be the first target.

Taipei is also a key location for our strategy to go global as it is a key location for role-playing games, which has been a core part of VNGGames’ DNA since our founding.

The issue for us entering such a sizeable and mature market is that we need to work harder against the competition and more established players to prove ourselves.

With our wide network of partners, VNG can publish top-notch games. Therefore, we believe we can compete globally.

Could you make a comparison between the digital transformation in Vietnam and in other regional countries?

In the gaming industry in Vietnam, I see that companies have transformed themselves and digitalised their operating models.

In comparison with other regional markets, including ones where VNG does business, like Singapore or Thailand, Vietnam is still one step behind.

When game companies in Vietnam master the technology, they will completely catch up with countries like Singapore and Thailand – maybe even as soon as next year.

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