New social media app Gapo aims to rival Facebook in Vietnam, as state clamps down on tech giants

Gapo, a mobile app that lets users create personal profiles and share posts to a Facebook-style ‘news feed’, is eyeing 20 million users by 2021

The app has launched as the Communist government tightens its grip on the internet

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A man uses the Facebook app on his phone in a cafe in Hanoi. Photo: EPA

Published: 2:00am, 24 Jul 2019Updated: 4:36pm, 24 Jul 2019

A Facebook-style social network was launched in Vietnam on Tuesday, following calls by the Communist-ruled government for domestic tech companies to create alternatives to US tech giants Facebook and Google.

Gapo, a mobile app that lets users create personal profiles and share posts to a Facebook-style “news feed”, has received 500 billion dong (US$21.5 million) in funding from tech corporation G-Group, its chief executive said.

“Vietnamese users and enterprises are relying too much on Facebook as there are not so many social networks for them to choose from,” Ha Trung Kien said, adding that Gapo plans to reach 3 million users this year and 20 million by January 2021.

Despite economic reforms and increasing openness to social change, the ruling Communist Party retains tight media censorship in Vietnam and does not tolerate dissent.

An increasing number of activists and dissidents have been arrested or tried over the last year for posting online content considered to be “anti state”.

Nearly 10 per cent of the 128 prisoners held in the Southeast Asian country for expressing dissenting views were jailed for posting anti-state comments on social media platforms such as Facebook, Amnesty International said in May.

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