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Vietnam’s answer to Tencent, VNG, eyes overseas expansion after taking on Facebook at home

  • VNG Corp is accelerating efforts overseas starting with video games and plans to move into artificial intelligence and cloud computing
  • The social media and gaming behemoth, which has drawn comparisons to Tencent, could be Vietnam’s first tech company to list in the US

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Zalo overtook Facebook Messenger in Vietnam in 2020 with features like mobile payments and gaming, similar to Tencent’s WeChat in China. Photo: Shutterstock
Bloomberg
A Vietnamese internet start-up that’s successfully defended its home market of 100 million people against global giants like Facebook is now going into attack mode.
VNG Corp, Vietnam’s answer to Tencent Holdings Ltd with games, messaging, videos and music among its services, is accelerating its international expansion, co-founder Le Hong Minh said in an interview at its headquarters in Ho Chi Minh City. Games will be its spearhead, and VNG also seeks to add global revenue from artificial intelligence and cloud computing products.

The tech start-up’s success abroad would be a milestone for Vietnam, a Communist country better known for textiles and agriculture. As part of its growth plans, VNG has taken steps toward being included on a local exchange for unlisted firms, often a precursor for a listing on an official exchange. The company is also reportedly eyeing a US listing – something Minh wouldn’t directly confirm.

“We want to be a global technology company,” said Minh, also the company’s chief executive officer. “So we have to play in the same playground, and access the best and obviously most demanding investor base in the world.”

VNG has emerged as one of the country’s most watched start-ups and a US IPO would make it the first Vietnamese tech company to list in America. Its stock-market debut could follow on the heels of Vietnamese electric-car maker Vinfast, which is targeting an IPO on the US stock market as soon as January.

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