Born six years ago in 2004, Facebook has attracted 500 million regular users and become the biggest social network in the world. The success of Facebook has forced the social networks in Vietnam which want to continue existing to follow the road paved by the giant.

 Prior to that, when Y!360 shut down, experts said that the time of Vietnamese social networks had come. Many domestic networks were established, including Zing Me, GoOnline, Yume, tamtay.net, or CyberWorld. Creating content themselves (sharing pictures, videos or writing blogs) was the main trend of the social networks. And then Facebook appeared, a website where interaction is the main feature, and quickly attracted a lot of Vietnamese users. Users can create personal profiles, add other users as friends and exchange messages, including automatic notifications when they update their profile. Additionally, users may join common interest user groups, organized by workplace, school, or college, or other characteristics.

The success of Facebook has forced other social networks in Vietnam to rethink their strategies. Yume, for example, has shifted to update friends’ information like Facebook, while FPT Online has launched the beta version of banbe.net network. The version has core functions like Facebook in connection and information sharing.

 Experts said that nearly all the social networks in the world are following the model of Facebook, from Russian vkotakte.ru to Chinese renren.com, kaixin001.com and Vietnamese Zing me, Go online.

 “This is a global trend,” said Pham Quang Hung, Managing Director of TCV Media and social advisor of FPT Online and Banbe.net project.

 Vietnamese social networks will be the new choice?

 According to Google Ad planner, in 2010, Zing Me led social networks in Vietnam with 4.6 million users, followed by Facebook, while Yahoo and Yume ranked the third and fourth. By December 2010, Facebook reached 1.1 billion pageviews in Vietnam alone.

 According to Vuong Quang Khai, Deputy General Director of VinaGame, if calculating the number of used minutes on every website, the three new-generation networks Zing Me, Facebook and GoOnline are leading the market (Zing Me got 1 billion minutes, and Facebook 880 million). Meanwhile, the three first-generation social networks, namely Yahoo, Yume and TamTay have a low number of used minutes.

 According to Pham Quang Hung, in 2011, old-generation networks such as Yahoo, Tamtay, Yume will still have their positions on the blog market, but their positions will be weaker. Meanwhile, new networks will meet many challenges in “conquering” users. With the decline of the global Yahoo, Vietnam’s social network market in 2011 will see a main rivalry between Zing Me and Facebook.

 However, if Vietnamese social networks can develop sustainably remains a question. Experts say that Vietnamese companies are still weak at technologies, and they lack long term investment and vision. They also still do not well understand the culture and social life of Vietnamese people.

 “Maybe users would be very eager to join the networks, but they may not stay. Even if they stay, this will not help the social networks to develop. The number of Zing Me’s users still hovers around 500-600 million pageviews, Go Online 200-300 million, Yume 20-30 million,” Hung said.

 Source: VnMedia