Monthly Archives: July 2012

Software outsourcers fight for human resources

The fierce competition for skilled labor between software outsourcers has led to a rising trend of job hopping in this industry.

Chu Tien Dung, chairman of the HCMC Computer Association, told the Daily that the job-hopping ratio in the software outsourcing sector has surged by nearly 20% as industry players are grabbing their rivals’ employees given a labor undersupply.

These companies prefer experienced people, Dung said. Certain firms have even committed an act of unhealthy competition. The bottom line is many companies put quick profits first but lack long-term investment in human resource development.

The demand for information technology (IT) specialists has far exceeded the supply. As a result, enterprises are facing constant job-hopping and sharp rises in wages.

The increasingly high specialization of software outsourcing and continuous personnel changes have sent the market shrinking as enterprises do not employ people who are trained from scratch but experienced ones.

Vuong Bao Long, human resource manager of LogiGear Vietnam, specializing in software testing, said LogiGear had been hurt in the fierce battle for staff. He stressed other software companies had sent emails to engineers of his company and offered attractive salaries.

“Many companies will, at all costs, hunt for experienced people when they have projects. But they will terminate their labor contracts when the projects are done. There are certain companies having proposed transferring their employees to other firms. This leaves an adverse impact on the labor market,” Long said.

Other software outsourcing companies like CSC, Global CyberSoft and TMA are also struggling with this pressing issue. They said the unhealthy competition was initiated by some foreign-invested and local newly-established companies, but they declined to reveal the names of those firms.

Under the pressure caused by the fight for human resources, multiple companies have offered their employees higher salaries, a better working environment and opportunities for promotion. In addition, software outsourcers have joined hands with the HCMC-based colleges to boost the number and the quality of IT students to create a more stable labor supply.

However, Long said these measures could only help remove the tip of the iceberg. He proposed the authorities should intervene to remedy this situation.

SGT

Ten-digit mobile numbers most popular

The Ministry of Information and Communications may issue millions of new 10-digit mobile-phone numbers because Vietnamese people do not like the new 11-digit numbers.

The ministry’s Telecommunications Department is now drafting a circular on the possibility of issuing two bands, zero and one, after the existing digits.

This will give it more space to add many new numbers without adding an extra digit to 10-digit numbers.

The move will add 20 million new numbers to the mobile network system.

Many Vietnamese with 10-digit numbers stay with their network providers much longer than those with 11-digit numbers.

Nghiem Phu Hoan, deputy director of Vietnam Posts and Telecommunications Corporation (VNPT), said many subscribers used 11-digit numbers to take advantage of special cut-rate offers by service providers.

They then threw away their SIM card because it was even cheaper to wait for the next offer and then buy a new SIM card.

In fact, customers are eager to pay more for a 10 digit number. For example, Viettel can sell a SIM with 10 digits for VND130,000-150,000 ($6-7 USD) while their 11-digit SIM cards are sold for about VND50,000 ($2.20).

The three giant mobile networks in Vietnam, VinaPhone, MobiFone and Viettel, are running out of 10-digit numbers while smaller network are believed to still have many.

The draft circular will be inspected by subscribers and mobile networks before being released.

VNA

The race of bringing web to TVs, smart phones heats up

The growing trend of converging computer, TV and mobile phone has prompted firms to focus on generating contents to earn money.

App stores brought to TVs

IT firms now focus on developing app stores on next-generation TV models, smarter with web integration. The growth rate of the smart TV models in 2009-2011 was 50 percent per annum, higher than expected, while the products’ life circle has shortened and the prices have been decreasing rapidly.

With 22 million households nationwide, the TV screens at households have become the “aiming points” of the manufacturers in the process of bringing websites to TVs.

VNG pioneered the race when it joined forces with Sony to integrate Zing entertainment app store, including Zing News and Zing MP3 into Sony Internet TV. One just needs to press Zing on the TV interface to be able to directly access to Zing’s store to enjoy the contents. Sony has also cooperated with Thanh Nien online in a project on sharing contents on TV.

LG Vietnam has reached a strategic agreement with VC Corp on developing contents for LG Smart TV, under which some websites like muachung.vn, kenh14.vn, sannhac.com, socnhi.co would be posted on TVs. It has also joined hands in the contracts on sharing contents with big websites like VnExpress and Nhaccuatui.

According to Nguyen Thanh Hai, Head of the Electronics Marketing Division of LG Vietnam, more and more users tend to access Internet with smart TVs. Therefore, it is necessary to build content stores in order to increase the value of the products.

To date, the total number of apps designed specifically for Samsung’s smart TVs has reached 1600, of which Vietnamese clients can use 400 apps, including 14 in Vietnamese, mostly in entertainment and education. Most recently, Karaoke app has been launched, allowing users to sing on TV without player.

According to Nguyen Van Dao, Deputy General Director of Samsung Vina, household electronics nowadays all are integrated with new technologies allowing to provide the features like computers.

Therefore, the software pieces for computers have also been re-designed to become compact and easy to use, thus suitable to smart phones and next-generation TVs.

From web to mobile phones

A survey conducted on 6000 users in 12 big cities in Vietnam by Cimigo, a market survey firm, showed that the number of people accessing to Internet from desktop computers has dropped from 84 percent in 2010 to 81 percent in 2011, while the number of people accessing to Internet from mobile phones has increased from 27 percent to 56 percent.

It is expected that by 2014, the number of people using mobile phones to access to Internet would exceed the number of people using desktop computers. The downward trend of smart phone prices and 3G service fees would help increase the number of smart phone and 3G services, which would also create the habit of accessing Internet, checking emails, reading news or listening to music and watching TVs on smart phones.

Vuong Quang Khai, Deputy General Director of VNG, said that the growing tendency has urged enterprises to launch more applications for mobile phones. In 2010, Zing launched Zing Me social network on iOS, then on Android, Java and Symbian. The apps on iOS and Android have been integrated with all three services of Zing MP3, Zing News and Zing Me.

Samsung Apps store now contains 160,000 apps. BlackBerry has App World with more apps for the Vietnamese market and supports the community to develop apps for RIM operation system.

Source: SGTT

The “telecom cake” no longer sweet for investors

The telecom market was once considered a very lucrative market for investors. However, since the market has become saturated, it is no longer fertile soil for them.

Meanwhile, the investors who got investment licenses in the past have taken no action to implement projects, waiting for the licenses to be revoked, because they are sure of the loss if they restively join the market.

Big firms complaining, small firms weeping

Mai Van Binh, General Director of MobiFone, one of the three biggest mobile networks in Vietnam, has complained that the competition in the telecom market is overly violent. All service providers have to slash service charges to scramble for clients, which explains why the 3G service fee in Vietnam is considered the cheapest in the world.

Vietnam’s 3G service fee, for example, is 10 times cheaper than that in Thailand. However, low service fee and stiff competition would mean low profits for development and re-investment.

Trinh Minh Chau, General Director of Hanoi Telecom, said the foreign partner Hutchison, besides Vietnam, has also made investment in other 13-14 foreign markets. However, it has been facing too many problems in the Vietnamese market.

“With the overly fierce competitions, telcos would die or just can drag out their miserable existence,” she said.

“We have injected billions of dollars in the project. If the watchdog agency does not set up reasonable policies, we would also die one day,” she added.

Nguyen Hoang Phong, Director of Digicom Company, a subsidiary of VTC, said people thought mistakenly that the telecom market is lucrative, but in fact, the market’s attractiveness is low because of the overly stiff competition.

He also said that the cutthroat competition has made VTC give up the plan to join the market, believing that the investment would not bring profits.

A senior executive of CMC TI also said that it’s nearly impossible for small companies to provide broadband services. While big firms can use the profits from other services to offset the losses from telecom services, small firms only have one source of income.

Meanwhile, a representative of Indochina Telecom said the watchdog agency should give support to small enterprises by laying down reasonable policies. For example, small firms would be allowed to provide some kinds of services, while big firms are not.

“If the current situation cannot be solved, small enterprises would die, while only a few big service providers can exist. If so, the monopoly would return, and the market would be controlled by the group of big firms,” he warned.

A series of telecom licenses still on the shelf

Indochina Telecom, VTC, CMC and GTel all have got the licenses to provide telecom services, but they have not “thrown troops into the battlefield” yet.

Under the Telecommunication Law, if an enterprise does not implement the items stipulated in the license within two years since the day it gets the license, it would see the license revoked.

The Ministry of Information and Communication (MIC) has recently revoked some licenses from the investors who did not implement their investment projects. However, these were mostly the licenses on Internet services.

MIC Deputy Minister Le Nam Thang, in a recent working session with the Telecom Department, requested the department to check the licenses for telecom services granted and revoke licenses if necessary.

Meanwhile, Truong Dinh Anh, General Director of FPT Group, said the telecom market has been full with three leading operators alone holding up to 95 percent of the market share. Meanwhile, small networks have been incurring losses.

Prior to that, FPT once attempted to join the telecom market by buying EVN Telecom. However, it finally decided to quit the deal.

Source: Buu Dien

VP Telecom abandons Nokia, joining hands with Samsun

Prior to that, local newspapers reported that Nokia had chosen three distributors for the three regions in Vietnam. FPT would distribute Nokia products in the north, while PetroSetco (VP Telecom) would cover the central region and the east of the southern region and Lucky would be in charge of the Mekong River Delta.

The choice of Nokia was commented as an effort to reorganize its distribution network after a lot of happenings, especially the collapse of Dong Nam – a big distributor. The move was also believed to improve the competitiveness through new distribution channels.

Buu Dien newspaper has quoted its sources as saying that VP Telecom would not distribute Nokia any more, but distribute Samsung products in Vietnam. Huynh Van Thi, Managing Director of VP Telecom on June 22 told the newspaper that there has been such a rumor. However, he said: “We will not make comment about the information before a clear policy is laid down.”

On June 21, 2012, Buu Dien emailed some questions to the communication unit of Samsung Vietnam to find out whether VP Telecom would become the distributor for Samsung, and whether VP Telecom has to terminate the contracts signed before with other mobile phone manufacturers, if this comes true.

A communication officer said he would forward the questionnaire to the persons on the right position to answer. However, Buu Dien had not got the reply by late June 22.

The information that VP Telecom intends to break the cooperation with Nokia was released at the “sensitive moment” for Nokia, which is meeting misfortune.

The mobile phone manufacturing group has released the figures showing the big losses of the group in the last two months, which were much higher than forecasted. The group still cannot say for sure when the situation would be improved.

In an effort to cut down expenses in the context of unprofitable business, Nokia plans to lay off 10,000 more workers–the work which is believed to be completed by the end of 2013.

IDC, in its report, pointed out that by the end of 2011, Nokia, for the first time, had only held less than 50 percent of the mobile market share in the home country of Finland.

By the end of the first quarter of 2012, Nokia had lost its position as the world’s leading mobile manufacturer to the hands of Samsung. It has been facing big difficulties in selling low cost products in newly emerging markets – the main source of profit for the company.

In Indonesia, for example, Nokia’s market share has dropped from 52 percent in early 2010 to 24 percent by early 2012, according to IDC.

Analysts believe that the VP Telecom’s decision to abandon Nokia may relate to the current difficulties of the manufacturer. Meanwhile, the opinions from well informed circle say that VP Telecom has not been satisfactory with the fact that it has to share the “territory” with FPT and Lucky.

Meanwhile, if VP Telecom really stops cooperation with Nokia as rumored, FPT would benefit from this. With the leave of VP Telecom, Nokia is likely to allocate more “land” to FPT, while distribution has been bringing a big proportion in the total turnover of FPT.

Samsung once appointed FPT as its distributor in Vietnam. However, the cooperation between Samsung and FPT came to an end on December 25, 2009.

Source: Buu Dien

HDBox, 3D TV products fall into decay in Vietnam

After a period of rapid growth, entertainment devices HDbox and the 3D TV market in Vietnam have entered a serious crisis period.

HDBox selling slowly

After “making history” with the 3-year presence on the domestic market, entertainment devices HDbox has become less favored in Vietnam. The market has become saturated despite the increasingly high demand for enjoying high quality films.

The sales of HD players have dropped by more than 30 percent, while the profits have decreased by 50 percent in comparison with the last year. Only low cost products (less than 2 million dong) can be sold, while the ones priced at over 4 million dong have been left unsold, according to Manh Ha, the owner of a HD player shop.

The decline of the computer market would not surprise anyone, because this has been anticipated. However, the fall of the HDbox market is really a problem, because it should be developing in accordance with the increasing demand to upgrade the entertainment quality.

Minh Duc in Hanoi said that one HDbox would be enough to use forever, because there have been no changes with the products in both the functions and efficiency over the last few years.

“The HDbox I purchased last year at 2 million dong remains very good for listening music and watching TVs. Why do I have to buy another one, then?” Duc said.

The products with familiar brands TVIX (TizzBird), Dune or HDLife, EAGET have still been available on the market with unchanged designs.

In 2011, consumers experienced a difficult time when the floods in Thailand caused the production stagnation at factories, thus leading to the price increase of 100 percent for all products. However, HDD prices had decreased to reasonable levels by early July.

However, the good news still cannot help stimulate the demand in the HDbox market, because the demand for data storage has become saturated after a period of increasing rapidly. People nowadays do not keep the habit of downloading films for storage any more.

Nguyen Trung in Hanoi said that previously, he usually downloaded Blue-ray standardized films for watching and saving, and he usually had to buy hardware. However, he has changed his habit. “I would download the things I want and then erase the films to save the space,” he said.

A redoubtable rival of HDbox is the appearance of high quality TV packages, from digital TV to IPTV. With the service fee of 80,000 dong a month, HD TV programs and Video on Demand on IPTV basis allow people to watch films immediately, no need to download to HDbox.

Sellers once hoped that smart HDBox with readily installed Android operation system would be the new choice for users. However, even the products are not favored by consumers with unattractive apps.

3D TV sales falling dramatically

June was hoped to be a high TV sale season, because Euro championship took place in that month. However, things did not happen the way traders expected. TVs, and especially 3D TVs did not see prosperity in the Euro season, if compared with World Cup 2010.

Hoang Ha, a salesman of a home appliance center, said it’s really difficult to persuade people to spend 10 million dong to buy a 3D TV, if the majority of the current TV channels only provide 2D TV programs.

LG and Samsung have been trying to stimulate the demand by offering an HDbox as a gift for every TV sold. However, the move has not helped generate any improvement in the 3D TV market segment.

Vu Trung

Small network losing their shirt because VNPT raises BTS leasing fee

Hanoi Telecom, which is running Vietnamobile, has lodged a complaint to the Ministry of Information and Communication MIC about the decision by VNPT (the Vietnam Post and Telecommunication Group) to unexpectedly raise the BTS (base transreceiver station) leasing fees by 110-562 percent, which would push the small network into bankruptcy.

In the document sent to MIC, Hanoi Telecom said that the fees charged by VNPT are overly and abnormally high.

A representative of Hanoi Telecom said the enterprise has followed the instruction of the government and MIC to share the same infrastructure system with other network operators–to take full advantage of the national resources and practice thrift.

Hanoi Telecom has been sharing 922 BTS with other networks, including 293 BTS owned by VNPT. In late 2011, Hanoi Telecom received a dispatch from some subsidiaries of VNPT, informing about the infrastructure leasing fees, commencing from January 1, 2012.

The BTS fee (code 248018) has seen the sharpest increase. Prior to January 1, 2012, Hanoi Telecom had to pay 8.161 million dong a month in leasing fee, while the figure has risen to 91.72 million dong a month.

Meanwhile, the station leasing fee (code 246002), which was 11.11 million dong a month, has jumped to 74.47 million dong. Only after Hanoi Telecom negotiated about the prices, VNPT has agreed to reduce the fee by 50 percent.

However, the fees have become unbearable for Hanoi Telecom since they have increased by 2-6 times.

“With the new leasing fees, we have to pay up to 50 million dong a month for some stations, or 600million dong a year. The sum of money is enough for us to build one new station, while no need to lease stations from others,” the representative said.

He went on to say that VNPT’s subsidiaries have raised the leasing fee spontaneously, not considering actual expenses. Especially, the move by the group comes contrary to the government’s policy to encourage network operators to share the same infrastructure items stipulated in the Telecommunication Law and relating documents.

In fact, increasing leasing fees proves to be inevitable, since all input costs have increased, from materials, electricity to the labor cost. However, the increases are still believed to be overly high and unbearable.

Meanwhile, VNPT itself also benefits from sharing BTS with other networks. While the fees for leasing premises to install BTS remain unchanged, it is unreasonable if VNPT raises the BTS leasing fee.

Meanwhile, VNPT still has been insisting on the leasing fee increases, saying that Hanoi Telecom, or any other else, has the right to decide whether to share the infrastructure, and that the leasing fees are negotiable.

Vu Tien Duong, a senior executive of VNPT said VNPT has allowed its subsidiaries to define leasing fees themselves, and that the subsidiaries have to raise the fees because the electricity and premises prices all have increased.

“If Hanoi Telecom does not want to lease VNPT”s stations, it can use the stations of other enterprises. Not only VNPT has BTS,” Duong said.

“VNPT itself has to pay 7-8 times higher to lease electricity poles to hang cables,” he explained.

Pham Hong Hai, a senior official of MIC said the ministry does not control the infrastructure leasing fee. However, if necessary, the ministry would consider specific cases to prevent unhealthy competitions.

Hai also said MIC still needs to learn more about the case to find out if the higher fees are applied to all, or just some BTS.

Source: Buu Dien

Vietnamese digital content firms vow to defy every rival

Vietnamese digital content firms, which have been warned about the future foreign redoubtable rivals, say they have prepared well enough to defy any attacks.

While the information that Chinese Baidu lands in Vietnam has stirred up the young members of the Vietnamese Internet community, content digital firms, which are the rivals of Baidu, remain unruffled.

The projects carried out by Baidu in Vietnam are the ones in searching and social networks – the fields that are witnessing a very fierce competition in the domestic market.

Phan Anh Tuan, Director of Go.vn network run by VTC Online, said Vietnamese users set specific requirements that not every social network can satisfy. It took big foreign social networks like Facebook and Google+, or purely Vietnamese networks like Go.vn, a lot of time to find their ways to conquer the hearts of Vietnamese users.

Tuan said that Go.vn would continue pushing up local services, especially in education – the backbone in its strategy drawn up from the outset.

“I believe that the presence of Baidu in Vietnam would not have overly big impacts on digital content firms,” Tuan said.

Ho Minh Duc, General Deputy Director of Naiscorp, which is providing searching service like Baidu, also keeps calm when hearing about the presence of Baidu in Vietnam. He said that all businesses need to be ready to every competition; no matter the rival is Baidu or anyone else.

He said that the presence of Baidu or any other companies in the market has been anticipated, and if Vietnamese businesses can take full advantage of their strength, they would still be able to exist and develop. Naiscrorp knows Baidu well and it does not have any worry about the presence of the Chinese rival.

Le Hong Minh, General Director of VNG said the presence of Baidu in Vietnam, like any other foreign companies, would certainly have impacts on the Vietnamese market, both positive and negative impacts.

Minh said that the stiffer competition on the market would always bring benefits to consumers. Nevertheless, it would also put a hard pressure on domestic companies. Especially, it may make the workforce problems more serious, because more companies would hunt for the limited number of talented personnel.

Vietnamese businesses still need support

Though believing that Vietnamese digital content firms would still stay safe from Baidu’s penetration, the firms still have called for the support in the rival with foreign firms.

Minh from VNG said that Vietnamese firms have their disadvantages with limited power. Meanwhile, Internet/digital content, in general, unlike other industries, is the sector which is not protected from foreign rivals with the national policies. Therefore, Vietnamese businesses would have to struggle to survive in the home market.

Therefore, he said, domestic firms need the support from the public, the state and the press.

Duc from Naiscrorp also said that Vietnamese firms would have to compete not only with Chinese Baidu, but with South Korean Naver, which is thought to enter Vietnam in the near future, and many other foreign giants as well.

He said Vietnamese users would not care about if the service providers are foreign or Vietnamese. They would simply choose suitable service providers depending on the convenience and the utilities the service providers can bring to them.

However, he also said that the support in policies and other fields from the State would be very useful to businesses which help them become stronger to be ready for any competition.

Source: Buu Dien

Vietnamese Internet community can see latent disasters from Baidu Tra da quan

he fact that Baidu Tra da quan (ice tea shop) social network, belonging to Chinese Baidu group, turning up in Vietnam–has raised big worries among the Vietnamese Internet community. Not only causing big damages to Vietnamese organizations and businesses, the websites contain malware scouting users.

 

Baidu Tra da quan has exploited the legal loopholes in the Decree No. 97 on Internet service and electronic information service management to carry out its operation in Vietnam.

Vietnam fails to control the content of the website

The decree does not stipulate that foreign institutions and enterprises which provide online social network services must set up servers, representative offices or legal status in Vietnam. Therefore, Baidu Tra da quan has made corrupt use of the loopholes to operate in Vietnam without registering its operation in Vietnam without legal status and server in Vietnam.

The presence of the Chinese social network in Vietnam has raised big worries to the Internet community. Since Vietnamese agencies cannot control the content and the operation way of the website, Vietnam would not be able to collect tax from the social network which would also cause damages to domestic organizations and businesses.

However, experts have warned about a higher risk – the national security may be threatened with the presence of the social network.

Having realized the loopholes of the Decree No. 97, the Ministry of Information and Communication is compiling a new decree with stricter regulations which would replace the currently valid decree. Under the draft decree, foreign institutions and enterprises which provide social network services in Vietnam must set up their representative offices in Vietnam or appoint individual or institutional representatives in Vietnam.

However, the decree is still being drafted which would be submitted to the government before it comes out.

A tool to scout users

A lot of people have warned about the risks to be caused by the Chinese social network. A reader of Nguoi lao dong newspaper emailed to the editorial board, saying that after accessing some Chinese Baidu’s service websites, he saw a lot of unusual phenomena. The user was asked to install some more apps with no clear origin.

“When I accessed the websites, Windows gave warning against the safety of the websites,” he said.

Vo Do Thang, Director of Athena Training and Network Security Center, said the websites contain malware to scout users. Once users access the websites, malware would penetrate into the computers, collect users’ information and send the information to hackers.

“In this case, it would be better to remove strange apps, scan to find viruses, and bring your computers to experts who would help settle your problems,” Thang said.

While the Vietnamese Internet community has been worried about the threat to the national security, Tran Minh Tan, Deputy Director of VNNIC, has confirmed that VNNIC has granted the domain name to Baidu Tra da quan social network.

Minh has affirmed that granting domain names is a normal work, and that Vietnamese people have the right to register international domain names, while foreigners also have the right to register domain names in Vietnam.

“If we do not grant the domain name, they may use other domain names, because this is just a tool to access the website,” he said.

When asked if there is the threat on the national security when the social network operates in Vietnam, Minh said the inspectors of the Ministry of Information and Communication would have to inspect the network to find out wrongdoings.