VNG Corporation
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Company type | Corporation |
---|---|
Industry | Internet Information Providers Digital content E-commerce Game Online Business |
Founded | 9 September 9, 2004 |
Headquarters | 182 Le Dai Hanh st., Ward 15, Dist. 11, Ho Chi Minh City Vietnam |
Key people | Le Hong Minh - Founder, Chairman & CEO Vuong Quang Khai - Executive Vice President Nguyen Hoanh Tien - Vice President Nguyen Hoang Que Nga - Vice President Le Thi Ngoc Diep - Vice President |
Products | Media&Game, Communication, Software&Utilities, E_Commerce [6] |
Number of employees | 2000 |
Website | www.vng.com.vn |
VNG Corporation (VNG) is a Vietnamese technology company, founded in 2004, specializing in digital content and online entertainment, social networking, and e-commerce.[1]
The company has 30 million online/mobile users.[2]
History
VNG was founded on 9 September 2004 under the name of VinaGame. From the first contract signed with Kingsoft, “Vo Lam Truyen Ky” became the first MMORPG in Vietnam. Within one month of operations, “Vo Lam Truyen Ky” game had 200,000 CCU.[3]
- 2006-2007: The company focused on developing software products for internet users like "Internet Cyber Station Manager” (CSM)”, 123mua.com.vn (ecommerce). Especially, The company develop web products under Zing Brand – comprehensive platform covering information, connection and entertainment for users and ranked by Alexa in August 2008 as ZingMP3 the most popular listening and searching tool for online music in Vietnam.[4]
- 2008-2009: Under the name of VNG corporation.[5]
- 2010-2011: developed an online game called “Thuan Thien Kiem” which won “Sao Khue” award in 2010 in the category of Products/Gaming Solutions and Electronic Entertainment. Not only successfully developing an online game in Vietnam, but also exporting “Un In” online game to Japan.[6]
- 2012-2013: VNG caught mobile trend by focusing on developing many products on this platform. The most outstanding one was Zalo which is a mobile application for free calls and texting. It reached 0 million users in only 1.5 years.[7]
Data center
VNG has two Data Centers Tier-3 standard, located in Ho Chi Minh City (Quang Trung, District 12) and Hanoi (Hoa Lac Hi-teck Park) with the total area of 1,700m2 and 1.2MV.[8]
Those data centers are the main infrastructure platform to provide hosting services for hundreds of VNG online products such as web, music, movies, education, social network, payment, messaging, game, e-commerce.
Products and Services
Digital content and online entertainment
Zuni Online Learning
Zuni is an online non-profit education project operated and invested by VNG and VNIF, which was officially published in March 2014.[9] In June 2014, Zuni has nearly 124,000 members with more than 4,000 members active every day. Zuni was evaluated as one of the competent education projects right after its publishing, with 1466 exam samples, 618 video lectures and 124 major topics available currently.[10]
Zing MP3
ZingMP3 was launched in August, 2007, currently consisting of 2 versions: website and app on the iOS, Android and Windows Phone platforms. Zing Mp3 application on smartphone has been one of the few most frequently downloaded ones in Vietnam in the past few years. When it was brought onto the mobile platform, Zing MP3 was an outstanding app of Vietnam with over 5 million downloads on Android [11]
Games
VNG is one of the four main game publishers leading Vietnamese market with games such as: online games (MMORPG) like Vo Lam Truyen Ky 1 and 2, Kiem The, Phong Than, as well as casual games like Zing Speed (racing), Zing Play, Boom Online, Gunny (webgame).[12]
Community connections
Zing Me social network
Zing Me is a social network operated by VNG, which was officially introduced in August 2009. It is integrated directly via Zing system with a variety of special applications like blogging, photo and music sharing, gaming, video clips, email.. In addition, Zing Me was the first social network in Vietnam that had the properties of a platform. It allows the third-party developing apps which use common infrastructure and sharing users via opening API (Application Programing Interface) in order to diversify the system contents... In March 2010, Zing Me launched its first version for mobile phones.[13] With those achievements, Zing Me won “Outstanding Value-added Service in 2009” awarded by HCMC Department of Information and Communications on 27 March 2009;[14] and the “Sao Khue” Award in 2010 for beingrated 4-star in the group of value-added products and services on Mobile/Internet [15] After two year releasing, Zing Me reached its 8.2 million-user milestone in October 2011.[16] Not only does Zing Me allow users to share their status updates and blog, it also allows them to communicate via photos, voices and emoticons. Zing Me is getting popular with more than one million photos shared by users everyday since June 2013 [17]
Zalo
Zalo is a free message and call application on mobile released on 8 August 2012. Its benefits are stable call quality and high security.
Zalo is free on iOS, Android, Windows Phone and Nokia Java. Zalo works well on all network infrastructure 2G, 2.5G, 3G, 4G and wifi. Besides free message and call, Zalo is also integrated social network function to improve users' connection. On 20 March 2014, Zalo achieved the point of 10 million users [18] Zalo is a 100% Vietnamese app, created and operated by Vietnamese people, with many good features:
- 5-minute voice messaging feature.
- High security and privacy.
- Speedy and stable text messaging on 2G, 2.5G, 3G and WiFi.
Zalo is used in 63 cities, provinces, distant islands Spratly and countries with large Vietnamese communities such as USA, Korea, Japan, Singapore [19] At present many units use Zalo as an instrument of promotion and exploitation in economical and social activities. At the end of May, VTV has used Zalo as a bridge to transfer personal sentiment and thinking about Vietnam island and send encouragement to soldiers at Spratly. Coca Cola, Mc Donald's... also choose Zalo as an advertisement channel.
E-Commerce
123Pay
In order to meet the needs of using internally as well as developing the external market, in 2010, VNG invested in R&D for an Online Payment Platform called 123Pay. This product is inherited and developed on the payment platform of ZingPay (a payment platform used for online games of VNG since 2005). 123Pay is connected and widely used in many fields varying from Digital Service(games online, high-quality online music); E-commerce (sales websites); to utility services like booking vacation tours and hotels, cinema/airline tickets, cell-phone top-ups, paying electricity/water/ADSL bills. 123Pay’s advantages including: Bank Link System which connects nearly all 40 banks in Vietnam, accepts international debit/credit cards from Visa, MasterCard; International-standard Security System: PCI DSS, Verisign, Trustware and Plus Bonus Point Accumulation System. Noticeably, in the beginning of 2014, 123Pay directly partnered with the biggest E-commerce credit card payment system management company, Cybersource(a Visa subsidiary) to utilize payment process and increase security as well as privacy for international debit and credit card users.
Applications
Laban Key
Laban Key is a Vietnamese keyboard for mobile devices developed by VNG. Laban Key was introduced in September 2013 by the Project Manager Pham Kim Long who is also the developer of the Windows input method editor UniKey. Since its first launch, the product has received a lot of positive feedbacks from users. In April 2014, Laban Key presented itself in the top-ranked apps on Google Play with 1 million downloads[20] Outstanding features:
- TypingTelex and VNI style with great flexibility.
- Smart word suggestion: suggesting the next words based on the current and the previous words.
- Writing Vietnamese diacritical marks by drawing on the keyboard interface.
- Voice input in English and Vietnamese using the voice recognition technology by Google.
- Adjusting keyboard height with different screen sizes.
- Supporting many other languages beside Vietnamese: English, French, Russian, German,…
- Supporting customization of keyboard interface.
Software
CSM
Cyber Station Manager (CSM) is a free software of VNG for managing Internet agencies . The first version of CSM was published by VNG on 2 February 2006. There are currently 25,000 Internet shops nationwide using CSM to manage play time daily, extra services, game updates, automatic applications. CSM is now the most popular managing internet shops in Vietnam with over 60% of market share and over 2 million downloads every day. CSM is also got certified for offering national standards TCVN 8702:2011 as in Certificate of Conformance no. B0001310314CS01A3 on March 31, 2014. This Certificate of Conformance is awarded based on the most updated procedures issued in Decision no. 350/QĐ-CVT (new) on September 12, 2013 by Vietnam Telecommunications Authority – Vietnam Ministry of Information and Communications, a substitute for Decision no 75/QĐ-QLCL.[21] In addition, CSM also won the Sao Khue Award in the years of 2009, 2012 and 2014 [22]
Services
VNG Digital ads is a service producing online advertisement campaigns that are deployed in different media solutions such as TV, News, Social, Offline and can be applied on many PCs, Mobile and Tablet devices.
VNG Culture
VNG’s headquarter is located at the Flemington Building, Le Dai Hanh Street, Ho Chi Minh City. VNG also has other 7 branches located in big cities and provinces of Vietnam including Hanoi and Danang. Staff at VNG is provided with a very comfortable working environment, with the “4 No, 6 Yes” criteria. The "4 No" include: no suits; no walls (open space, open mind); no ranks; no “office”. The " 6 Yes" include: Playing games; Enjoying many benefits; Having a big family; Opportunities to discover; Making the best of oneself and Collaboratively develop the Internet to change Vietnamese life . As a result, in January 2014, according to a survey carried out by CareerBuilder with more than 17,000 participants, VNG was honored to be one of the 100 favorite employers in 2013 [23] Not only seeking for talents and experienced experts, VNG also recruits undergraduates from universities and technological colleges via annual internship programme in the hope of nurturing new talents as well as supporting VNG’s mission “Make the Internet change Vietnamese lives”. One noticeable recruitment activity by VNG is the VNG Fresher Program which aimed at last-year students with different majors.. The biannual program occurs in May and October. About 300 candidates are selected from Universities and Colleges in all around Vietnam to be interviewed for the internships at VNG.
Scandal
VNG in particular and the game online industry in general are always closely observed by authorities for the risks of social problems related to playing games too much[24]
Violence
In December 2010, the inspectors of HCMC Department of Information and Communications ordered VinaGame to eliminate violent elements in online games. The online shooting game "Biet Doi Than Toc" was forced to shut down in HCMC starting from October 17, 2011 [25]
Privacy
The Inspectors examined VNG's conformity to computer software copyright laws on February 23, leading to an official announcement to charge VinaGame 10 million dong as a fine for copyright infringement.
In addition, the inspectors ordered VinaGame to take down the infringed software and to commit to contacting the authors to discuss the legitimacy. After receiving the decision from Ministry of Culture - Sports and Tourism, VinaGame had to examine every single computer currently in use, prepare a list, and pay copyright fees for the software that was work-related [26]
Copyright infringement
In August 2007, when accessing mp3.zing.vn which is a musical entertainment tool, you can find such popular names such as Bao Thy, Dan Truong, Duy Manh, Cam Ly and even Thu Phuong and Bang Kieu – neither of them was allowed to publish songs in Vietnam. . According to some lawyers, the websites which enable searching, collecting, displaying songs and allowing online listening are copyright infringement.[27]
Between the days of February 23 and 24 2009, inspectors discovered a software copyright infringement worth VND 5 billion (around US $295,000) during a sudden raid on Vinagame headquarter which is based at three offices in District 10, Ho Chi Minh city.
Among the illegal software products used at Nagecco were popular software such as Windows XP Professional SP2 OEM CD, Windows Serve CAL 2003 English MVL Device CAL, Microsoft Office, Office XP, Photoshop, and Lac Viet Dictionary.[28]
Discontinued Products
Thuan Thien Kiem
As being Known for publishing games imported from China and South Korea, VNG also tried to develop games with its own brands: in March 2010, VNG officially announced Thuan Thien Kiem which was researched and developed by VNG. In the beginning, thanks to being known as a "Original Vietnamese game", Thuan Thien Kiem attracted a great number of players. However, it was gradually boycotted due to poor contents and too many technical errors.[29]
Zing Deal
First launched on November 1, 2010, VNG officially shut down Zing Deal from February 2, 2012 due to the loss in profit [30]
Vuong Quoc Chuot Chui
The cause for the shut-down of Vuong Quoc Chuot Chui is the violation of the copyright infringement with China. It operated shortly from October 2011 to December 28, 2012 [31]
Awards from 2013 until now
September 2013: Chairman of HCMC People’s Committee Le Hoang Quan awarded merits to VNG in the recognition of many achievements in service business and participating in charities and social activities continutously in many years (from 2008 to 2012) (http://dangcongsan.vn/cpv/Modules/News/NewsDetail.aspx?co_id=10004&cn_id=608263)
October 2013:In the “Awarding Ceremony of HCMC Entrepreneurs 2013”, VNG had the honor to stand among the 105 entrepreneurs to get the award for “ Outstanding HCMCity Entrepreneurs 2013” [32]
April 2014: VNG was honored to achieve "Third-class Labor Medal " signed by President of Socialist Republic of Vietnam and Merits awarded by the Prime Minister to Le Hong Minh, Chairman and CEO of VNG [33]
References
- ^ thanhnien.com.vn
- ^ gamek.vn/game-online/ong-le-hong-minh-tu-nhan-dinh-vng-gia-beo-xau-20140104015337285.chn
- ^ http://gamek.vn/game-online/nghe-tgd-vinagame-ke-chuyen-di-mua-vo-lam-nhu-the-nao
- ^ vietgamedev.net/blog
- ^ www.baomoi.com/Zing-Me-Tu-hao-mang-xa-hoi-Viet
- ^ gamethu.vnexpress.net/gt/diem-tin/2011/11/23476-game-viet-dau-tien-xuat-khau-thanh-cong-ra-nuoc-ngoai
- ^ vn.techinasia.com/vng-zalo-10-trieu-nguoi-dung-120-trieu-tin-nhan
- ^ VNG được tài trợ 8,5 tỷ đồng triển khai công nghệ điện toán đám mây
- ^ "[1]"
- ^ "[2]"
- ^ "cac-ung-dung-di-dong-viet-viet-nen-chuyen-co-tich-thoi-hien-dai"
- ^ "danh-sach-cac-tro-choi-cua-VNG"
- ^ "Zing-Me-cap-nhat-loat-phien-ban-moi-tren-di-dong"
- ^ "www.thongtincongnghe.com/article/16153"
- ^ "hanoimoi.com.vn/Tin-tuc/Cong-nghe/324210/vng-dat-3-giai-thuong-sao-khue-2010"
- ^ " [3]"
- ^ "1-trieu-hinh-anh-chia-se-moi-ngay-tren-Zing-Me"
- ^ "zalo-dat-moc-10-trieu-nguoi-dung"
- ^ "zalo-can-moc-75-trieu-tin-nhan-moi-ngay"
- ^ "cuoc-chien-can-man-cua-hiep-si-unikey"
- ^ "phan-mem-csm-nhan-chung-nhan-hop-chuan-quoc-gia-moi"
- ^ "danh-hieu-Sao-Khue"
- ^ "VNG"
- ^ "[4]"
- ^ "game-bao-luc"
- ^ "xu-phat-vinagame-10-trieu-dong"
- ^ "korea-copyright-ino"
- ^ "raid-in-Vinagame-headquarter"
- ^ "Thuan-Thien-Kiem-bat-ngo-tro-lai"
- ^ Zing-Deal-vi-dau-den-noi"
- ^ "Vuong-quoc-chuot-chui-chia-tay-game-thu-Viet"
- ^ "vng-nhan-danh-hieu--doanh-nghiep-tp-hcm-tieu-bieu-2013"
- ^ "[5]"
External links
- Official website Template:Vi icon
- VinaGame receives funding from IDG Ventures and launches Swordsman online (March 29, 2007) Retrieved September 3, 2007
- Online video game company sparking Vietnam's Web era(January 25, 2007) Retrieved September 4, 2007
- Online gaming to get a boost from HP (May 17, 2007) Retrieved September 3, 2007