Internet penetration has grown to 44 percent among Vietnam’s 90 million people, up from 12 percent a decade ago. Unlike another communist country, North Korea, Vietnam is booming for business. The market for e-commerce in Vietnam generates $4 billion in revenue annually and is growing dramatically. Telecommunications companies in Vietnam, such as Viettel Mobile and Vietnam Mobile Telecom Services, provide the lowest data prices in the world at just over $3 per gigabyte. Vietnamese are among the most prevalent watchers of videos on smartphones in the world. The number of active mobile social-media accounts in Vietnam rose 41 percent from January 2014 to January 2015, a higher growth rate than China, India, or Brazil. Facebook has over 30 million active users in Vietnam, up from 8.5 million in 2012. Even the smallest businesses in the USA (and elsewhere) can easily reach and sell to consumers in Vietnam, who yearn for new products and services. (The most recent foreign translation of the David/David strategic management textbook has been into Vietnamese)

Source: Based on James Hookway, “Vietnam’s Mobile Revolution,” Wall Street Journal, June 15, 2015, p. B4.