| Type | Private company |
|---|---|
| Industry | Online Games E-commerce Online Community Services |
| Founded | September 9 2004 |
| Headquarters | Headquarter 268 To Hien Thanh st, District 10, Ho Chi Minh City Vietnam |
| Key people | Mr. Le Hong Minh, (Chairman) Mr. Bryan Pelz, (CEO) |
| Products |
|
| Employees | 850 |
| Website | www.vinagame.com.vn |
VNG Corporation was established in Vietnam in 2004 under the name Vinagame. It is an internet company whose main businesses are game publisher, e-commerce, and social networking sites (SNS).VNG was the first to launch a licensed online game in Vietnam.[1]
In 2008, VNG released Zing.com, a diverse entertainment portal which provides access to news and music, social networking services, a platform for gaming, instant messaging, and online payment.Its self-built distribution network, the Cyber Station Manager (CSM), VNG has reached most of Vietnam’s Internet cafes.[2] VNG also developed Vietnam's first locally made online game, Thuan Thien Kiem, in 2010.[3]
In January 2010, Vinagame officially changed its name to VNG Corporation in order to reflect the broader goals of the company and in May, a new corporate logo was released. By its own estimates, VNG holds 60% of market share of the Vietnamese online gaming market with 7.5 million gamers and 12.5 million general users.[4] It has roughly 1250 employed staff and is headquartered in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam with offices in Hanoi and Danang.
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VNG was founded by five avid gamers including CEO Le Hong Minh, and American entrepreneur Bryan Pelz.
In November 2004, VNG's founders signed the exclusive license deal with Kingsoft for Swordsman Online(or Vo Lam Truyen Ky), known as the successful JX Online franchise in China. The game exceeded everyone’s expectations, reaching 20,000 peak concurrent users (PCU) after only one month of operation.[5] Since then, VNG has licensed and operated games, mostly from Chinese and Korean developers, in Vietnam.
In its early days VNG faced the risk of closure from the Department of Information and Communications of Vietnam because there were no regulations on online gaming in the country. However, the company endured and in 2005, VNG received a significant investment from IDG Ventures. It was the largest investment IDG Ventures had made in Vietnam at the time.[6]
In 2006, VNG closed the year with 17 million USD in revenue, six times higher than the previous year.[7]
In 2007 and 2008, ZingMe, Zingchat, ZingNews, and ZingPlay are released. Zing.vn becomes the number one website in Vietnam, topping the Alexa chart in terms of traffic.[7] By 2009, ZingMe is Vietnam's largest SNS website with over 5 million users.[8]
In May 2010, VNG releases Thuan Thien Kiem, Vietnam's first locally developed MMORPG (Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game). Although the game did not perform up to expectations, it marked an important transformation of VNG from a game operator into a game developer.
Vo Lam Truyen Ky (Swordsman Online) is the first and most successful MMORPG game in Vietnam. Developed by KingSoft (China), the game focuses on martial arts and old Chinese culture. This MMORPG is at times considered part of Vietnamese teenager’s pop culture. Swordman Online has been voted "Most favorite game of the year" three years in a row.[9] In addition to the Pay-to-Play version, VNG also publishes a free version and Vo Lam Truyen Ky 2, a sequel. The Vo Lam series is still one of the most popular MMORPGs in Vietnam.
On February 9, 2007, a film named Vo Lam Truyen Ky was released. The film mirrored huge effects of Swordsman Online on Vietnamese youngsters. It attracted the attention of most gamers possibly because it starred famous Vietnamese singer Dan Truong and some other well-known native entertainers, such as comedian Hoai Linh.
Boom Online was published in Vietnam in April, 2007, and quickly became the most popular casual game of the time with over 60,000 PCU.[5] The game is modeled off the classic Bomberman series. Based on a 2D gaming environment and packed with a myriad of lively animated illustrations, Boom Online is popular amongst players of all ages.
Gunny is a turn-based casual game involving exciting gun battles akin to Gunbound with many features similar to the popular Worms games series. It is a browser-based game and can be played directly on the web without installing any software. Since its launch, Gunny has steadily attracted a group of royal gamers. Gunny is now one of the top 10 casual games in Vietnam.
Thuan Thien Kiem is the first MMORPG developed by a Vietnamese game studio.[3] Set in the Ly dynasty of VIetnam, Thuan Thien Kiem contains only Vietnamese cultural features, from graphics to in-game dialogues and game play features. Nicknamed “project T812”, Thuan Thien Kiem had been in incubation from August 2006. After over three years of development, Thuan Thien Kiem made its debut in March 2010.
In May 2010, VNG launched Perfect World’s 2.5D MMORPG "Battle of the Immortals" in Vietnam. The game runs on Perfect World's proprietary "Cube" engine and blends content from Eastern and Western cultures. So far, the game has attracted over 40,000 PCU in Vietnam, becoming one of the top 5 games in the market. However, growth has since slowed down due to gamer complaints about bugs and other errors.[5]
World of Fighter is a side-scrolling online game based on the history of the Three Kingdoms in China, where players can experience a series of historical battles with a number of famous ancient Chinese figures. The game applies real-time combat mode functionality with a rich set of skills and strict real-time combat operations. World of Fighters has not fared well and is ranked only among the top 15 most popular games in Vietnam.
Zing Play, a collection of 21 mini and flash games, was developed by a team of game developers at VNG. Games on Zing Play includes traditional card and board games, poker, tetris, and other mini games. On average, VNG releases 1 new game every month. Zing Play currently has over 30,000 PCU and 1 million active users.[5]
Zing is a system of Internet-based coordinated services aimed at providing Vietnamese online market with social communications means by which healthy lifestyles are nurtured, social awareness fostered, and digital entertainment offered. Zing Portal includes ZingMe, ZingMP3, ZingNews, and ZingChat.[10]
ZingMP3 has an archive of over 1 million songs which users can listen, download, and embed to blogs free of charge and share with friends. ZingChat is modeled off popular Chinese instant messaging service, QQ. The Zing entertainment portal is the largest and most popular entertainment portal in Vietnam with over 4 million monthly active users.[11] Zing is a partnership of VeGa[12] in the scope of information and content management.
123mua[13] is one of the first and largest e-commerce websites in Vietnam. It provides an enormous and ever expanding range of shopping items, ranging from electronics to stationery.
Zing Pay is an e-wallet system developed and operated by VNG. In addition to supporting millions of users in paying for VNG’s services, Zing Pay is also open for payment services to third parties. The common currency being used is XU, which users can charge to their VNG account via paper card, SMS messages, or by buying directly online. On a monthly basis, Zing Pay processes nearly six million transactions.[5]
VNG is headquartered on 268 To Hien Thanh st, District 10, Ho Chi Minh City next to the BigC supermarket. The Customer Service center is on the 1st floor, management on the2nd floor, game development studios on 3rd floor, and the 4th floor includes a canteen and gym. The company has also erected offices in some other big cities and regional provinces in Vietnam including Hanoi and Danang.
VinaGame has been operating its games on bandwidth capacity of 16 Gbit/s. It does not seem to be an easy task to handle as VinaGame’s registered user accounts have been multiplying at a speed beyond any expectation. That is why VinaGame made a decision to form partnership at the same time with 4 leading ISPs in Vietnam in order to provide sufficient and qualified connectivity for gamers.
The company also built and operates an advanced data center, plus two principal 24/7 customer service centers in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi. These facilities are to cater the demands of more than 15,000 peering Internet cafes nationwide which help distribute VNG's prepaid game cards.
VNG is currently staffed with about 1250 employees, and its offices are open-air.[14] VNG was voted as one of Vietnam's '50 Best Employers' as a result of its outstanding Human Resources Management in a survey carried out jointly by AC Nielson, Navigos Group, and Thanh Nhien newspaper in June 2007.[15]
VNG's Game Studio North in Hanoi has been running a Fresher program for over 2 years. Around 300 applicants are selected from Universities around Vietnam to interview for an internship position at Vinagame. Roughly 10-15 students get chosen every year and more than half of them stay on to work full-time.[16]
VNG and the Online Game industry in general has become a subject of scrutiny again because government officials, including the HCMC Department of Information and Communications and the media, claim that Online Game is the source of social problems, especially amongst the youth.[17] At the moment, VNG and all other online game publishers are awaiting the new regulations on Online Gaming which are expected to be released in Q1 of 2011.
First-Person Shooter (FPS) game Sudden Attack was forcibly closed in October 2010 due to excessive violence.
In a case regarding intellectual property violation, during an unscheduled inspection of VNG, 10 of 350 machines were found to be using pirated software including products from Microsoft. Le Thi Hong Diep, Deputy Director General, signed documents admitting the intellectual property violations.
During an unscheduled inspection of Vinagame 156 of 350 machines were found to be using pirated software including products from Microsoft, Adobe, and Lạc Việt Dictionary. Le Thi Hong Diep, Deputy Director General, signed documents admitting the intellectual property violations. The estimated amount of violation is up to five billion Vietnamese đồng (5.000.000.000 VND).[18]