Vingroup announces plans to launch into e-commerce (VOV) - Real estate giant Vingroup has announced plans to expand its leadership presence in the emerging field of e-commerce, establishing a start-up venture headed by its former Chief Executive Officer. While all of the details have not been shared, the company has announced the formation of an affiliate – VinE-Com Co, Ltd – with chartered capital of VND1.050 billion, for which the company is a 70% stakeholder Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Vingroup Ms Le Thi Thu Thuy has been appointed as President of the Executive Board and General Director of Vin-Ecom. E-commerce plays an ever-increasing important role in the world’s economy and is expected to develop into a highly lucrative market in Vietnam, with average gross revenues between US$1.3 billion and US$1.5 billion forecast by 2105. According to an annual index report on e-commerce in 2013 by the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) Department of E-Commerce and Information Technology, Vietnam is one of the leading emerging e-commerce markets in Southeast Asia. The sheer number of online transactions and the rate of use by businesses of email shot up significantly in 2013 from 2012 and statistics show that roughly 83% of businesses utilized email to process orders in 2013 compared to just 70% in 2012, Just under 43% of businesses have set up company websites while 35% of those are sophisticated sufficiently to process online orders, compared with just 29% in 2012. Market research surveys by comScore Inc. in turn confirm these trends and statistics on the Internet situation in Southeast Asia till the end of July 2017. According to comScore’s research reports, 16.1 million people use the Internet each month in Vietnam, making it the leading nation in Southeast Asia using the internet, followed by Indonesia (13.9 million) and Malaysia (12 million). Vietnam is also the second fastest nation in the region in terms of the number of internet users. In 2013, it internet users has soared by 14% over 2012, comprising nearly 36% of Vietnam’s population (equivalent to nearly 32 million internet users). ComScore’s report also states that Vietnam and Thailand have the highest proportion of young internet users in Asia (aged 14-24) with 42% in Vietnam and 45% in Thailand. Additionally, Vietnam and Thailand take the lead in time spent online by internet users with an average of 26.2 and 27.2 monthly hours, respectively. According to leading analysts, long online-time use of internet users bodes well for opportunities of online services and e-commerce fields to find a niche in the market, especially in emerging markets like Vietnam and Thailand. Along with growth in the number of internet users, in recent years, the e-commerce market has also experienced strong developments of online transactions under groups such as Nhommua, Muachung and Hotdeal.  These internet users’ websites continue to prosper and are flexible enough to adjust to the business environment. In addition, there are also numerous online showrooms which have successfully been developed. VOV