Comments (2)

By TaiTran, August 27, 2012 6:53 pm

• Share price drops.
• The ban is only on legacy products. Galaxy S3 unaffected.
• $1b fine is too cheap to secure #2 position and #1 in China & Asia-Pacific.
• $1b fine is too cheap compared to $25b profit from copying since 2007.
• Good publicity: Samsung is set in consumers’ mind as #2 smart phone maker.

Chart from Reuters

Comments (0)

By TaiTran, August 20, 2012 1:30 am

1. Luxury products: prospect for high margin
2. Fashion products are not standard thus allow for better margin
3. With the investment Reebonz can afford a price war until competitors die off
4. Aims at building brand loyalty

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By TaiTran, August 18, 2012 5:14 am

Lotteria has approximately 80 stores, higher bargain power with landlords, better brand recognition, arguably more experience in process.

Despite receiving investment, VietMac doesn’t seem to scale quickly enough.

The whole barrier to entry of VietMac is its product which is relatively easy to imitate, and it is.

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By TaiTran, January 31, 2012 5:38 pm

1. Smart phone vendors including Samsung, Sony, HTC, Motorola, LG, Dell, Asus, Acer, ZTE, Huawei compete on price, desperately trying to win market share from Apple. They leave the feature phone to the sole Nokia (plus some Asian brands)
2. A smart phone is of high(er) value => buyers have the incentive to compare prices before buying.  I am assuming an elastic demand market, and one in which buyers are less restricted to carriers.
3. Smart phones are attracting attention and coverage of mass and social media => buyers are better informed of prices. For example, I visit at least 5 websites to compare prices and asked numerous times on Facebook before buying my Samsung Galaxy Note.
4. It’s not that feature phone buyers lack the money for smart phones, but they simply do not want the complexity of smart phones. This group is willing to pay $25-50 more for convenience (next-door shop) and guarantee (retail brand). Note that big retail brands like TheGioiDiDong.com sells at premium compared to other chains.
5. In fact, the feature phone buyers don’t even know or care that they are paying a premium. The common behavior is for a buyer to go to a shop and ask "I want a nice simple phone with camera and music player". The salesperson then guess the budget from the appearance of the buyer and start recommending ones that are most inline with with the retail’s inventory.

Photo: Nokia 6230i, my first feature phone

Comments (0)

By TaiTran, April 20, 2009 10:33 am

Many discussions rose once again when Yahoo! 360 is confirmed to be closed in near future. The question most frequently asked is: who will be the winner? It’s apparent that some of us have been aggressive in finding nailing down the “winner” of the race after the fall of the regional giant.

Discussions are shot, entries are flared and debates are burst.

But can we take one step back and see if we are so scripted with scenarios for competitions in the market?

Have we asked the question how the market will grow and how we will grow with the market?

Product/Portfolio growth = Market share x Market growth

Where is the internet market in Vietnam? It is arguable that the industry is only in its first steps. There are great potentials in the form of markets that have not been reached and markets that have not been created.

It’s not only about gaining market share, it’s also about growing the market so you can grow along.

What will fuel market growth? The answer is efforts from every player in the industry. Your competitors also help the market grow.

@tanng and @duongminhviet have occasionally applaud FPT’s movements to enter deeper into the market. In my perspective, this is not only an act of diplomacy, but also out of their wisdom that competition shakes up and levels up the industry as a whole. As long as passion is there, opportunities are there.

Good luck

***

Appendix: market growth will be fueled by the following sources:

1. Urban adults who have not used internet services. They have income, are skeptical, and definitely not early adopters.
2. Users from provinces who have not used internet services. Their income varies, they range from major adopters to laggards.
3. Young people growing up. They have sponsorship, are curious, smart, and would make innovators and early adopters.