Street motorbikes for sale

Read what is in the news today:

Politics

— Party General Secretary and State President Nguyen Phu Trong sent his best wishes to all of the Vietnamese people, both inside and outside the country, as the traditional Lunar New Year is due.

— Chairwoman of the Lao National Assembly (NA) Pany Yathotou paid a visit on Thursday to officers and soldiers of Army Corps 11 of the Vietnam People’s Army who are working on the construction of the Lao NA House, on the occasion of the Lunar New Year festival.

Society

— Vietnam reported no new case of COVID-19 on Friday morning. The national tally stood at 2,140 patients, with 1,531 recoveries and 35 virus-related deaths.

— Authorities in Ward 8, District 8 of Ho Chi Minh City on late Thursday evening issued an urgent notification to look for visitors to Quang Trung Hotel at 1118 Quang Trung Street from 11:00 pm January 30 to 9:00 am January 31 and 11:00 pm February 5 to 9:00 am February 6 as COVID-19 patient No. 2,018 stayed there during these time periods.

— Lockdowns were lifted from the Circle K store at 16 Ap Bac Street and the Co.op Food store at 12A Tran Van Danh Street in Ward 13, Tan Binh District and the ‘Giac mo sua Viet’ store at 114A Hoang Hoa Tham Street in Ward 12 in the same district on Thursday, according to the Ho Chi Minh Center for Disease Control.

— Ho Chi Minh City police officers on Thursday said that they had seized more than 200kg of firecrackers of all kinds and prosecuted eight related people on charges of storing, transporting, buying and selling, and using illegal firecrackers during the ongoing Lunar New Year, or Tet holiday.

— Prohibited firecrackers were blatantly set off across many localities in Vietnam during this Tet, especially on Lunar New Year’s Eve.

Business

— Vietnam’s Bamboo Airways announced its pre-tax profit of over VND400 billion (US$17.38 million) in 2020, up 34 percent year-on-year.

— Honda Vietnam reported year-on-year surges of four percent and 57.4 percent in motorbike and automobile sales in January.

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A convenience store in HCM City’s Tân Bình District. — Photo dantri.com.vn

Compiled by Thiên Lý

Despite being on the same street as three convenience stores, the grocery store owned by Nguyễn Ngọc Dung on Yên Thế Street in HCM City’s Tân Bình District is always crowded, especially during peak hours.

Trần Hạnh Hương, who lives nearby, says she buys most items her family needs everyday like soap, cooking oil, instant noodles, shampoo, and tissue from this store.

Asked why she prefers to shop there instead of the convenience stores or supermarkets that are nearby, she says: “It takes me little time to buy there while prices are a little lower than at convenience stores and supermarkets.

“My family also goes shopping to the supermarket during weekends and we buy fresh food there since we believe such products may be safer there than at wet markets.”

There is also another reason for many housewives like her to patronise the corner grocery store instead of modern retail outlets that are mushrooming and offering convenience to shoppers.

Dung explains, “Most of my shoppers are regular customers so I am always ready to let them buy something on credit when they forget to bring or do not have money.”

Vũ Vinh Phú, former deputy director of the Hà Nội Department of Trade, said grocery stores have for decades enabled producers to distribute their products in the quickest and most convenient manner.

“Buying at the grocery store has become a part of popular culture, especially in remote areas like islands and mountainous regions where modern retail has yet to make an appearance.”

According to Nielsen data, Việt Nam has more than 1.4 million grocery stores and 9,000 traditional markets which generate revenues of around US$10 billion, or 75 per cent of the country’s retail market share.

In recent years many supermarkets have been forced out of business while small grocery stores have been growing in popularity.

According to analysts the latter have begun to use technology, which has given them a further fillip.

Many use technology for selling online, which enables them to sell not only dry goods but also fresh foods and deliver them efficiently.

Realising the potential of grocery stores, conglomerate Vingroup recently returned to the retail market with the launch of the VinShop mobile app.

It is a B2B app that connects traditional grocery stores with suppliers. It allows store owners to get hundreds of products from suppliers in one order within a day.

It is also connected to VinID, making it Việt Nam’s first B2B2C channel.

The app has already been downloaded by more than 20,000 grocery store owners in Hà Nội and Hồ Chí Minh City, and the number is expected to climb to 300,000 by next year.

Analysts said there were signs the adoption of technology by grocery stores would take away business from big box stores, supermarkets and convenience stores.

Currently supermarkets are faced with certain limitations, which affect their competitiveness.

They include high discount rates and the cost for commodity codes , now estimated at VNĐ10-20 million for a batch of goods to be sold at the supermarket. With many other expenses on top, supermarkets are forced to sell at higher prices than grocery stores.

Owners of small shops have a good understanding of local consumers’ needs especially at a time when the country is integrating globally.

Their small scale makes them agile and adopt product changes quicker than chain stores and supermarkets.

Experts however stressed the need for grocery stores to continue to modernise quickly.

To continue dominating the retail market, they said traditional retail models like wet markets and grocery stores need to take full use of their existing advantages while enhancing the use of new technology.

Besides, they should not compete with the large chains’ stores on price alone but also sell private label and high-quality products and provide good customers with good service, they added.

Bike market stuck in low gear

Việt Nam’s motorbike market has been shrinking in recent years.

According to figures from the Việt Nam Association of Motorcycle Manufacturers (VAMM), its members’ (Honda, Piaggio, Yamaha, SYM, and Suzuki) sales last year were down 17 per cent to 2.7 million units despite the launch of many new models and big discounts.

Honda remained the top seller, but its sales fell by 16.7 per cent. SYM reported a fall of over 20 per cent while Piaggio’s sales were marginally down.

Only Suzuki achieved growth with a 12 per cent increase in sales.

In 2018 3.3 million bikes were old, and it fell to 3.2 million in 2019.

The decline has eroded the profits of manufacturers and hit their sales agents hard.

Industry insiders expect demand to increase this year, but by not more than 5 per cent.

In the long term the downward trend will continue, and the market could shrink to 2.5 million by 2024.

VAMM expects to boost sales with exchange offers, especially in big cities like HCMC and Hà Nội, offering owners of old bikes replacements at competitive prices.

The Government has plans to phase out old bikes as part of efforts to reduce pollution in the two biggest cities. — VNS

Google CEO Sundar Pichai (right) had a meeting with Nguyen Ha Dong in 2015

In 2015, Google CEO Sundar Pichai, paid a working visit to Vietnam and had a meeting with Nguyen Ha Dong, the creator of Flappy Bird, a game with a record high number of downloads. The meeting took place at a street tea shop, lasting 30 minutes.

At a later meeting with Vietnamese CEOs during the visit, he said that Vietnam had caught the attention of international businesses and that businesses need to grab the opportunity and reform themselves continuously.

During the one-hour talk, the CEO stressed that the way to success is to focus on the domestic market. Succeeding there first will allow Vietnam’s businesses to reach out to the international market.

Saul Singer, the author of “Start-Up Nation”, told the press during a visit to HCM City, that the city was filled with an entrepreneurial atmosphere.

He said people were doing certain types of business on every sidewalk, at every corner, and on every street.

Nguyen Tuan Anh, former CEO of Grab Vietnam, has mentioned how the idea about Grabbike, a motorbike ride-hailing service, came to him.

“In 2015, I saw the flow of motorbikes trailing each day into the city (HCMC) center, about half of them had empty seats behind. I believe that it is wasteful if one person uses a motorbike. This causes traffic jams. Why don’t I develop Grabbike after developing GrabCar,” he said.

Some startups focus too much on spending money to lure more users and expand market share, while forgetting to make money. This leads to financial problems. A startup that is good at spending money but bad at making money is compared to an ‘addict’ who has to sell shares to raise funds.

Grabbike has been developing well beyond expectations. Almost everyone owns a motorbike and they can become Grabbike drivers to earn money. This is an opportunity for students who want to earn extra money, or unemployed workers. Just one year after Grabbike was launched, the project had attracted tens of thousands of drivers in Hanoi and HCMC.

Many traditional taxi motorbike drivers have also become Grabbike partners because they can get more work and earn more money.

For Nguyen Hoang Trung, the founder and CEO of Lozi, developed a platform that allows people to easily find eatery houses online.

Trung said he could grab the great opportunity as there was no such app at that moment.

Lozi, a platform ranking restaurants, eateries and food, was launched, followed by Loship, a company specializing in providing e-commerce services and delivering goods within one hour.

“When running Lozi, we realized that establishing Loship was inevitable. Startups need to advance forward and improve instead of staying in the same place,” Trung explained.

According to Trung, when starting up, most founders tend to focus on creating products with high quality and believe that only good products will attract customers.

However, it is necessary to understand customers first and then create products that can help solve their problems.

He said entrepreneurs need to be ready to change and adapt to new circumstances. They need to set up targets, observe the market, embrace opportunities, and make quick decisions when necessary.

Startup founders also need to work hard with no day off. Once you take a rest, rivals will surpass you.

Pursuing philosophy of street rice vendors

Nguyen Huu An, the Vietnam Startup Wheel 2018 Champion, once thought that to start a business, one needed to have good ideas, attract many users, and call for large capital.

But now he thinks more simply. Setting oneself up in business means providing good services, solutions, and products to customers; paying full salaries to workers; and making a profit and developing companies.

Some startups focus too much on spending money to lure more users and expand market share, while forgetting to make money. This leads to financial problems. A startup that is good at spending money but bad at making money is compared to an ‘addict’ who has to sell shares to raise funds.

An believes these startups are vulnerable during Covid-19. When they use up all the money from previous fundraising rounds, they will have to try to call for new capital. Meanwhile, it is more difficult to call for capital during the pandemic. Once they cannot find new capital sources, they will die.

“I find some startups are even worse than female steamed glutinous rice sellers,” he said.

A seller spends 10 dong to make steamed glutinous rice and she collects at least 11 dong from the rice sale so as to have money and continue making the rice for sale the following days.

But many startups take losses continuously and many have disappeared.

“While many startups have had to leave the market, the steamed glutinous rice seller is still prosperous. I think her know-how is delicious glutinous rice and positive cash flow,” he said.

The 2020 E-Conomy SEA Report reported that VNPay has officially become the second Vietnamese technology unicorn, or startup valued at $1 billion or higher. The first one is VNG. The country aims to have five unicorns by 2025 and 10 by 2030.

Thu Ky