Vietnam Communications Corporation (VCCorp) announced the investment of VND700 billion (about USD30 million) to build another made-in-Vietnam social network, scheduled to debut in mid-September.
According to the company’s announcement, the new Vietnamese social media network will be called Lotus and will be focused on content creation.
The platform aims to support content creators and allow users to interact with content creators through the usage of tokens, which can be used on the network to participate in challenges, missions, as well in exchange for gifts. The tokens will also be used to assess the level of credibility of users and to measure the reactions of posts, presumably similar to the ‘like’ function in other social media sites.
VCCorp is one of the leading internet companies in Vietnam, previously producing many of the country’s top online portals for news and entertainment.
The company said it also hopes to raise another VND500 billion (USD21.7 million) to grow the network once it debuts.
VCCorp General Director Nguyen The Tan has been one of the most outspoken tech business leaders in the Vietnamese community over the need to build local social media networks to compete with Facebook, as previously instructed by Vietnam’s Minister of Information and Communications Nguyen Manh Hung.
However, many still have doubts about the ability of local players to persuade businesses to move away from Facebook and Google ads, as well regarding the in-house expertise to compete in terms of technology and users’ traction.
In July, Vietnamese social media network Gapo was launched. The platform recently said it crossed the 1 million users benchmark.