Riviu, a Vietnam-based website and app that is reviewing restaurants, has notched USD 3.6 million from undisclosed investors for domestic expansion, according to a news report by local media VnExpress.
The publication will use the fresh capital to extend coverage to Vietnam’s major cities Da Nang and Nha Trang, which are popular tourist hotspots. It will also add beauty and entertainment sections. “In our vision, people will use Riviu whenever they need to review or rate any local services, just like they say ‘to google’ instead of ‘to search’,” said CEO Dang Le Huy.
Dang told KrASIA that the discussion with the investor started in May amidst the pandemic. “COVID-19 has impacted our revenue and contents significantly,” he said. “However, it was also a great opportunity for us to understand our partners and users better.”
As Vietnam resumed international commercial flights to several Asian countries on September 18, cities like Da Nang have lifted travel restrictions. Dang is positive about the open-up and affirmed that his company has witnessed tremendous growth from both users and merchants recently.
Founded in 2019, Riviu started as a Facebook group—which has now over 930,000 members—and later added a website and mobile app. The company benefited from operating in a country with a young population, where 28% of its total 59.2 million internet users are between 25 and 34 years old, according to estimates by data provider Statista.
Vietnam’s digital economy is expected to reach USD 43 billion by 2025, according to the e-Conomy Southeast Asia 2019 report by Google, Temasek, and Bain & Company. According to the report, Vietnam is emerging as “the most digital of all economies in the region.”