Vietnam ranked among the world’s top ten countries, in 2022, in terms of app downloads, and the amount of money spent by Vietnamese to buy apps has been experiencing a significant upward trend. According to the Ministry of Information and Communications (MIC), the total number of mobile app downloads in Vietnam reached 280 million in March 2023, marking a 13% increase from February 2023. Additionally, revenue generated from transactions on mobile apps witnessed a substantial growth of 34.8% compared to the same period in 2022.
According to a recent industry report, the amount of time spent by users on mobile apps has reached unprecedented levels. Worldwide, Android users collectively spent 4 trillion hours on apps in 2022. In Vietnam, the corresponding figure was 83 billion hours. The app economy in Southeast Asia, including Vietnam, has experienced remarkable growth. Users in countries such as the Philippines, Indonesia, and Singapore spend an average of 5 hours per day on apps, while in Vietnam, the average daily usage stands at 4 hours.
The surge in demand for apps has been the driving force behind the significant increase in app downloads across various countries, including Vietnam. Notably, Vietnam stands as the second largest country in Southeast Asia in terms of app downloads, with a remarkable total of 3.5 billion downloads recorded last year.
As users worldwide remain engaged with their mobile devices, Vietnamese individuals download approximately 6,600 apps every minute. The country also allocates US$ 900, equivalent to VND21 million, on app-related services every minute. This trend has contributed significantly to the rapid expansion of apps associated with mobile banking, e-wallets, and digital payment solutions in Vietnam.
The widespread adoption of apps not only provides a favourable environment for the growth of digital technology companies but also supports the overall digital transformation process. Moreover, research indicates that Vietnam has witnessed an addition of 8 million new digital users since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. It predicted that by 2025, Vietnam’s internet economy would value US$57 billion, with a compound annual growth rate of 29%. This indicates the substantial potential for further advancement in the digital sector in Vietnam.
For every 25 games downloaded, there is one game made in Vietnam and the revenue from the ads of Vietnamese game studios is among the world’s highest. A report from 2021 showed that of the top ten game distributors with the highest numbers of downloads from Google and the App Store in Southeast Asia, five belonged to Vietnam.
In the country, the ICT economy’s revenue reached an estimated US$ 148 billion in 2022, representing a year-on-year increase of 8.7%. The contribution of the digital economy to the national GDP in 2022 accounted for about 14.26% of the total, with 7.18% contributed by the ICT digital economy.
IT services have contributed the most to the digital economy, accounting for about 30% of the total value, followed by e-commerce (14.3%) and hardware production (12.83%). The digital content field recorded the strongest growth, up nearly 104% compared to the first quarter of 2022. The government has also paid attention to upgrading digital infrastructure, smartphones, broadband Internet, and cloud computing.