According to The Digital Media Report 2020 of The Statista Global Consumer Survey, Vietnam’s revenue in the Online Games segment is projected to reach US$10m in 2020. Vietnam is assessed as a potential online game market that revenue is expected to show an annual growth rate (CAGR 2020-2025) of 3.9%, resulting in a projected market volume of US$12m by 2025.
To enter the promising market of online game business, foreign investors have to meet some investment conditions as follows:
(1) Forms of investment: Foreign investors must have either a contract of business cooperation or a joint venture with a Vietnamese partner.
(2) Vietnamese partner must be eligible to provide online gaming business.
(3) In case of a joint venture, the foreign investors’ ownership must not exceed 49% charter capital.
Under the Vietnamese legislation, online game services are defined as the provision of access to the Internet and online games. There are 04 types of online game classified by method of service provision and use:
- G1 games: Video games that have interaction among multiple players via the game server;
- G2 games: Video games that only have interaction between the players and the game server;
- G3 game: Video games that have interaction among multiple players without interaction between players and the game server;
- G4 games: Video games that are downloaded from the Internet without the interaction among players and between players and the game server.
Only Vietnamese enterprises can apply for G1, G2, G3 and G4 gaming license in Vietnam. To get licensing provision of G1 games, Vietnamese enterprises must satisfy a huge amount of conditions: (a) The enterprise is established in accordance with Vietnam’s law and its business line associated with online gaming services has been posted in the national business registration portal; (b) Domain names are registered to provide services; (c) Its financial, technical resources and qualified personnel are sufficient to serve the operation; (d) Measures are taken for ensuring information safety and information security.
Moreover, in order to run this business, Vietnamese providers must obtain Decision to approve game contents if they meet following requirements: (a) The residual validity period of the License to provide game services is at least 01 year; (b) The contents of the video game do not violate Prohibited acts; do not contain images or sounds that are horrifying, brutal, sexual, or erotic which incite sexual desires, dissoluteness, immortality, are contrary to traditional virtues and culture; do not distort history; do not contain images or sounds that depict suicide, use of drug, alcohol and tobacco, terrorism, child abuse, child trafficking, and other wrongful or unlawful acts; satisfy other requirements of the Ministry of Information and Communications; (c) Meet the technical requirements for providing game services imposed by the Ministry of Information and Communications.
Vietnam is a promising market for the development of the online game industry. However, there are lots of requirements that investors need to prepare to involve in this business. With proficient knowledge and valuable experience in supporting investors in this field, LLVN offers a high-quality legal service for investors to get deeper insights and process an efficient business plan.
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