Inside a Dien May Xanh store in Ho Chi Minh City. (Photo: Hai Dang)

“The first stores may open in Indonesia this year. Mobile World staff are there to implement this project,” Hieu Em said.

This is the first time that Mobile World is working with a local partner to open a retail chain instead of doing it by itself.

According to Hieu Em, to open a chain in the largest country in Southeast Asia, Mobile World wants to cooperate with a market-savvy business to speed up the progress. “We can save several years compared to deploying in a completely new market on our own,” he explained.

This is the new philosophy of Mobile World, Hieu Em added. For example, the Mobile World chain took about 17 years to thrive. Dien May Xanh chain took nearly 10 years, while Bach Hoa Xanh chain also spent 5-7 years, but the later chains will be accelerated.

The development of later tech retail chains like TopZone, AVA, and super-small Dien May Xanh is proof of the fast deployment speed of this multi-industry retailer.

With the new retail chain in Indonesia, Hieu Em said that within five years, the joint venture company will be listed on the stock market, possibly in Indonesia.

Indonesia is the second country in Southeast Asia where Mobile World has decided to expand, after Cambodia.

Previously, in mid-2017, the firm opened its first phone store in the capital Phnom Penh of Cambodia, called BigPhone. Using a brand identity similar to a retail chain in Vietnam, Mobile World forecasted that each store in the chain would have sales of VND 2 billion (nearly $1 million) a month and be a springboard for the company to enter the Southeast Asian retail market.

Three years later, the BigPhone chain was renamed as Bluetronics, which sells both phones and electronic products. By the end of 2021, Mobile World had about 50 stores overseas and had earned nearly VND 500 billion (over $25 million), equivalent to 0.4% of its total revenue.

Indonesia appeared in the list of potential markets of Mobile World about two years ago. Previously, the company planned to expand operations in Laos and Myanmar after Cambodia because these countries are geographically close to Vietnam and their retail market for phones and electronics had not yet developed. However, this plan was stalled by the pandemic.

Hai Dang

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