VietNamNet Bridge – Not purposely looking for online games, a lot of users have been forced to see obscene game ad pieces when accessing to some websites.

Vietnam is the country with the second fastest growing number of Internet users in the region.

The “cobweb” of “dirty ads”

Vietnam is considered the country with the highest “online population” in ASEAN, according to a report on the Internet development situation in South East Asia by the market survey firm comScore.

The report said Vietnam has 16.1 million Internet users every month. It is also the country with the second fastest growing number of Internet users in the region. The number of Vietnamese Internet users has increased by 14 percent in comparison with the same period of the last year.

The figures show that Vietnam is a fertile soil for online business activities, including games, which is believed to bring the highest turnover. 42 percent of Internet users in Vietnam are aged between 15 and 24.

As such, game distributors have been trying every possible means to attract as many gamers as possible. One of their favorite methods is to launch “attractive ad pieces” which try not only to lure gamers, but other people as well.

Nguyen Thu Lan, a university student, complained that she just opened an online film website, when a series of pop-ups appeared.

“It took me much time to close all the windows, which was really a waste of time,” she said. “This was like the invitation for blue film, not the ad for game.”

Analysts commented that game distributors nowadays don’t have to look for gamers, but use their instruments to “catch” gamers, or force them to join the games. The distributors join forces with online film websites or social networks to approach to users, including the ones who don’t have the demand for playing games.

Quoc Hung, a member of gamethu.net, noted that game distributors nowadays tend to choose hot girls or celebrities as the image ambassador for the games. “She needs to be a hot girl and suggestive,” he noted.

Game distributors would run any marketing programs which can attract more viewers, no matter what their contents are about. This explains why Vietnamese games are considered one of the causes of violence, rape, social evils.

The problem is that, as sociologists have warned, not only the community gamers, but other people also can be the victims of the “dirty ads,” because they, including the youth, have become the passive game players.

According to Le Hong Minh, General Director of VNG, online games is a profitable industry which brings the direct revenue of VND6 trillion and the indirect revenue of VND20 trillion (from computer business, Internet, Mobile, coffee services...).

The industry has 20 million clients, generates 7,000 direct and 100,000 indirect jobs.

According to the Ministry of Information and Communication, 117 games had been licensed by July 2013, while 44 games have stopped operation. As such, 73 games are still in circulation.

In 2005, only VNG got the license to distribute “Vo Lam Truyen Ky” in Vietnam. The number of distributors increased rapidly to 10 in 2009 which launched 46 games. There are 40 distributors now, 50 studios and 300 games of different kinds.

Nguoi Dua Tin