Vietnam currently has over 72.1 million internet users, placing it 13th globally. The Chairman of the Vietnam Internet Association, Vu Hoang Lien, made this announcement on the 25th anniversary of internet development in the country.
In his speech he said that the internet has played an important role in all fields, boosting the progress of national digital conversion since the country connected to the global internet network on 19 November 1997.
According to a press release by the Ministry of Information and Communications (MIC), mobile broadband infrastructure now covers 99.73% of villages nationwide. Vietnam also has 94.2 million smartphone users and 82.2 million mobile broadband subscribers, accounting for 74.3% of the national population.
The Deputy Director of the Vietnam Internet Network Information Centre, Tran Thi Thu Hien, informed that there are over 564,000 “.vn” domains in the country, placing the country second in ASEAN and among the top ten countries in the Asia-Pacific Region.
To further improve connectivity, Vietnam’s National Digital Transformation Programme to 2025 states that the country’s digital infrastructure development will include the implementation of Internet of Things (IoT) connectivity and 5G technology. To ensure the sustainable development and safety of Vietnam’s digital infrastructure, the government will focus on upgrading internet infrastructure and platforms.
The programme also aims to digitise public services. It plans to make 50% of banking operations by customers electronically and have 70% of customer transactions be made through digital channels. 50% of decisions on lending, small, and consumer loans of individual customers are expected to be automated and 70% of work and service records at credit institutions will be processed and stored digitally.
By the targeted year, the government wants 80% of public services to be level 4 services and over 90% of work records at ministerial and provincial levels to be shifted online. By 2030, the government wants the digital economy to contribute around 30% to the GDP. It intends to be among the top 50 countries in e-government development and the third in ASEAN by the end of this decade.
Plans are in place to expand regional and international Internet connections and develop undersea fibre optic cables to make Vietnam one of the connectivity hubs in the region. The transition to the new generation of Internet protocol (IPv6) will help the nation connect more strongly with the global information society. The rate of new generation Internet protocol (IPv6) users accounts for 50% of the Vietnamese population.
Earlier, OpenGov reported that the use of domestic digital platforms recorded a year-on-year rise of 23.5% in August, with 494 million users. Vietnamese citizens spent more than 934 million hours on local platforms, making up 13.77% of the total time they spent on all digital platforms. On average, smartphone users spent 9.93 hours on Vietnamese digital platforms in August, up 11.44% from July and 4.67% from January this year. Five local platforms reported more than 10 million users monthly.
The use of digital platforms, e-commerce sites, social networks, and specialised applications has increased sharply, and the country is expected to become the fastest-growing e-commerce market in Southeast Asia by 2026. Global e-commerce is estimated to grow by 28.4% annually between 2020 and 2027. Meanwhile, revenue from business-to-consumer (B2C) e-commerce in Vietnam is expected to increase by over 20% each year.
