by Ekrem Duman | Sep 13, 2026 | Startup, Vietnam Company Stories, Vietnam Telecom, Tech & Startups
⚡ TL;DRVNG started in 2004 as VinaGame, a company that licensed a Chinese martial-arts game and sold prepaid cards through internet cafés, and became Vietnam’s first technology unicorn when a 2014 valuation put it above $1 billion. Its defining product is Zalo,...
by Ekrem Duman | Sep 13, 2026 | Startup, Vietnam Company Stories, Vietnam Telecom, Tech & Startups
⚡ TL;DRFPT was founded in 1988 by thirteen scientists as a food-processing technology company, drifted into computer distribution, and in 1999 made a bet on software outsourcing that took most of a decade to pay. Today FPT Software earns more than $1 billion a year...
by Ekrem Duman | Sep 13, 2026 | Startup, Vietnam Company Stories, Vietnam Telecom, Tech & Startups
⚡ TL;DRViettel began in 1989 as a small construction unit of the Vietnamese army laying cable for the incumbent, and is today Vietnam’s largest telecom operator and its most valuable brand, with group revenue on the order of VND 190 trillion (roughly $7.5...
by Ekrem Duman | Sep 13, 2026 | Startup, Vietnam Company Stories, Vietnam Real Estate & Construction
⚡ TL;DRIn November 2024 Vietnam’s National Assembly approved a 1,541-kilometre high-speed railway from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City, designed for 350 km/h at an estimated cost of about VND 1,713 trillion, or $67 billion, to be built with public money from 2027 and...
by Ekrem Duman | Sep 13, 2026 | Startup, Vietnam Company Stories, Vietnam Real Estate & Construction
⚡ TL;DRHòa Phát started in 1992 as a trader of second-hand construction machinery and is now the largest steelmaker in Southeast Asia, with crude steel capacity heading towards 15 million tonnes a year once the Dung Quất 2 complex is fully commissioned, and a domestic...
by Ekrem Duman | Sep 13, 2026 | Startup, Vietnam Company Stories, Vietnam Real Estate & Construction
⚡ TL;DRNovaland was Vietnam’s second-largest listed developer and its most aggressive borrower, with a land bank of roughly 10,600 hectares built on short-dated bonds and bank loans. When the corporate bond market froze in late 2022, it could not refinance, its...
