Global Media Intelligence 2020: Vietnam

Key Features

Smartphones are central to Vietnam’s emerging digital population. But wearables and smart home options have also seen modest adoption.

• Fully 97.6% of internet users ages 16 to 64 in Vietnam owned a mobile phone in H1 2020, according to GlobalWebIndex. That figure is marginally lower than the 98.2% recorded in H1 2019 but well within the bounds of statistical variation.
• As in many countries, PC ownership declined by a few percentage points in Vietnam in H1 2020, to 68.6%. Tablet penetration also fell from 33.9% to 27.9%. It’s no surprise that tablet ownership may have peaked at barely one-third of internet users; Vietnam is a mobile-first country, where desktops, laptops, and tablets were not widely available or affordable until recently. Even this year, tablet owners were more likely to be living in urban areas and high-income households.
• Several other device types posted slightly lower numbers, too. A little more than 45% of respondents owned a smart TV this year, compared with 46.8% in H1 2019. Just 12.1% owned a smart home product, such as a system enabling users to monitor their home security remotely via a mobile app. Smartwatch penetration had increased marginally, however, to 16.4%. All these devices were more common among 25- to 44-year-olds and affluents.
• Penetration of gaming consoles rose but remained notably low at 9.4% overall. Ownership was greatest among respondents in middle- and high-income homes.