Vietnam’s No. 1 e-commerce brand to be dethroned? Lazada, the only foreign major player in the e-commerce market, has ambitions to dislodge Vietnamese ChoDienTu from its No 1 position.   In mid-2013, when the high-tech community concentrated its attention on the “OTT wave” (over the top), Lazada.vn quietly launched an e-commerce trading floor named Marketplace. Marketplace is believed to be Lazada’s latest campaign of attack in the C2C (Customer-to-Customer) market segment, and it also plans to develop this platform in the B2C (Business-to-Customer) market segment as well. The move by Lazada is described as a “declaration of war” against ChoDienTu.vn because C2C has been the core business for the Vietnamese e-commerce website. Like ChoDienTu, Marketplace is believed to have taken many steps to attract suppliers by charging fees on products instead of collecting monthly fees. Lazada may also follow the same path as ChoDienTu to increase its market share – making heavy investments in direct payment tools. Lazada reportedly has reached cooperation agreements with 25 domestic banks, while it is discussing the possibility of more cooperation agreements with units providing card-based online payment services. The German group made its debut in Vietnam in early 2012, but it has gained encouraging business results in Vietnam. The Rocket Internet Empire’s subsidiary needed only two years to obtain 22 percent of market share, becoming the No 2 player in the market. Regarding the “power” of Lazada, analysts said no Vietnamese e-commerce group could financially compete with Rocket Internet. Meanwhile, Lazada had the second highest number of visitors in 2013 among retail websites, according to US-based comScore, an internet research firm. Vietnam’s e-commerce market A report from VECITA, the Ministry of Industry and Trade’s Information Technology Agency, says the e-commerce trading value in Vietnam hit the $2.2 billion threshold in 2013, a sharp growth rate of 300 percent. It is expected that the market will create revenue of $4 billion by 2015. The figures coincide with the report from EuroMonitor, a market analysis firm, which says that the Vietnamese internet population will reach 43 million by 2016, or 40-45 percent of the total population. This is considered to be the “golden proportion” for investors to jump into the e-commerce market. A report showed that 79 retail of every 100 websites in Vietnam specialize in selling clothes, footwear and cosmetics. The attractiveness of the e-commerce market is the reason that Pham Nhat Vuong, president of Vingroup, a real estate group, has decided to make investments in this business field. Vuong, the first Vietnamese US dollar billionaire, recognized by Forbes, has set up VinE-com, an e-commerce company, with chartered capital of over VND1 trillion. The “rookie” in the market has taken its first steps to prepare for the competition with existing and experienced rivals. It has reportedly recruited talented executives in the field, while preparing to make several huge merger and acquisition deals. It has also registered a series of domain names as part of its long-term business strategy. Christopher Beselin, Lazada’s CEO, thinks that VinE-com will be a strong rival. However, he said the appearance of such rivals would only make the competition more interesting. NCDT

"on">Vi� . m / ` x0^ ry-region> separately, then with the Philippines and later with Malaysia. China does not want to deal with a bloc of united South East Asian countries which have a common voice.

The Philippines has made a wise move to bring the case of China’s statement about the “cow tongue line” to the international court. All international lawyers believe that the Philippines will win the lawsuit, though it will have to wait several years. If this comes true, China’s “invented” nine-dotted line will be officially judged as illegal.

The decision of the Philippines to sue China in the international court will be beneficial to all countries in the region. China, which understands well that its claim about the “U-shaped (nine-dotted/cow’s tongue) line” does not have any legal foundation, has shown its hostile attitude to the Filipino action, trying to stop the lawsuit.

China, after taking a series of unilateral provocative activities in the East Sea, has unexpectedly “lowered its voice”, suggesting that it would settle the dispute through negotiations.

Dr. Marvin commented that this is just another artful behavior conducted by China. The country in 2011 once signed a document, calling to settle the disputes peacefully. At that time, many scholars doubted if China would fulfill its commitments. And what is happening now shows that they had reasons to be worried.

All the Chinese acts and trickeries, in the US analyst’s opinion, have one goal – turning the U-shaped line into reality – which would allow it to occupy nearly the whole East Sea, and encroach on the exclusive economic zones of Vietnam and other regional countries. China has been attempting to turn the cow tongue line into the territory’s boundary that would be recognized in the world.

However, China cannot implement its plan at once. In order to avoid strong protests from the international community, China tries to be “soft” after every activity that seeks to expand its control in the East Sea, such as the Scarborough Shoal and the HD 981 drilling rig. This is called being “an iron fist in a velvet glove” by some people.

China should understand that the international community has lost faith in China, which has conducted activities in an attempt to expand its de facto occupation and control. All the regional countries have become watchful of China, while its good relations and cooperation programs built up in the last many years have been spoiled within a short time.

Minh Ngoc, VietNamNet Bridge