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2024년 09월 11일We are excited to share that our CEO, Patrick Kim, was recently featured in an insightful interview with Edaily! 🌐 In the article, Mr. Kim discusses the unique landscape of Vietnam’s AI market, emphasizing both the opportunities and challenges that lie ahead for Korean companies.
With Vietnam's rapid IT growth and the government's strong commitment to AI development, there are significant opportunities for collaboration in sectors like AI call centers and AI education. However, navigating the market requires careful integration with local Large Language Models (LLMs) and strategic partnerships with Vietnamese companies.
At TechValley, we are committed to leveraging our expertise in IT consulting and cloud services to help Korean businesses succeed in Vietnam. By aligning with Vietnam's evolving AI landscape, we believe there is immense potential for innovation and growth.
A big thank you to Edaily for the feature, and we look forward to continuing our journey of driving digital transformation in Vietnam!
Please find the article below
"Interview with Kim Do yeon, CEO of Tech Valley Vietnam AI market, opportunities and challenges for Korean companies
The government's strong will... Nvidia and Softbank are also interested
A market with many variables that do not open wallets due to various languages
Local LLM linkage is essential... AI call center, AI education collaboration opportunity
[Edaily Kim Hyun ah, IT Specialist Reporter] “Vietnam has a very unique environment. No cloud company, including AWS, MS, or Google, operates a data center there. The situation of pursuing sovereign AI here provides opportunities for Korean companies. Of course, there are some things to be careful of.”
In an interview with Edaily on the 8th, Patrick Kim, CEO of Tech Valley, pointed out that “Vietnam’s IT growth rate is fast, but it is difficult to export data overseas due to the cybersecurity law.” He evaluated that “Incorporating Vietnamese Large Language Models (LLMs) is essential for Korean companies to advance into the market.”
CEO Kim Doyeon started his career at KT Global. In 2008, when Viettel, the number one telecommunications company in Vietnam, introduced IPTV services locally with the support of Alticast and KT, he was in charge of a project with annual sales of 70 billion won. Afterward, he worked as the head of Megazone Cloud Vietnam Business Division and founded Tech Valley, an IT consulting and cloud service company. He has been staying in Vietnam for the past 12 years and is working as a local expert. Edaily met with EO Kim Doyeon, who will be presenting on the Vietnamese AI market at the 'Edaily AI Convergence Forum (EAIF 2024)' on November 19, and heard about the local situation in Vietnam.
Government's strong will… Nvidia and Softbank also have their eyes on it
The Vietnamese government, through the Prime Minister's Decision (8/2020/QDTTg), has set AI research and development as a national strategy until 2023, and established a national strategy for AI until 2030 on January 26, 2021. CEO Kim Doyeon explained,“We plan to develop Vietnamese ChatGPT and Large Language Model (LLM) by 2025, and are also promoting support measures for data centers and local clouds.” As the
Vietnamese government has revealed its will to invest in AI, NVIDIA and SoftBank are also moving quickly. In December last year, NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang visited the National Innovation Center (NIC) Hoa Lac Campus in Hanoi and attended working level meetings between the government, local governments, and local companies. SoftBank Chairman Son Masayoshi is also actively pursuing cooperation with Vietnam.
CEO Kim Do-Yeon said, “I understand that when Chairman Jensen Huang visited, he gave us the H100 as a sample. In addition, Chairman Son is said to be discussing plans to establish a special purpose company to purchase a large quantity of Nvidia GPUs through bank loans, following his investment in Sendo, Vietnam’s largest open market. It is expected that this special purpose company will lease the purchased Nvidia GPUs to Softbank,” he explained. “Chairman Son has not focused much on investing in generative AI startups in the past year, and has hardly participated in startup fundraising activities,” Kim added.
A market with many languages and many variables that don't open your wallet
In order for Korean companies to advance into Vietnam, a socialist country, partnerships with local companies are essential. In addition, Vietnam has a slower pace of technological development than Korea, uses various regional languages, and requires disclosure of source code when collaborating on technology, so there are some caveats. Vietnam's GDP in 2023 is expected to be 433.7 billion dollars, which is significantly lower than Korea's GDP (1.665 trillion dollars).
CEO Kim Do-yeon said, "The Vietnamese government has a strong will to make AI independent. There are three basic languages in Vietnam, but if you include dialects, there are about 100. That's why ChatGPT does not understand Vietnamese properly." He added, "Just as we need Naver's HyperClova X in Korea, it is difficult for AI from American companies to solve this problem." In fact, there are so-called 'Vietnamese GPTs' in Vietnam, such as △VIGPT (development of VinBigData), △PhoGPT (development of VinAI, a subsidiary of Vingroup), and △Zalo AI KILM (launched by internet unicorn VNG Group).
However, it was also said that AI chatbots, which require huge infrastructure costs, are difficult to succeed in Vietnam. CEO Kim added, “Local IPTV in Vietnam costs $3 per month, while Netflix costs around $11. Since Vietnam’s consumer price index is much lower than that of advanced countries, Netflix is often shared by 10 or more people with one account. It is also difficult for AI chatbots to succeed as paid services, so the market share of local GPTs is very low.”
AI call center, AI education collaboration worth trying
Accordingly, CEO Kim Doyeon emphasized that linking with the local Vietnamese Large Language Model (LLM) is essential for successful market entry by Korean companies. He said, “Currently, the foreign companies that dominate the Vietnamese IT market are not Google, MS, or Amazon, but IBM and Oracle.” He also said, “Without IBM and Cisco, Vietnamese banks cannot operate properly.”
He continued, “Vietnam has complicated feelings toward the United States, but is still highly dependent on American companies.” He explained, “When Korean companies develop ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) software tailored to the Vietnamese market, it is essential to not only localize the language, but also link the latest Vietnamese tax information, customer center solutions, CS analysis, and data analysis with localized Vietnamese AI.”
He cited AI call centers and AI education as key areas in which Korean companies can collaborate in Vietnam. He said, “The concept of a call center has not yet taken hold in Vietnam. For example, services like the AI concierge in Myeongdong, Korea, could be a great success in Vietnam,” he said. “To this end, it would be worth considering operating an AICC (Artificial Intelligence Call Center) in cooperation with local companies, or collaborating with Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology, which has opened an online AI course.” He also said,
“When Korean companies develop AI, it is also valuable to collaborate with Vietnamese companies on tasks such as AI labeling required to create learning data,” adding, “Technology development should be done in Korea, but language support should be integrated with a Vietnamese-oriented LLM (Large-Scale Language Model).”
Cre: Edaily Korea
Vietnam IT 블로거, TechValley Vietnam 대표
📧 기술 문의 : patrick@techvalley.biz | 💬 go2hanoi (카카오톡) @patrickdykim (Telegram)
