My 2009 Predictions for web in Vietnam

For me, 2008 was an eventful year with many incredible things. They’re really inspirational. To begin a new-year writing, here are my predictions for web in Vietnam next year. Feel free to comment and contribute to my list:

• Vietnamese bloggers will move to other blogging platforms when Yahoo! shutdown Yahoo! 360 which is the most popular blogging service in Vietnam now. The best choices are services based on Wordpress.
• Bloggers will be affected by the new blogging rules. Some bloggers may be held because of their violations as in the circular which has been released by Vietnamese goverment.
• User-generated content will move to other forms beside blogging, maybe podcast and video podcast. And the quality will be improved. Users will care more for authority,…
• The war among SNS in Vietnam is just beginning and we will not be able to know which will win next year. But they will compete with Facebook directly when it comes to Vietnam (It’s really coming). More niche SNS will be launched.
• Wifi will be everywhere in big cities and services in mobile will grow, from sms-based to something like mobile social networks.
• Not any significant movement in Vietnamese search engines.
• Economic crisis will affect VC and start-ups financing. Some services like products search, price comparison will be launched. E-Commerce will grow but still slowly.
• Social media (Blog, Social news, Wiki,…) will prove its role in media revolution in Vietnam.
• Online advertising will grow rapidly and more professional.
• Some big companies will come and do something for online market in Vietnam as Youtube did when they have put their servers in Vietnam to improve the loading speed for Vietnamese users.