1.
MOBILE OUTLOOK
for 2015
ANNUAL REPORT
2014

2.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
2014 IN NUMBERS
Tracking the year’s most important
mobile stories and figures
THE OUTLOOK FOR 2015
Anticipated mobile trends for 2015
03
13
MOBILE DIRECTORY
All the name you need to know
for mobile publishing and mobile business
in Vietnam
21

3.
2014 in numbersTracking the year’s most important mobile stories and figures15
50%
$

4.
01
4
A MOBILE TIMELINE
Mobile stories in Vietnam and the world in 2014

5.
5
JAN FEB MAR
Plays a huge impact
on indie games
and clone games
$900 million
is the price for Viber
Believing that virtual reality
is the next big thing after
mobile
Retweeted 3.3 million
times, sponsored by
Samsung
$7.1 billion
$22 billion
makes WhatsApp the
most expensive chat app
in history
Flappy Bird
phenomenon
Rakuten buys
Viber
Facebook buys
whatsApp
Facebook buys
Oculus Rift
Oscar Selfie
Candy Crush
mobile game
maker IPO
A lot of successful titles
are released through out
this year
Mobile game
surge in Vietnam

6.
6
APR
Google Glass
Explore Edition
availble to buy
Though the glass is
considered 2014
fascinating failure
Apple buys
Beats Audio
It remains unclear how
Beats will play in iDevice
in the future
Apple introduces Swift
A new developer platform
for iOS and iOS X
WeChat subjects
to censorship
from authorities
84% of mobile internet
users in China using
WeChat each month
Samsung and Apple
Call patent truce outside
US
Heartbleed
security flaw
Hits a billion
smartphone users
Amazon unveils
Fire Phone
Apple unveils
iOS 8
Google releases
Android Wear
First smartphone from
Amazon
Android-based OS for
smartwatch and
smartwear device
MAY JUN

7.
7
JUL
Facebook removes
messaging from
main app
The first non-Google app
hit 1 billion installs on
Google Play.
It reaches 500 million
users by the end of 2014
Apple unveils
Apple watch and
iPhone 6+
Apple’s first smartwatch
and phablet
Google releases
SDK for Cardboard
Vietnam’s first
social network for
mobile gaming
Virtual reality glasses
made from cardboard
for Android users
onClan, a Vietnamese
social network for
mobile gaming
AUG SEP

8.
8
Google rolls out
Android L and
Material Design
Vietnam exports
the first online
mobile game
Microsoft drops
Nokia brand
for Lumia
Captain Strike,
the first Vietnamese
online mobile game
exported to
global market
OCT
Microsoft surprises
the market
Vietnam’s number one
chat app
with free Office for iPad
Reaches the milestone
of 20 million users
Vietnam gets its first
mobile carrier’s
chat app
Vinaphone releases
chat app VietTalk
NOV DEC

9.
9
02
MARKET SNAPSHOT2014’s most important mobile figures in Vietnam

10.
10
14,000
15,000
apps
Source: Appota, VNG, IDC, TechinAsia
Source: Appota
AndroidiOS
22,000,000+Smartphone user base
Smartphone
penetration
23.25%
Mobile developers
DEVICE190M+
downloads
41%
59%
56%
44%

11.
Although iOS has seen many
issues and security breach in
the late 2014, iOS 8 market
share is increasing.
Vietnamese users do not
care so much about such a
fuss but having themselves
the latest Apple devices.
By the end of 2014, Kitkat
surpassed JB to become the
most used mobile OS.
The latest Android OS, Lollipop
has much higher penetration rate
compared to Kitkat’s after the
first 3 months, 16% to 5%
accordingly.
Android smartphone/tablet ratio is much more stable compared to that in iOS. In the last
quarter of 2014, iPhone 4 users have slightly increased because of the price drop in
almost all mobile stores in the country.
Growth of Android
Device share
Growth of iOS
DEVICE
Q2/2013 Q1/2014 Q2/2014 Q3/2014 Q4/2014
100%
80
60
40
20
0
Other
ICS
JB
Kitkat
Lollipop
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
Q2/2013 Q1/2014 Q2/2014 Q3/2014 Q4/2014
iPhone 4
Tablet
iPhone 5
iPod
100%
50%
0%
Q2/2013 Q1/2014 Q2/2014 Q3/2014 Q4/2014
Smartphone
Tablet
Android
11
Q2/2013 Q1/2014 Q2/2014 Q3/2014 Q4/2014
100%
80
60
40
20
0
iOS 5.x
iOS 6.x
iOS 7.x
iOS 8.x
iOS

12.
BEHAVIOUR
3G USAGE
3G connection by operators
Wifi connection by ISP
12
AndroidiOS
19,700,000+3G users
Viettel
70%
60%
Mobiphone
20%
27%
Vinaphone
10%
13%
Viettel 3G is the most popular
operators for 3G connection on
smartphone. Interestingly, iPhone
users have a tendency to use
more Mobiphone 3G than their
Android counterparts.
However, total 3G traffic only
accounts for 16% of total mobile
connection traffic.
25%
19%
39%
FPT VNPT Viettel
1%
VDC
Source: Q3/2014 Ministry of Communication and Information
Source: Q4/2014 Appota

13.
BEHAVIOUR
WHICH DEVICES ARE USED TO PLAY GAMES
DOWNLOADS BY CATEGORIES
MOBILE GAMING ACTIVITIES DURING THE DAY
Smartphone/tablet usage in playing games by users
As percentage of total games, apps downloads in 2014
Activities by average CCU
13
00:00 02:00 04:00 06:00 08:00 10:00 12:00 14:00 16:00 18:00 20:00 22:00 23:59
play game download app
late night past midnight noon early afternoon early evening evening
91%
09%
Android
73%
27%
iOS
Smartphone is major device
for mobile gaming. In terms
of tablet gaming, iPads are
more favourite than Android
tablets. One fourth of iDevice
users play games on their
iPad while only 9% of
Android users play games
on tablet.
Games are the most
downloaded contents on
smartphone, accounting for
58% of total downloads,
increased by 10% compared
to same quarter last year.
Most of mobile gamers play
games in the evening,
around 8pm - 11pm. After
midnight is usually time for
hard core players. During
day time, mobile gaming
activities are less than
downloading games and
apps.
27% Other
Entertainment
Game
15%
58%

14.
The outlook for 2015Anticipated mobile trends in 201515
50%
$

15.
15
MESSAGING WAR RAGE ON
Messaging apps heat up in 2014. Globally, WhatsApp is
the fastest growing chat app and also has the biggest
registered users, cap at 700M users and is closing in on
its 1 billion users. LINE follows at 2nd place with 560M
and Facebook Messenger gets 3rd place with 500M
users.
Messaging apps users growth
In Vietnam, until the end of 2014, Zalo reached the
milestone of 22,000,000 registered users, become the
most popular chat app in Vietnam.
Vinaphone became the first mobile operator to
release its own chat app named VietTalk, after a long
tiring battle with OTT providers. The outcome is yet to
be seen, however, it will be worth to see whether the
tide turn between operators and OTT providers in the
coming year.
22,000,000users
0
100m
200m
300m
400m
500m
600m
700m
800m
WeChat
LINE
Kakao
Zalo
WhatsApp
Viber
700M
560M
LINE
450M
500M 438M

16.
Source: Industries websites
$250M
$600M
$700M
$600M Launched
01/2015
12/2014 12/2014
12/2014
01/2015
16
TAXI BOOKING BATTLE HEAT UP
Similar to chat apps, taxi booking apps are also drawn in OTT battle.
In Vietnam, Grab Taxi and Uber, up to the moment, are the most popular taxi booking
apps. Though both have just recenty entered the market, the government has struggled
in applying regulations toward this new business model.
It is rumored that a new taxi booking app is under development by Ho Chi Minh City
Department of Transportation, will go head on with other foreign counterparts, though it
will take some time for the app to roll out, it is now noticable that government starts to
take mobile business seriously.
Major investment deal in taxi booking apps in Asia in Q4/2014

17.
17
2014 has witnessed the surge of mobile
games in Vietnam.
In terms of casual, after Flappy Bird, many
titles has also gained success and was
recognized in global market. Some names
include: School Cheater from Buoi Studio,
Jump Jump from M.D Studo, Ninja
Revenge from Divmob,... and a lot more.
Online mobile games also saw a new
movement when Vietnamese studios start-
ed exporting their games outside Vietnam.
Captain Strike from JOY and Magic Stamp
from AVA are the first to do so.
Compared to others markets in region,
although Vietnam stands at 3rd place in
games revenue growth, after Indonesia and
Thailand, its mobile games segment is the
fastest growing in Southeast Asia, seeing an
impressive annual growth rate of 87.7%
According to Newzoo, mobile games
revenues in Vietnam will reach $161.6M in
2017, accounted for more than half of all
domestic games revenues.
EXPLOSIVE MOBILE GAME GROWTH
$14M
$36.5M
$67.4M
$106.1M
$161.6M
2013 2014 2015 2016 2017
Growth of mobile games
In revenues 2013-2017
Some succesful casual game titles in 2014
Source: Newzoo

18.
18
MORE ONLINE GAMES GOING GLOBAL
Studios and mobile game developers catch the rising tide in bringing their games outside
Vietnam. Things are going well for casual games and indie developers, however, online
mobile game studios are still hesitate due to the challenges in operational cost and market.
He also stated that Vietnamese
online mobile games are as good as
other regional competitors’. If studios
are confident enough to make good
games, no copy-cat, then there is no
worry to not give it a try.
According to Le Giang Anh, CEO of
JOY Entertainment - Captain Strike’s
game maker, E-sport has a high
chance to be the trend for gMO this
year. E-sport game is easy to play,
more populous, fits with wider
gamer taste and therefore, safer to
publish than other genres.
1,000,000
Downloads 3Top Free App on
AppStore and
Google Play in countries
After the first 3 months
“There are not many challenges bringing online game to
global market. The whole points are quality and content.
Meaning, if your product is user-oriented and different to
others, then go for it! Do not become a copy cat, there’s
always better clones than yours.”
CEO JOY Entertainment
LE GIANG ANH
Later 2014, JOY Entertainment are the first to publish their games in Southeast Asia and have
received good feedbacks from the market. Since there are proven case studies, more studios will
be bold enough to bring their online games outside Vietnam.

19.
19
WINDOWS PHONE MIGHT BE A CONSIDERATION FOR 2015
Small traction for success
Windows phone’s market share is much smaller than
iOS’s and Android’s. Although the OS is attracting more
users, resulted in the increasing demand of Windows
Phone gamers, the traction is not big enough to become
fruitful for developers.
In 2014, developers took little to no interest in making
games for platforms other than iOS and Android. A more
worrying issue for Windows Phone is slow update.
Developers are not updating the Windows Phone app as
frequently as the iOS or Android counterparts, leading to
apps still on their first or second update.
Windows 10
It will be interesting to see how Microsoft plans to make
Windows 10 work as a single, unified OS that works
across all phones, tablets and PCs. It is expected that
Windows 10 might just help to turn the tide in Microsoft’s
favour, then developer’s.
In conclusion, Windows Phone proved even less success in 2014
than 2013, however it is still a growing entity that mobile game
publishers should consider to tap into.
In Vietnam market, Mong Vo Lam, and Dai Minh Chu,… are the first
online games to go live on Windows Phone platform.

20.
20
RETAILERS AND BRANDS CARE FOR THEIR MOBILE WEB AND APPS
Brands use mobile apps for their marketing
campaign.. Retailers use apps to promote sales,
and do customer service. Either way, mobile is
growing its “mobile first” impact in business,
regardless of industry.
Some recognized campaing using mobile apps:
Selfie to Self V, Castrol Drive on, Unilever Clear, My
Kool Vietnam,..
Brands and retailers
have plenty of option
to make their
specialized apps. One
of the recommended
method and also the
most effective is
through outsourcing
platform such as:
Applancer.net or
Vlance.vn which are
the most common
one in Vietnam.
Retailes and brands go back to basic. They will care more for their mobile web
and apps.
“2014 is considered to be the starting year of mobile
marketing campaign. At Smarties Award 2014, MMA
has received over 70 campaigns. There was many that
show the mobile potential in creativity and connectivity,
name a few: Selfie to Self-V, Castrol-Drive On,
Unilever-Clear - My Kool Vietnam,…
Based on needs, brands usually make mobile app to
work on certain campaigns. The purposes vary from
branding, promoting new product, customer servicing,
or acquring new users. For brands and corporate,
mobile apps are targeted to their customers, providing
them updated product info, promotion events.The final
purpose it to build the “loyalty” program. This strategy
can be seen as an effective long term method to
increase engaging brand.
Number of specialized mobile apps are indeed to grow
in 2015 together with the growing campaign utilize
mobile.”
COUNTRY DIRECTOR
MOBILE MARKETING ASSOCIATION VIETNAM
PHAN BICH TAM
Some specialize mobile app from brands

21.
Mobile directoryAll the names you need to know for mobile publishing and mobile business in Vietnam
15
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22.
22
MOBILE AD-NETWORK
MOBILE PAYMENT PLATFORM
MOBILE DISTRIBUTION PLATFORM
MOBILE APP OUTSOURCING PLATFORM

23.
www.appota.com
About Appota
Appota is Vietnam’s number-one mobile content
distribution platform that allows developers and
game publishers to effectively distribute their
content to the largest smartphone communities
in South-East Asia (where Vietnam currently
accounts for 17 million users). The company
has partnered with over 10,000 developers and
advertisers worldwide, including NHN, Kakao,
Line, Metaps, InMobi, VNG, VTC Online and FPT
Online to bring highly localized content to end
users.
Contact us
Email: sale@appota.com
Tel: 04-3 519 1616
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