Vingroup, the uber-successful Vietnamese conglomerate recently celebrated a milestone occasion with the launch of new business in Ho Chi Minh city. The enterprise which boasts the title of the most valued listed company is now looking to make forays into the smartphone industry.

Speaking to reporters, Nguyen Viet Quang, the CEO, shared that their focus at present is to invest in the research of emergent technologies. He added that by focusing on growth, they would be better placed in promoting the Vietnamese brand to the world.

In December, Vingroup broke ground after they conceptualized 4 new smartphone models.

With the phones going under the tagline Vsmart, the company has expressed excitement about the prospects in the market. Ideally, they’ll be looking to tap into markets abroad like Spain and Russia.

In their home market, Vingroup has favourably adjusted prices to lie in the range between $107 and $270. Since the local currency is the dong, this figure translates to about 2.49-6.29 million dong.

Kenny Liew, the telecommunications honcho at Fitch Solutions expressed that he doesn’t expect Vinsmart to directly compete with pricier models like Apple products and popular brands like Samsung. Still, he affirmed that he’s quite optimistic that Vinsmart will leave an imprint in the market and make profits while at it.

Liew pointed out that Vinsmart were at an advantage at present because of their easily accessible retail outlets in the country. The 1,200 convenient stores and supermarket chains are evidence to this claim.

Expanding

During a press brief, the conglomerate divulged that they have a considerable stake, in the 51 percentage in BQ, the popular Spanish smartphone manufacturers. With the company based in Madrid, BQ has continually been expanding by taking cues from other popular smartphone makers like China’s Xiaomi.

More specifically, they’ve modelled their operations to produce smartphones with high-end features whilst catering to the crowd by keeping prices in the pocket-friendly range.

By operating as VinSmart when working with BQ, the company has been able to agree on terms with Qualcomm, the famed American telecom and semiconductor establishment.

The details of the inked deal reveal that their extensive partnership involves the development of more smartphone technologies, automobiles, artificial intelligence and devices capable of supporting IoT.

While the company boasts national pride, they’re set to take on popular brands like Samsung and Apple which have quite a following around the world, not just in Vietnam.

It’s important to note that there are numerous other establishments in the country which have entered the smartphone industry. However, they’ve not been able to really take off in the same manner as the aforementioned companies. The exciting thing about the country is that there are about 93 million smartphone users in Vietnam.

In the last year, estimates compiled by Counterpoint Analysis show that Samsung championed this market with a 37 per cent stake. Following closely were Oppo at 22% and Apple at 5%.

Broader Horizons

A branch of the company responsible for automobile production, aptly named Vinfast, launched operations back in September 2017.

With their operations centred near the port city of Hanoi, Vinfast has been able to carve a niche for itself as a reputable vehicle manufacturer in Hai Phong.Since they opened their doors, they’ve come up with plans to have 5 factories in operation.

Vinfast’s target is to comfortably handle the production of 500,000 vehicles per year by 2025.

Pham Nhat Vuong, the Vingroup founder, spoke to Forbes Asia less than a year ago and specifically mentioned that they were very passionate about producing a vehicle that espouses Vietnamese culture whilst catering to the world market.

He expressly stated that they were looking to build a brand that would inspire other Vietnamese industries to up their game and step into the global stage.

Growth

The chairman stated that Vingroup remains ambitious enough to go over and above their industrial base and come up with a wide array ecosystem that consists of smart devices and other electronics. Given the fact that the company was birthed not too long ago in the 1990s, it’s quite remarkable the incredible growth that they’ve been able to oversee.

Many analysts believe that Pham is the brainchild behind the success. He’s been able to build upon the early success and create an empire that is the pride of his native country. Their operations now traverse across healthcare institutions, hotels, educational centres, real estate lots, the automobile industry, agricultural startups and retail shops.

Way back in 2013, Pham’s budding potential as a billionaire was noted by Forbes. Since his nascent years, he’s been able to make major moves that place him with a net worth of about $6.3 billion.