What Facebook learned from rural Vietnam about chat-based e-commerce
Facebook has been researching new consumer patterns in Vietnam’s rural areas and learned a lot about the potential of chat-based e-commerce in the area.
Summary
- Facebook is picking up on consumer habits in rural Vietnam. Consumer engagement of chat-based online shopping is gaining traction in the region and Facebook would like to continue and capitalize on it.
- Vietnam, along with Thailand and Indonesia are among Facebook’s biggest and most significant markets.
As sections of its ad business stagnate, media platform behemoth Facebook is studying from rural regions in Vietnam about how to connect users and online businesses through chat and video services.
For several years, conversation-based digital retail has been growing rapidly in the Southeast Asian area, echoing a development of online purchasing that has grown prevalent in more emerging nations around the region and worldwide.
Developing rural economies in Southeast Asia are becoming acclimated to communicating with online vendors using chat platforms like Facebook and WeChat. Vietnam, alongside Thailand and Indonesia, are among Facebook’s top significant markets. Just about all of Facebook’s income comes from online marketing, with Vietnam being the largest revenue source in Southeast Asia. Despite the fact that 62 million of the nation’s 98 million people live in rural areas, they predict that internet expenditure will rise faster in this sector than in metropolitan areas.
Fully aware of its own largest regional general market-changing consumer preferences, Facebook will focus on a range of content formats to boost engagement in Vietnam, namely live broadcasting, TV series on Facebook Watch, etc. Such streaming alternatives will coexist with Facebook’s chat capability to supplement e-commerce offers, be it texting remarks to a retailer during a Facebook broadcast or asking queries through Facebook Messenger, live merchant, or AI-powered chatbots.
Large companies like Facebook have already a large reach to global users. To be able to expand they would have to focus on those who aren’t expected to use their platform. Their inclusivity and research will allow them to target a larger audience and transform their platform.
