Capitalism in Vietnam, the next generation
HANOI - From the moment Vuong Vu Thang sat down at a computer to play ``Prince of Persia,'' he was hooked. He started spending all his lunch money at the Internet cafe.
``Using the computer always made me so excited that eating didn't seem very important,'' Thang said. ``I didn't care about anything else.''
It showed. He failed computer class, skipped his night classes and placed dead last in a prestigious national math competition -- writing software for classmates instead of hitting the books.
Now, at the ripe old age of 24, Thang is one of Vietnam's brightest software stars, part of an emerging group of computer whizzes who hope to put their country on the high-tech map. They are part of a new generation of private entrepreneurs trying to make their mark in any field where opportunity beckons.
His goals are unabashedly grand: ``I want to become Microsoft, Yahoo and AOL all rolled into one.''
Thang owns an online newspaper (www.tintucvietnam.com) and a Web forum (www.ttvnonline.net), both of which cater to a burgeoning youth market thirsty for new information about lifestyle and social issues. He and a group of like-minded techies recently merged their three companies into a new corporation called DTT, whose subsidiaries include the Hanoi-based Cisco Academy, where teachers certified by San Jose's Cisco Systems train Vietnamese students in computer networking.
Thang made headlines two years ago when the communist government, upset by a political posting on his site, shut down the forum just months after it had been honored as Vietnam's most popular. These days, he walks a fine line, trying to develop innovative content while appeasing a government that closely monitors the Internet.
Like millions of other teenagers around the globe, Thang loved computer games. But he also had a burning desire -- and an uncanny ability -- to understand the inner workings of the computers themselves.
He bought a translation of ``Inside Your PC,'' by Peter Norton of Norton Antivirus fame, and soon started executing DOS commands. In no time, he was writing file-sharing software good enough for his classmates to use.
Buckling down
But when his computer obsession caused his studies to unravel, Thang decided it was time to get serious.
He bought the Vietnamese translation of ``The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People'' by Stephen R. Covey. He delved into Eastern philosophy. He buckled down.
He won the national math competition -- twice.
``I learned that there is no limit to what I can accomplish, as long as I try my best,'' said Thang, who speaks excellent English even though he used to skip English class in favor of the Net cafe.
When he was 16, Thang's parents had to make a choice: Use their hard-earned savings to buy him a computer, or buy themselves a motorbike so they wouldn't have to battle the Hanoi traffic on bicycles.
``They bought me a computer,'' Thang said, ``and they say it's the best decision they ever made.''
Thang's 69-year-old father, a university professor, has never been online. His mother, an administrator at the Ho Chi Minh Museum, made her first foray this month.
When Thang enrolled at the Hanoi National University in 1997, he already knew more about computers than his teachers did. In his first year, he started consulting for computer companies on the side, including two New Jersey companies, Visionary Software and Paragon Solutions.
As a student, he was earning about $400 a month -- twice his family's income -- and gave it all to his parents.
In his last year of university, he and two friends started their own software company, VVT Innovative Solutions, which owns Thang's Web forum, Trai Tim Viet Nam Online -- ``The Heart of Vietnam.''
He and several friends left promotional fliers on every bicycle and motorbike at every high school and university in Hanoi. Soon, the site had about 30 core members.
That group has grown to about 1,000 people, who moderate forums on provocative topics like ``Living Together Before Marriage,'' an incendiary idea in this conservative society.
With his tousled hair and baby face, Thang still could pass for a high-school student, even in his grown-up gray business suit and tie. But his work has already caught the eye of a Silicon Valley magnate who fled Vietnam in a small boat 20 years ago: Trung Dung, chief executive of Fogbreak, a San Ramon software company.
``I'm looking for the kind of cream-of-the-crop software development talent that Thang represents,'' said Dung, whose first company, OnDisplay, sold for $1.8 billion five years ago.
The software Thang designed to produce his online paper claimed Vietnam's national software development prize, which he has won twice. Impressed by Thang's Web site, Dung has invited him to California to discuss possible collaborations.
Shut down
Dung liked the site better before the government chilled the political discussion.
The government shut down the site after someone left a sensitive posting about democracy. The official reason for the closing: Thang had not received government permission to operate the site.
He spent four months negotiating with bureaucrats. After he agreed to collaborate with Thanh Nien, a government-owned newspaper, they let him fire the site back up.
Now forum visitors are greeted by a notice informing them that it is a ``non-political'' site, and Thang has written a program to enforce the ``no politics'' decree.
Anytime someone leaves a posting including sensitive words such as ``democracy'' or ``communism,'' the software alerts the 200 members who voluntarily monitor the site. If the posting is deemed unacceptable, they delete it.
A pragmatist, Thang is willing to accept limits on free expression -- if that's what it takes to keep his site up and running. That's just the way things are in Vietnam, he said.
But the censors are indulgent when it comes to young love.
Many of the Web forum's 150,000 members have struck up online romances and the site will soon include a dating service.
Thang found his girlfriend through the music forum four years ago. A classical-music fan with the nickname ``Beethoven,'' he left an admiring post about ``The Moonlight Sonata'' that impressed a young Hanoi pianist.
Thang's other online venture, Tin Tuc Vietnam, covers social issues and has fewer stories chronicling the every move of high government officials -- the standard fare of Vietnam's government-owned print newspapers.
The Communist Party daily certainly can't match one of Tin Tuc's most popular features: a fashion page with pictures of scantily clad models.
Because it's privately owned, the paper is not allowed to produce its own news accounts. It uses a mix of reports from the government-owned media and reprints from foreign media. The staff writes its own fashion and music pieces.
Thang expects the paper to turn a small profit this year. His software company, meanwhile, has already lined up $1 million worth of contracts for 2004.
Thang views entrepreneurs, who create jobs and help build the economy, as patriots, a perspective increasingly shared by the government.
``That's the reason I wanted to go into business -- to change the image of businessmen in Vietnam,'' said Thang, who employs about 100 people. ``If I can expand my business into the international market, that is something that Vietnamese people can feel proud of.''
By Ben Stocking - The Mercury news - May 02, 2004.
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