WORDS ON THE STREET 70th anniversary of Hanoi's Liberation Day Vietnam - Asia 2023 Smart City Summit Hanoi celebrates 15 years of administrative boundary adjustment 12th Vietnam-France decentrialized cooperation conference 31st Sea Games - Vietnam 2021 Covid-19 Pandemic
Oct 30, 2017 / 14:22

One of Germany largest media groups keeps seeking investment chance in Vietnam

Hubert Burda Media has poured US$ 14 million in Vietnam-based search engine developer Coc Coc Ltd since 2015.

Talking about the investment in Vietnam-based startup Coc Coc, Peter Kennedy, Chairman of Hubert Burda Media in Asia affirms the satisfaction with this investment when Coc Coc take full advantage from it to become one of the most prestigious search engine in Vietnam.
According to Statcounter analysis, by the September 2017, Coc Coc is the second most accessed web browser in Vietnam with 26.62 percent of total users. Taking the first place in the list is Chrome with 58.74 percent and following is Firefox 7.75 percent, Safari 2.38 percent, Internet Explorer 2.24 percent and Opera with 0.96 percent.
Answering VietnamPlus, Chairman Peter Kennedy highly appreciate Vietnam market as an attractive investment hub with strong online community. Beside Coc Coc, Hubert Burda Media is seeking cooperation with other Vietnam-based online service supplying start-ups. However, one of the conditions is that the partner must release minimum revenue of one million USD/year. Le Van Thanh, co-founder of Coc Coc said, the web browser is currently serving more than 20 million users. The developer applied useful tools to improve the quality such as grammatical error automatic solved, dictionary, fast download speed (can download mp3 file from video), shopping suggestion…etc.
The co-founder also briefs that Coc Coc accounts for 20 percent of Vietnam online commercial ads market, just behind Google and Facebook. Until the early 2017, the company reach balance in initial investment capital and revenue. Besides the new product to be lanched by 2018, Coc Coc’s target is to strengthen its position in domestic market.
Le Van Thanh, co-founder of Coc Coc and Peter Kennedy, Chairman of Hubert Burda Media in Asia during one news conference
Le Van Thanh, co-founder of Coc Coc and Peter Kennedy, Chairman of Hubert Burda Media in Asia during one news conference
On 2015, Coc Coc co Ltd, the Vietnam-based search engine developer confirmed that it has received an investment of $14 million from Germany’s media platform Hubert Burda. The money was disbursed to the Vietnamese startup within 18 months.
The German investment deal, therefore, brings the figure to a total of $34 million. Hubert Burda Media assists Coc Coc in expanding in the domestic online marketing segment while helping it launch its products in the Asian market. At that time, according to the company, the number subscribers using Coc Coc Search had touched the 23 million mark. In addition to the search engine tool, the company plans to develop apps for mobile devices and expand to other markets in the region, including Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia. Hubert Burda Media, a well-known investor in the e-commerce industry, is one of Germany’s largest media groups, owning more than 400 printed and online publications.
Coc Coc launched the Coc Coc Internet browser in 2013. Other products include Coc Coc Search, mobile location app Nha Nha and Coc Coc advertising platform. Currently, its Internet browser ranks after Google Chrome in the Vietnamese search tool market share. The company was founded by three Vietnamese graduates from Moscow State University, Russia – Nguyen Thanh Binh, Le Van Thanh and Nguyen Duc Ngoc. The enterprise was initially funded by Yandex, a search tool with 60 per cent market share in Russia; Mail.ru Group – the world’s seventh largest Internet company in terms of traffic; and Digital Sky Technologies, which gave Facebook an investment round of $200 million.