Despite not being as bustling as Ha Noi and Ho Chi Minh City, Da Nang has been emerging as an ideal destination for young people from both home and abroad to start up their own businesses thanks to its young and dynamic startup market.

Da Nang has become a favourite destination in Southeast Asia for ‘digital nomads’

Three years ago, AntBuddy was the most famous name amongst startup projects in Da Nang with all its staff members of being young and Da Nang natives.

AntBuddy has been one of the few startups specialising in providing multi-channel and smart customer support solutions. It has developed B2B (business to business) marketing strategy which simply means that the enterprise will focus on selling products or services to other businesses rather than to consumers.

After winning the first prize at the Da Nang Start-up Fair 2016, the team AntBuddy continued perfecting their products. In late 2017, AntBuddy moved its headquarters to Ho Chi Minh City.

After nearly 3 years of its operation, AntBuddy has built a strong network of customers across Viet Nam and Myanmar. Included are California Yoga & Fitness Co., Ltd., the Ben Thanh Tourist Service Joint Stock Company, and the Nguyen Kim Trading Joint Stock Company.

Like AntBuddy, such startup projects as Zody (the application aims to help its users accumulate points when they spend money in eating and drinking establishments), and TOB (smart cradles) have been incubated in Da Nang and then have expanded into Ho Chi Minh City and Ha Noi.

Mr Bui Ngoc Vinh, the founder of the city’s IoT Space co-working venue cum Director of the city-based ST United Co., Ltd., remarked Da Nang, and the central regional localities as a whole, are small and relatively fastidious markets. Therefore, if startups’ products win the trust of customers in the central region, there is a high possibility that these businesses will attract even more customers from larger markets nationwide.

The CEO of the Da Nang Entrepreneurship Support Company Ldt (DNES), Mr Pham Duc Nam Trung, noted Da Nang is a perfect market for startup founders to test their products thanks to its population of around 1.5 million people and large number of 6 million tourist arrivals per year.

With a small-scale and relatively fastidious market, Da Nang is a good place for startups to test their products.

In reality, Da Nang has been becoming a favourite destination in Southeast Asia for ‘digital nomads’ who use telecommunications technologies to earn a living in many aspects and, more generally, conduct their lives in a nomadic manner.

Ms Lindsay Jubeck from the USA, who has many years of working as a digital nomad in Viet Nam, Indonesia, and Cambodia, said many digital nomads have tended to move from Chiang Mai, Thailand, which is one of the most inviting places for Southeast Asian digital nomads, to Da Nang.

She explained the reason that Da Nang boasts its good climate, delicious food, beautiful beaches offering a wide range of water sports, accommodation establishments at reasonable prices, lots of co-working space, and especially good Internet speed.

Mr Trung emphasised that Da Nang has many advantages to build its brand name of being an ideal place for startup incubation, and being innovation hub in the future.

“The focus should be on promoting education, developing technology and turning the city into a ‘cradle’ of knowledge and science” he added.

Meanwhile, Mr Bui Ngoc Vinh highlighted the significance of developing human resources in the city with a high-level of professional skills and proficiency in English in a bid to attract even more startups from Japan, the USA and European countries to the locality. Importance should be attached to issuing support policies for co-working spaces in the city because these places can create links with international startup resources.