Just 20 percent of Vietnamese companies have registered international and local internet domain names, and the lack of web-based exposure could hurt other firms in the future, experts said at a seminar on March 28.
The seminar, held in the northern coastal city of Quang Ninh by the Vietnam Internet Network Information Centre, was titled "Protecting Vietnamese trademark with domain.vn".
According to the VNNIC, only 20 per cent of 500,000 companies in Vietnam have their own website with registered domain names.
VNNIC deputy director Tran Minh Tan said internet domain plays an important role in business operations now as it helps companies advertise themselves in the cyberworld.
"Nowadays, the success and fall of a company can partly be due to the way they do business in the internet world. I think Vietnamese businesses should consider the Internet an important part of their operation," Tan said.
The centre informed the seminar that over 90,000 new ".vn" domains were activated last year, bringing the total number of national domain names to 263,900.
The increase has helped the country keep its number one position in Southeast Asia for national domain registration and activation, it said.
Among these, domains with Vietnamese names accounted for 127,166, said the centre, which functions under the Ministry of Information and Communications.
The VNNIC said it earned revenues of 143 billion VND (6.8 million USD) from domain activation and subscription fees in 2013, exceeding its annual target by 15 percent.
According to the Ministry of Information and Communications, internet service providers (ISPs) in Vietnam earned 15 trillion VND (more than 714 million USD) in revenues last year, with 5 trillion VND (238 million USD) coming from 3G network services.
Between 2009 and 2013, the number of internet users increased by 170 percent, and broadband availability climbed 7.5 times compared with 2005-09.
Vietnam 's internet penetration is at 35.6 percent, and 40 percent of the country's online population are aged between 15 and 24, the seminar heard.
The number of internet users is expected to reach 60 million by 2018, and total revenue from internet services and content is expected to climb to 100 trillion VND (4.7 billion USD).
