The Southeast Asian internet economy has expanded by 39 per cent this year to hit US$100 billion for the first time, according to a report released by Google, Temasek and new partner Bain & Company on Thursday.

Vietnam’s internet economy is booming, as it reaches for US$12 billion in 2019 on a 38% annualized growth rate since 2015, and projected to increase to US$43 billion by 2025.

With the launch of the social network Lotus, VCCorp. is ­trying to reshape the domestic advertising market currently dominated by Facebook and Google, and to give more benefits to content creators.

Though the revised tax administration law passed by the National Assembly takes into account the management of cross-border business, charging taxes on these business activities is not a simple task.

Since the beginning of 2019, there have been three social networks established in Vietnam.

The "Vietnam Digital 4.0" program initiated by Google is to provide digital skills training courses for 500,000 workers at small and medium - sized enterprises in Vietnam.

YouTube keeps denying that it is abetting the spread of harmful videos in Vietnam, although half of its revenue comes from the advertisements running on these videos.

A stunning illustration of the ancient city of Hoi An appeared on Google.com.vn on July 16 to mark the city’s Lantern Full Moon Festival.

Google Doodle today, July 16, features the central province of Quang Nam’s Hoi An City with stunning colourful lanterns in full moonlight.

After coming under fire across the globe for tax evasion, Google finally raised its voice about the issue.

All foreign firms, especially cross-border service providers such as Google, YouTube, Facebook and the like, must comply with Vietnamese law while operating in the country, stated Minister of Information and Communications Nguyen Manh Hung.

Spending on online advertising in Vietnam in 2018 reached $550 million, including Facebook’s $235 million, Google’s $152 million, and the remaining $150 million divided among local advertising firms.

The revised Law on Tax Management, passed by the National Assembly, sets out regulations to collect taxes from Google, YouTube, Facebook and the like from July 1 next year, even if they do not open representative offices in Vietnam.

Accordingly, Google was found to loosely manage contents, not control ads on YouTube clips and Google Adsense network, allow users to buy ads directly from YouTube and Google without the involvement of domestic ads agents.

In fact, both Facebook and Google have been using content of entertainment and news articles, so thanks to this, gaining hundreds of millions of US dollars in annual advertising revenue in Vietnam.

The news that Google has canceled cooperation with Huawei has raised concern that Huawei phones cannot be updated with Android software.

Local competitors are complaining about Netflix which they claim is dodging its tax obligation and does not supervise content in line with Vietnamese laws, reported VN Investment Review.

Global tech giants namely Facebook, Google, and YouTube have deleted from its platforms a number of offensive content at the request by the Vietnamese government.

He once earned his living by picking up trash on Nhieu Loc Canal, failed the university entrance exam and had to go to intermediate school, but later got a scholarship to study in the US and obtained master’s and doctoral degrees.

 The Ministry of Information and Communications (MIC) expects Vietnamese social networks to have the number of users equivalent or higher than that of Facebook in Vietnam (60 million) and take 60 - 70% of the market by 2022.