Tracy Phan on Vietnam’s Mobile Gaming Boom: Community, Culture & What's Next

So, we are at where are we?
We are at the Google Hall of Fame dinner
and I think considering lots of mobile apps and gaming studios joining. Tracy is one of the few people who is actually back at Google now. Tell me the story. How does it feel to be back in Google show in your land?
I it's it's feels like home. So I left Google. So I was managing the um startup ecosystem for Google monetization in Vietnam specifically. So that's why here today feels like home. Um so sixish months ago the where I started to kind of like diverge a bit and relocated and now supporting the ecosystem from outside of Google. Uh but to be here and welcomed by my old friends is amazing.
How was the reactions? like I I actually just saw your like nice chat with AJ,

but I'm like curious about your feelings from today. Like let's hear from her like how do you feel and think? Um I think first of all like personally I'm super happy to meet with my friends ex colleagues
um that I love them dearly and it's also very nice cuz I work with some of the publishers in Vietnam remotely um and now to see them in person. Some of them was my ex-clients when I was at Google. I feel like at home today. Yeah
that that should be really good. Uh I'm actually like curious about your vision, thoughts, feelings about the let's call it as a bigger picture for the Vietnamese mobile gaming scene because you know you have been right in the middle of this for quite some time. Tell me about what was it before yesterday today and then afterwards we would go to tomorrow. But I just want you to depict it. How do you feel?
Right. So if you mean like yesterday,

today's and future.
Yeah.
I I do feel like in the past the Vietnamese gaming community like a lot of them are bootstrapped, right? So just finding their ways without support. Uh Google only established their office here earlier this year or late last year.
Yeah.
The Vietnam gaming studios and app studios did it all by themselves. Right. so bush strapped without any funding they also kind of like pick up and learn how to design, how to publish, how to monetize games and now with the support of like big partners like Google I think that is a great scene for the whole industry that's a great signal and you're here today right so that means the world's paying attention to the Vietnamese gaming ecosystem and with that support and I think future future collaboration. I think I'm super optimistic about the future. I would say

when 3 5 years ago people see for example on LinkedIn or website Vietnam they were like not different but now like data from Vietnam this is happening or even like Google apps summit Vietnam they're like oh like let me because it's like big emerging markets and apart from that as you mentioned like it's the ecosystem is more compact like literally compact than ever and I would like to actually circle it more to the ecosystem and community itself self. What kind of community are we talking about comparing especially Europe or like Turkey, you know?
So, I I can speak for the Vietnam community and then maybe you can compare it. So, in Vietnam game and art community, it's very close-knit, right? So, they hang out together, you know, like all the studios, they're very friendly to each other. They even have their own football league. So, football is really big in Vietnam.
Wow. they have their own pickle ball league and like beert and things like

that. So it's very close-knit community. uh and sometimes like in Vietnam we love going out for a beer after work and that's how a lot of founders met each other and I know like from my story so I was supporting this startup they were like seven people back in the time and through like an event that grew through and after the beer they got you know like fund from a bigger studio and now they grow to I think 70 people and now one of the biggest non-gaming partners in Vietnam So that's how like the community actually support each other and like I said very close-knit and I I do feel like it's very refreshing to see that. Do you see that like spirit differ in the west
to be honest? I would say of course we should like uh you know uh tell the differences between like west insides of them. So like for example Turkey and

Germany are like two different planets. Yeah. I would say specifically for Turkey it's like really aggressive now to be honest like because you know consolidated oversaturated market is like just adding extra work and I would even say like you know many startups now are okay with like working long hours etc. circling back to what you mentioned. There is actually no room for okay like you know let's uh chill and uh so
oh okay so I didn't mean that like startups here are chill so Vietnamese are one of the
like most hardworking people
how much
like so if you ask the sea level here like on the weekend they still pick up cones from us or they still ping us hey Tracy there is something wrong with my game yeah exactly So, so they get deep and dirty into the work even at C level and very hardwork.

Um, so a lot of students here work throughout um Saturday as well. Um, but what I meant with the community spirit is that even though working hard, they still fight time to like connect to each other and really build a uniqueness of their gaming and app community that I don't see like similar to other industries.
Yeah.
Yeah. Actually, that's that's really well said. Um, and I think like in Turkey relatively we have this uh, let's say getting along outside culture very much too. Let's enjoy dinner, you know, like I I think maybe the common uh, biggest common stuff would be here the food uh because
I I even don't want to compare like Vietnamese food cuisine and ours. So that helps. I think when the food is good, you are just let's do business. Let's partner up and like uh
of course we are super proud of our food as well and you should try a lot when you're here
already like 100,000 satisfied.
Yeah.
What is next? Specifically, let's chat

about next year. We already see the growth. Okay. And uh as you mentioned, we are all here because it's a big emerging market. So what is awaiting us from Vietnam? because that will be something big.
Yeah. So I think the recent kind of like boom that we're seeing in Vietnam, a lot of it on download number.
If you look at revenue number, I think it's the story is a bit different. So there are some studios that successfully um like kind of going hybrid and get more revenue from the AP side, but majority of the studios still rely on ad monetization. Um and I think next year what I'm excited for is more success story similar to what I came did with um like screw them right and more private on that but to get people from gaming industry to pivot into more sustainable or long-term uh genre. Uh, Vietnam really need more funding so that the

publishers, the studio can really just focus on building product and not having to worry too much about day-to-day cash flow. There's something that I'm super excited for. Not so much next year, but in the next few years,
I hope that we gonna have like a great exit just like um pick games in Turkey. uh when we have a big exit, I think that would kind of like snowball through more startups in the ecosystem like with Pine Games, Grand Games, right? And more people trying to like break into I guess more sustainable.
Yeah. Just long-term hybrid or AP um segments. I think that's so fair because like we also earlier had this chat about investment scene like yeah it has been booming but why then nobody this question is for VCs if it's booming just

invest why why aren't you investing
I still I've been talking to so one of my passion projects is actually getting funding to Vietnamese studios so I've been talking to a couple of VC as well uh one I think it's very new um the VC scene into Vietnam. So there's culture and language barrier, right? And on the studio end, I think the Vietnamese culture is very interesting in a sense that if you ask founders, they don't build to sell as and it's not of yet and they don't build to raise fund, but they actually want to build something sustainable and profitable first. So that's something I want to kind of like educate and change in the industry and hopefully we want to see more of that in the next few years. Money, there's more money ready to be invested through Vietnam. But there are a couple of barriers that both on the de developers end and their funding VC ends that need

to be kind of like past that point.
Yeah. Kind of step by step
logic. Then okay uh I would like to like finalize our chats with uh specifically considering all your like expertise network etc. I would like you to depict the future in the like most optimistic side. Imagine it's like VCs are fully in perfect investment scene. the vision already came to like really good level globally and beyond that you know all these like IA transition to IAP are done now it's just growing more and more thing would it be do you think like Turkish scene or like would it be just like different world like China stuff or how do you feel
that's a very difficult question here I think personally uh I do see the Vietnam since probably lends a little bit of China and a little bit for Turkey, right? So, we will be seeing um you know

more investment flowing to Vietnam. We will hopefully see some exit in the market.
But also in Vietnam, so you heard of China um like mini game. Oh yeah. Right. In Vietnam, we have like a platform like Zallo. They're also investing in mini games as well. Their own like the Vietnamese ecosystem too. That's why I said a little bit like Turkey when it come to global and exporting but also investing in the domestic market because it's also one of the I think highest growth domestic market as well.
Very well said. Okay. So I just want you to go for free shots you know like people listening to this uh would get the final words from you both Vietnamese studios or like developers people and globally. Do you have anything to add over there?
One, uh, Vietnamese studios are amazing. If you want to actually learn about Vietnamese games you've seen, be here in

Vietnam. Like try to get an understand of the culture and also try Vietnamese food.
Yeah.
And for the Vietnamese students out there, um, I would say be more curious and dream bigger. Uh, you can definitely reach the global stage. There's no time that is too soon to talk with an investor. Even if you don't see yourself taking VC money anytime soon, just go and talk and make friends with people around the world. And I think that's where you get, you know, the expertise, knowhow, the network for when you're ready, then you can leverage that.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Very well said. So what was Thank you. G.
Gam.