Women in Media Innovation: Quynh Anh Nguyen - Group COO of Yeah1 Group & CEO of Giga1

The first public media company in Vietnam to be listed on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange, Yeah1! Group (YEG) is one of the South East Asia’s fastest-growing multi-channel media conglomerates with over 20 companies across the value chain.

Founded in 2006, Yeah1 Group operates an expansive media ecosystem comprising TV channels, movie studios, digital YouTube networks, as well as running a publishing business. The company is now aggressively expanding into the region and beyond for its digital arm to usher in the era of Retail Technology.

As the Group is going through restructuring to expand into other areas, an experienced manager and strategist Quynh Anh Nguyen is joining the executive team as the new Group COO of Yeah1 Group & CEO of Giga1 with a mandate to integrate operations of all the companies in the Group’s portfolio. She will also be helping the group enter key new business areas in the coming period.

Quynh Anh’s past experience notably includes a stint as the Country Manager for Viber Vietnam, where her leadership helped the company to post significant profits – the only emerging market to do so for Viber.

Interviewing Quynh Anh Nguyen for our “How I Manage” series, we focus on how she plans to rejuvenate the company and lead its new growth initiatives.

After restructuring, Yeah1 will have 2 main businesses: media (Yeah1 Media) and commerce (Giga1). Can you share a little more about what’s going on and how the two will complement each other?

The ecosystem that Giga1 is shaping and building will eventually become a technology platform for leading retailers across the country and the region. We are hoping to revamp the marketing-to-consumers (M2C) journey by taking better control of the distribution system; improving media and marketing management; facilitating and growing quality business exchange; and increasing customer loyalty. 

Crucially, each of those stages is underpinned by Giga1’s proprietary technology that aims to fully digitize the M2C process in what we call the “closed ecosystem of technology for retail”.

We see this as an opportunity to re-energize Vietnam’s digital retail space by introducing new ideas that tie back to Giga1’s core vision – improving the efficiency of the marketplace while promoting a sustainable business model in retail.

Regardless of the state of things in the global financial system, we remain confident in the overall health of Vietnam’s economy and are capitalizing on the momentum that sees the country’s key industries such as FMCG, telecommunications, electronics and personal care to continue driving the GDP up. We are confident that even in the midst of the economic downturn, platforms like Giga1 will make sustainable growth possible.

Word has spread that more than 50 million users of Yeah1 from different platforms will be moved under one roof. How will this transition affect the workplace? What will change? 

In effect, what this means for our 50 million users who consume our content outside of Yeah1 platform (that’s about 70% of all users) is that they will now benefit from being "end consumers" of the superior product we’ve built over the past months. By putting consumers at the heart of retail technology we make our core value proposition about people.

To simplify, by adding features to the existing media-commerce ecosystem, we are adding value to our users’ experience. And the more they interact with the retail technology chain, the more influence they have over trends, product development and the future of the market.

This is made possible thanks to Yeah1’s solid technological background allowing us to stay on top of changing consumer behavior, while prioritizing confidentiality – a foundation on which a free and competitive marketplace is built.

Before inviting users to move under our roof, we made sure the Giga1 “house” had the most cutting-edge technology and most innovative solutions on the block.

Can you tell us a little bit about the initial and anticipated success of Mega1 and Celuv in the next 2-3 years? What benefits have these apps offered users so far? 

The numbers speak for themselves. Within two months, Mega1 has reached nearly 4 million users, who made a total of over 100 million purchases. And what's even more impressive, is that those 4 million consumers chose to join our loyalty program. 

With Celuv, our celebrity broadcasting service, we are aiming to make the product even more exciting. To achieve that we are tapping into Celuv’s legacy as an elite Korean entertainment player alongside our customer-centric approach: continuously offer more benefits and peace of mind to streamers so that they focus on creating engaging content.

Finally, how is the current fundraising project going? 

Our target of gross merchandise value (GMV) of $1b by 2021 is completely within reach. Giga1's initial valuation of $60m is opening up greater investment potential while demonstrating investor and market confidence in our product. This is just an initial valuation and we expect the actual number to be even higher once Giga1 has tapped the depths of the consumer ecosystem.