Sep 11, 2011

Vietnam - Legal framework needed to block cell phone spam


Vietnam should have an effective legal framework to prevent unwanted text messages and help develop advertising on cell phones as a good tool for companies to promote their products and services to target consumers, advertising experts said.

The proposal was made by Do Kim Dung, vice president of the Vietnam Advertising Association, and Lai Kok Fung, chief executive officer and co-founder of mobile media firm BuzzCity, when they shared their views with the Daily on how to make use of new technology and innovations for efficient advertising.

Lai commented after he made a presentation at a business briefing organized by the Australian Chamber of Commerce in Vietnam (AusCham) in HCMC last week on digital branding and the mobile marketing opportunity in Vietnam.

Dung told the Daily on the phone on Monday that Vietnam’s current Advertising Ordinance and several relevant decrees did not include detailed regulations and guidance for advertising on mobile phones while more companies were annoying consumers with their junk messages and calls.

Dung complained he often received at least one unwanted advertising phone call a day though he had not provided his phone number for the company whose marketing staff called him to sell the company’s products.

Lai of BuzzCity said the beginning stage of mobile phone marketing was text messages and this trend had been seen in many markets, including those in the ASEAN region. However, governments have applied appropriate measures to ban the SMS spam.

Lai took Thailand as one of the typical examples when saying that one year ago, companies in that country were told to stop sending junk messages or they would be fined and that since then the situation had been improved.

Lai said companies were unable to send their SMS advertising messages to consumers without their consent because this might hurt their brands when customers felt that they were disturbed due to too much SMS spam they received a day.

Lai said in Malaysia, the Philippines and other regional countries, there were companies working with mobile carriers and collecting the cell phone users who agreed to receive SMS advertisements. In return, the user will be given a certain number of free calls and texts.

“So, mobile carriers should do that way and should not allow anybody to buy their big databases to send advertising messages,” Lai said. He suggested the Government should have regulations banning the SMS spam.

Dung of the VAA said the SMS spam would not be stopped in Vietnam for the time being given the absence of a law. He added a draft law on advertising governing this was only planned for submission and approval next year.

“There are a lot of things to do with junk messages in Vietnam,” Dung said, adding this problem might be solved by 2015, when the cell phone user had legal backing to sue the mobile carrier and those companies that annoyed them with the SMS spam.

Both Dung and Lai painted a bright future for advertising via modern channels like cell phones, the internet and digital devices though they agreed television and print media would still dominate the country’s advertising revenue.

The VAA put online advertising sales at VND480 billion (around US$23 million) out of the VND20 trillion (some US$960 million) for the whole sector last year. Dung forecast this sector would record a year-on-year revenue increase of around 15% this year and a rise of 20% for the online advertising segment.

SGT



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