Lotus, a ‘made-in-Vietnam’ social network, had its beta version launched during a grand ceremony attended by Minister of Information and Communications Nguyen Manh Hung in Hanoi on Monday night.

Vietnam’s leading Internet and digital content company VCCorp, which runs the platform, said Lotus is the product of more than 200 Vietnamese developers working in various fields such as mobile applications, artificial intelligence, big data and cloud computing.

VCCorp has raised VND1.2 trillion (US$51.78 million) for the development of the platform, according to the company’s general director Nguyen The Tan.

Lotus will focus on content created by and for the Vietnamese people and place user experience at its core, Tan said at the launch ceremony.

“Lotus will take a different path from other social networks, striving to be a content-centric platform that gives users freedom to be creative and produce more quality content,” he said.

VCCorp’s deputy general director Nguyen Van Tuan speaks at the opening ceremony of the made-in-Vietnam social network Lotus in Hanoi, September 16, 2019. Photo: L. Chi / Tuoi Tre

Speaking at the ceremony, information minister Hung expressed his expectation that Lotus will become a successful example that inspires other Vietnamese tech companies to create more made-in-Vietnam technology products.

Lotus will be running in beta for six months, during which VCCorp technical engineers will add more necessary features or content based on feedback from the public, according to the company.

The social network is currently only available on mobile.

VCCorp has yet to release any data on the current Lotus user base. It did reveal during Monday’s ceremony that the social network will first seek to attract four million active users before expanding the number to 20 million, and ultimately, 60 million users.

Facebook had some 58 million users in Vietnam as of July, a decade after the world’s biggest social network became popular in the Southeast Asian country.

Developing a homemade social networking site that benefits Vietnamese users has been a persistent call made by Minister of Information and Communications Nguyen Manh Hung since he took office in October last year.

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!