Vietnam Monthly Users 3.5 Million... The Secret Is Intense Localization

Why Vietnamese Students Study Using a Korean Startup Service
Kwanda Provides AI Explanations Within 5 Seconds for Unknown Questions
Closing the Education Gap with Kwanda Study

20 million is the number of subscribers in Vietnam for ‘Qanda,’ a learning platform operated by Korea’s startup Masspresso. Considering Vietnam’s population of 100 million, one-fifth of the entire population has subscribed to Qanda. Although the service started in Korea, the number of subscribers in Vietnam is 2.4 times higher. Qanda uses artificial intelligence (AI) to analyze questions you don’t know and provides explanations and related content within 5 seconds. We looked into why Vietnamese students study using a Korean startup service.

Lee Yong-jae, CEO of Masspresso, said, "The essential thirst to immediately ask questions about what you don’t know is something all students worldwide have, and the popularity of Qanda in Vietnam shows that this thirst can be quenched digitally, not just through offline teachers." Masspresso launched the Vietnamese version of Qanda in December 2019. Within two weeks of its release, it ranked first in the iOS App Store education chart and third overall, showing its potential for success. This ranking was higher than Instagram or TikTok.

The popularity in Vietnam has continued through this year, marking three years since the service started. Looking at Qanda subscribers by country, Vietnam has surpassed Korea to be the largest subscriber base for three consecutive years since 2020. Vietnam’s monthly active users (MAU) reached 3.5 million, even surpassing the Android MAU of Grab, a Southeast Asian super app. A Qanda representative explained, "Vietnam not only has a large school-age population of over 14 million aged 10 to 19, but also a very high enthusiasm for education. Moreover, 97.6% of the population owns smartphones and actively uses digital devices, allowing students across Vietnam to use Qanda to resolve their questions without spatial or temporal limitations."

Behind Qanda’s penetration among Vietnamese students was Masspresso’s steady localization efforts. To accumulate data on solving Vietnamese textbook problems, they secured teachers from prestigious local schools. Investigations into differences from Korea were also necessary. For example, in Vietnam, the ‘.’ symbol is used as a multiplication sign. When entering the expression 3.5 in Korea, the solution converts it to 7/2, but in Vietnam, the answer is 15. Masspresso identified and corrected such issues after launch.

During the process of establishing Qanda, CEO Lee began to notice problems in the Vietnamese education market. Vietnam is characterized by a highly developed private education market due to strong educational enthusiasm, but actual access to education and quality content were concentrated in cities and among higher-income classes. This was the reason for launching the online academy ‘Qanda Study’ in the second half of last year. By securing so-called ‘top-tier instructors’ locally, classes that were only available in Hanoi or Ho Chi Minh City became accessible online to students in rural areas.

In fact, students from second- to fourth-tier cities outside major Vietnamese metropolitan areas account for about 18%, but among Qanda Study students, about 60% are from these second- to fourth-tier cities. CEO Lee said, "I have seen reviews from students who used to travel 40 km to attend academy classes, sometimes sleeping at the academy if it was too late at night, but now can take classes online through Qanda Study, improving their quality of life." He added, "I am confident that the digitalized learning experience we provide in Vietnam is creating innovation and value in the local market that did not exist before."

Masspresso believes that Qanda’s feature of allowing users to ask questions about unknown problems with just a smartphone, regardless of regional restrictions, is a key factor in its popularity in Vietnam. Qanda Study, which digitally enables students in small provincial cities to attend lectures by top instructors from major cities, is cited as a case of digitally bridging educational gaps between regions in Vietnam. CEO Lee emphasized, "We will continue to innovate to provide more convenient and personalized learning experiences through technology and data."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.