Occasionally, during conversations about e-commerce, I ask people, “Who are the key players in this market?” You might try it too, and I predict the answers you’ll get will be at least 95% identical to what I’ve heard countless times. The usual suspects? Shopee, Lazada, TikTok Shop, and Tiki.

No surprises there, as these names share several key traits that make them memorable:

First, all of them operate as B2C e-commerce platforms, acting as intermediaries between businesses and end-users. Chances are you’ve been one of those end-users yourself, making this connection almost instinctive.

Second, these platforms all have links to China—the country that, while not the birthplace of e-commerce, is now home to the largest e-commerce market in the world. I’ll delve deeper into this in another article.

Third, they’ve all entered Vietnam within the past 15 years. Why this time frame? Because it represents roughly half of the development journey of Vietnam’s e-commerce market to date.

This context underscores an important fact: Vietnam’s e-commerce landscape is currently dominated by a few leading brands with immense influence, none of which were present during the market’s infancy.

This article, however, is about a pioneer that shares none of these traits. Let me introduce vnemart.com.vn, a purely Vietnamese B2B e-commerce platform launched in the early 2000s. To sum it up: it was Vietnam’s first-ever e-commerce platform.

The birth of Vnemart

If you’re curious, you might do two things upon seeing the name vnemart.com.vn.

First, as it’s a domain name, you’d probably copy, paste, and hit enter in your browser’s address bar. The result? A generic greeting from nginx (an open-source web server) asking for further configuration—essentially confirming the platform is no longer active. This will likely prompt your next move.

You’d turn to Google, searching for information about vnemart.com.vn. You’d find a collection of old articles reporting on its launch, growth, and service offerings. To save you the effort, here’s a condensed version of Vnemart’s story in about one A4 page.

Vnemart, the brainchild of three major entities, took two years to develop (starting in 2001):

1. The Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) – a non-governmental, non-profit organization.

2. The Data Communication Company (VDC) – under the state-owned Vietnam Posts and Telecommunications Group (VNPT).

3. VietinBank – a state-owned commercial bank.

It’s fair to say Vnemart was a state-supported e-commerce platform.

On April 18, 2003, VCCI held a press conference declaring Vnemart Vietnam’s first e-commerce trading platform. Five days later, it went live. At the time, Deputy Minister of Trade Lê Danh Vĩnh stated that the ministry was drafting an ordinance to establish a legal framework for e-commerce transactions.

A B2B pioneer

Vnemart adopted a B2B model, aiming to connect domestic businesses with international partners. Uniquely for the time, it supported both Vietnamese and English languages. To avoid trademark disputes, participating businesses were required to register copyrights for all listed products.

According to an article from VnExpress, Vnemart allowed businesses to:

• Search for partners.

• Access information on international trade fairs.

• Negotiate contracts online.

Initially, 27 handicraft businesses joined the platform, enjoying two years of free service. This number might seem small, but considering that Vietnam had fewer than 2,700 businesses with websites at the time (let alone those conducting business online), it’s quite significant.

Within a year, the platform grew to 700 businesses, with daily traffic peaking at 10,000 visits. Its product categories expanded beyond handicrafts to textiles, footwear, agricultural products, seafood, and construction materials. Foreign companies also began using Vnemart to promote their products in Vietnam.

By 2006, Vnemart reported annual transaction growth rates of 200–300%. The number of participating businesses had grown 203 times since its launch. This explosive growth coincided with Vietnam’s completion of bilateral and multilateral negotiations to join the World Trade Organization (WTO) in early 2007.

The decline

Shortly after this period of rapid growth, Vnemart began charging for its services:

• Pro Package: $50/year.

• Gold Package: $150/year, offering premium support, activity verification, unlimited listings, and enhanced transaction reliability.

Despite these efforts, Vnemart’s golden age ended here.

The last piece of complete information about Vnemart dates back to 2008, when it offered a promotional deal: Gold Package subscribers would receive a 40,000-page business handbook.

After that, Vnemart faded into obscurity. It now exists in only two contexts: university e-commerce textbooks and articles recounting the demise of early B2B e-commerce platforms. However, no clear timeline or explanation for its closure exists.

Lessons from Vnemart

Entering the URL vnemart.com.vn today confirms the platform is defunct. This failure might seem paradoxical, especially when compared to Alibaba.com—a Chinese B2B platform launched around the same time, which became a global success.

Although Vnemart has left behind few tangible legacies, I believe it has an intangible one: its challenges prompted policymakers to create a legal framework for e-commerce, and it provided valuable lessons for businesses aspiring to succeed like Alibaba.

Having observed the market for over a decade, I don’t believe Vnemart failed due to an unviable business model. Instead, multiple other factors were at play. 

In my next article, I’ll piece together the scant information available about Vnemart and compare it to Alibaba’s model, aiming to shed light on why Vietnam’s first e-commerce platform disappeared so quietly.

Stay tuned!