Tim Cook impressed by Vietnamese app developers' energy

At the meeting held in a downtown coffee shop on Monday, he said: "Vietnam in general is a young population and you can see that in the developers. It's so vibrant and there’s so much energy here."

He met with Van Dinh Hong Vu, co-founder of Elsa Speak, a company that developed an English learning app being used by millions globally, and Nguyen Quoc Huy, the developer of note-taking app CollaNote that has a handwriting feature.

Cook seemed excited while listening to the solutions the developers used to create their apps.

He said that as developers it is important to find what problems people face and build apps to solve them.

"I would do exactly what these developers have done. They identified an issue that they or other people had and they were passionate enough about it to pull the string to see where it led them."

Huy, who started developing his note-taking app in Germany during Covid-19 when online collaboration between students was prioritized, appreciated the opportunity to meet the chief of one of the world’s biggest companies.

"I don’t know if I will ever have a second opportunity."

Vu said since the beginning she and her team have been prioritizing Apple devices since they allow developers to include an AI model in their app to ensure users can make quick conversations with an AI.

"Around 60% of Elsa Speak users use Apple devices."

Cook also met with Phuong Vu, a director of filmmaking group Antiantiart.

Tim Cook meets Vietnamese artists. Photo by VnExpress/Tuan Hung

Phuong said: "I was shocked to seem Tim Cook in my studio. He has a big vision and has changed the world so much."

Cook, 64, arrived in Hanoi Monday morning for a two-day trip.

He became CEO of Apple in 2011, and doubled the company’s revenues and profits by 2020. Under him, new products like Apple Watch and Apple Vision Pro, a virtual reality headset, were developed.

In 2023 it became the first company in the world to achieve market cap of US$3 trillion.