Vietnam a potential gaming powerhouse: experts

"Vietnam can totally become a gaming powerhouse by building a strong and sustainable ecosystem," said Google representative Emily Nguyen at a recent event.

Among 10 top game publishers headquartered in Australia, New Zealand and Southeast Asia, five are based in Vietnam, according to a recent report by data provider App Annie.

"For every 25 downloaded games in the world, one is made by a Vietnamese company," it said, adding that this ranks Vietnam seventh in the world in terms of downloads.

The CEO of App Annie, Junde Yu, said Vietnam was a fertile ground for mobile games with 68 million people owning smartphones.

Average gaming time on smartphone in Vietnam is 3.9 hours, 10 percent higher than in the U.S., he said

Last year, revenues of the gaming industry hit VND12 trillion, double that of 2015, according to the Vietnam National Innovation Center under the Ministry of Planning and Investment.

"The market has attracted 25,000 employees who serve 32 million players nationwide. These figures show that Vietnam’s gaming industry has a lot of future potential," said Vu Quoc Huy, director of the center.

However, some challenges remain, experts have said. On average, each Vietnamese contributes only VND230 to the gaming industry, while that of a Japanese player is VND350,000 ($15.23), or 154 times higher.