Mamba Enters the Vietnamese Market

Company has already begun trademark registration

Original article was published at Russian Business

Mamba, one of the oldest dating services in Russia, plans to enter the Vietnamese market, RB.RU has learned. The company sees growth potential due to low competition among dating services in the country. RB.RU experts estimate Mamba's budget for entering the new market at up to $1 million.

The company filed an application to register the Mamba trademark in Vietnam on June 20; the document is published in the database of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).

Registration classes — 35 (services related to business management), 38 (data transmission services), 41 (services aimed at amusement, entertainment, and recreation of people), 45 (dating agency services, social networking services).

Mamba's CEO Andrey Bronetsky confirmed to RB.RU the intention to enter the new market but noted that the company is not currently ready to disclose plans and investment volumes for scaling in Vietnam, as it is currently in the market research stage.

"We will be ready to announce a specific promotion strategy and the volume of monetary injections no earlier than January. The Vietnamese market was chosen by us because it is quite large, inexpensive, and has growth potential. It is absolutely non-toxic for a Russian dating application and at the same time low-competition: local players occupy a very small share, and 'Tinder' is not interested in this market," said Bronetsky

The founder of the analytical platform Dsight, Arseniy Dabbakh, notes that Vietnam seems an interesting market not only for dating. "Recently, some Russian companies have either entered or are planning to enter the Southeast Asian and Vietnamese markets. This is in fintech, development, and other areas," said Dabbakh.

According to the expert, this is explained by a number of reasons — a large population (around 100 million people), a friendly country, a growing market with little competition: "With the growth of the middle class, the spread of smartphones and internet access, more and more Vietnamese are using online services, and dating apps and websites are becoming popular."

Bronetsky confirmed that Mamba indeed sees no obvious problems for successful localization. The company explains this by saying that "Vietnam is not a Muslim country and online dating can develop there quite successfully."

Co-founder of United Investors Alexander Gorny suggested that the company's investment in entering the new market would amount to up to $1 million, with the goal of achieving at least second place in the Vietnamese market with a 15-30% share.

Dabbakh agrees with this assessment. According to him, Mamba needs a budget from several hundred thousand dollars to $1 million to enter.

About the Service

Mamba has been operating in the online dating market since 2003. According to the company's own data, it has over 1 million installations per month and 60 million profiles in the system. Mamba is an accredited IT company and an official developer of domestic software.

In addition to its flagship service of the same name, Mamba is also developing youth dating applications under the Wamba brand, the matrimonial service Teamo, international dating app Tourbar, and the astrology service Astrostar.

According to the "Kontur.Focus" system, the revenue of Mamba JSC for 2023 exceeded 1.6 billion rubles, almost doubling compared to 2022. Net profit amounted to 450 million rubles, which is 4 times more than in 2022.

The founder of the analytical platform Dsight, Arseniy Dabbakh, notes that currently Mamba's share in the Russian market exceeds 60%.

2024-07-15 16:27