The Future of Marketing in Vietnam: Trends Shaping 2026–2030

Forecasts about marketing tend to age badly, so it is worth being clear about what this article tries to do. It does not predict which app will be fashionable in 2030. It looks at structural shifts already visible in Vietnam, in regulation, consumer behaviour, platforms and technology, and asks what they mean for a foreign company planning its next five years in the market.

Some of these shifts are global, such as AI-generated answers in search. Others are specific to Vietnam: the role of Zalo, the speed at which TikTok Shop grew, a new personal data law, and the 2025 consolidation of provinces. Together they point to a future of marketing in Vietnam that rewards companies with owned customer relationships, credible Vietnamese content and the discipline to stay compliant.

Search is splitting across Google, AI answers, TikTok and marketplaces

For years, being found online in Vietnam meant ranking on Google and appearing in Facebook feeds. That is changing in three directions at once.

First, AI-generated answers are taking a larger share of informational queries. When Google shows an AI summary, or when a buyer asks ChatGPT, Gemini or Perplexity to compare suppliers, the brands mentioned are those with clear, well-structured and widely cited information. Second, younger consumers increasingly search inside TikTok for reviews, recipes, places to eat and product demonstrations. Third, for consumer goods, Shopee and other marketplaces already work as product search engines.

The practical consequence is that a brand needs a findable presence in several places, each with its own format: structured pages and FAQs that AI systems can quote, short Vietnamese videos that answer real questions, and complete marketplace listings with genuine reviews. Our guide to getting cited by ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews explains the content side of this shift.

Commerce moves into video, livestream and chat

Vietnamese shoppers have shown they are comfortable buying without visiting a separate website. TikTok Shop grew from launch in 2022 to one of the largest e-commerce platforms in the country within a few years, according to several third-party market trackers. Livestream selling, once associated with small online sellers, is now used by large brands and marketplaces alike.

Chat is the other half of this trend. Many purchases, especially for services, higher-priced goods and B2B supplies, are negotiated in Messenger or Zalo rather than completed in a cart. Through 2030, expect closer links between messaging, payments and order management, and more automation handling routine questions before a person takes over.

• Plan content that sells directly, not only content that builds awareness.
• Connect chat channels to your CRM so conversations are not lost when a staff member leaves.
• Use chatbots for routine questions, with a fast route to a human for anything involving price, complaints or complex needs.

See our guide to conversational commerce in Vietnam for workflows across Zalo, Messenger and TikTok messages.

Creators become a regulated, measured media buy

KOLs and KOCs are central to Vietnamese marketing, and that is unlikely to change. What is changing is how they are managed. Authorities have taken a closer interest in misleading influencer promotions, and amendments to the Law on Advertising adopted in 2025 set out obligations for influencers and others who deliver advertising, including checking the product and advertiser and making clear when content is paid. Tax authorities have also paid more attention to creator income.

For brands, this pushes creator marketing toward the discipline of any other media buy: written contracts, documented product claims, approval of scripts in regulated categories, clear disclosure, and performance measured through affiliate links, codes or marketplace data rather than view counts alone. Brands that have relied on informal arrangements with creators should tighten them now, and confirm the current implementing guidance with their legal advisers.

Privacy and first-party data become the default

Decree 13/2023/ND-CP brought consent, data subject rights and impact assessments into Vietnamese marketing practice. Vietnam then passed a Personal Data Protection Law in 2025, in force from 2026, which builds on the decree and raises the stakes for non-compliance. Combined with browser and platform limits on third-party tracking, this makes first-party data, the information customers give you directly and knowingly, the foundation for targeting and measurement.

In practice that means consent wording on every form, a single customer record that brings together website, Zalo, marketplace and offline data where lawful, and measurement approaches that do not depend on tracking individuals across sites. Buying contact lists or scraping personal data becomes a legal risk, not just a reputational one. Our article on marketing attribution in Vietnam after cookies covers measurement options that fit this direction.

AI reshapes production, teams and agencies

AI tools now produce usable Vietnamese drafts, translations, product descriptions, ad variations, image edits and video cuts. Vietnamese technology groups are also building their own local-language models. Over the next five years the cost of producing a single piece of content will keep falling, which means volume alone stops being an advantage.

The value shifts to the parts AI does not do well on its own: understanding the customer, setting a clear brand voice, checking facts and claims, staying within advertising rules, and connecting campaigns to sales data. Marketing teams in Vietnam are likely to become smaller in pure production roles and stronger in strategy, data and quality control. Agencies will be judged less on hours and output and more on results and judgement.

For a snapshot of where adoption stands today, read the 2026 state of AI marketing in Vietnam, and for the tools themselves, our complete AI marketing stack for Vietnam.

Growth spreads beyond the two big cities, and payments go fully digital

Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City will remain the largest markets, but new expressways, industrial parks and rising incomes are lifting demand in provincial cities and manufacturing regions. The 2025 merger of provinces into fewer, larger administrative units also matters for marketers in a very practical way: address fields, regional targeting, sales territories and older location data may all need updating.

Payments are moving the same way. Bank transfers by QR code and e-wallets have become everyday habits, and cash on delivery, while still common for consumer goods, is no longer the only trusted option. The government’s national digital transformation programme has set targets for the digital economy to reach around 30 percent of GDP by 2030, which signals continued investment in digital public services, e-invoicing and online payments. For B2B companies, this means more buyers research suppliers online and expect digital quotes, e-invoices and fast responses.

How to prepare: a readiness plan for 2026 to 2030

The table below translates each shift into a practical first step.

Shift	What changes	What to do in the next 12 months
Fragmented search	Discovery happens in AI answers, TikTok and marketplaces as well as Google	Publish structured Vietnamese FAQs and guides; complete marketplace listings
Video and chat commerce	Purchases happen inside content and conversations	Connect Zalo and Messenger to a CRM; test shoppable video
Regulated creators	Influencer promotion carries legal obligations	Standard contracts, claim approval, disclosure rules, sales-based measurement
Privacy law	Consent and data handling are enforced more strictly	Audit forms, consent records and cross-border data flows
AI production	Content volume becomes cheap	Invest in brand voice, fact-checking and review workflows
Regional growth and digital payments	New demand centres and new address structures	Update location data; test campaigns in one or two provincial markets

And a shorter checklist to review once a year:

1. Do we own our customer data, ad accounts, Zalo OA and marketplace stores?
2. Can a Vietnamese buyer find a clear, current answer about our products in Vietnamese on at least three platforms?
3. Are our consent records and data processing documented under current law?
4. Are creator agreements written, compliant and measured on sales?
5. Do we know which regions outside the two big cities are growing for our category?
6. Is our team spending its time on judgement and customer insight rather than routine production?

If you want an outside view on any of these, our services cover marketing, AI automation and market intelligence for companies in Vietnam.

Frequently Asked Questions

Will Facebook still matter in Vietnam by 2030?

Very likely, though its role may continue to shift toward messaging, groups, retargeting and older audiences while discovery among younger consumers leans more on TikTok and other video platforms. It is safer to plan for a mix of channels than to bet on any single platform.

How does the Personal Data Protection Law change marketing?

It reinforces the direction set by Decree 13/2023/ND-CP: collect consent clearly, use data only for stated purposes, respect data subject requests and take care with transfers abroad. Practices such as buying contact lists or sharing customer data with partners without a legal basis carry more risk than before.

Will AI replace marketing agencies in Vietnam?

AI will replace much routine production work, but strategy, local judgement, compliance and accountability for results still need people. Agencies that use AI to deliver faster and focus on outcomes are likely to remain useful; those selling hours of content production alone face pressure.

Are KOLs still worth using given the new rules?

Yes, if managed properly. Creator content remains one of the most effective ways to reach Vietnamese consumers. The change is that brands need written agreements, verified claims, clear disclosure and measurement tied to sales, rather than informal arrangements.

Should foreign companies look beyond Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City now?

It depends on the category, but many should at least test. Industrial regions and fast-growing provincial cities can offer less competition and lower media costs, especially for B2B suppliers and consumer brands with good distribution.

Planning for the next five years in Vietnam starts with the decisions you make this year. To discuss what these shifts mean for your business, contact SMK Vietnam or call 090 232 7669.