Driving traffic to the online photography website www vnphoto net

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TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC MỞ TP. HCM
HO CHI MINH OPEN UNIVERSITY

UNIVERSITEÙ LIBRE DE BRUXELLES
SOLVAY BRUSSELS SCHOOL

MBMM 4

PHAM AN DUONG
Community building for the online photography
website www.vnphoto.net

MASTER PROJECT
MASTER IN BUSINESS & MARKETING MANAGEMENT

Tutor’s Name: Dr. Nguyen Duc Tri

Ho Chi Minh City
(2011)

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Attestation of Authorship
“I hereby declare that this submission is my own work and that, to the best of my
knowledge and belief, it contains no material previously published or written by
another person (except where explicitly defined in the acknowledgements), nor

material which to a substantial extent has been submitted for the award of any other
degree or diploma of a university or other institution of higher learning.”

Signed _______________________________ 1st March, 2011

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Acknowledgememt
I would like to convey my sincere gratitude to the following people. Without their
assistance the completion of this thesis would not have been possible.

To Dr. Nguyen Duc Tri, whose guidance and support me from the initial to the final
of this thesis.

To Mr. Anh Tran for his assistance of the database retrieval of the website
www.vnphoto.net.
To members of the website www.vnphoto.net who took part in several surveys to
provide input for user insight information.

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Tutor’s comments

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Contents
Chapter 1 - Introduction ........................................................................................ 7
Chapter 2 – Literature review ............................................................................... 9
Trends in online photography ............................................................................... 9
Photo user’s classification................................................................................... 10
Conclusion .......................................................................................................... 13
Chapter 3 – Analytics of VNPhoto.net website .................................................. 14
Site statistics ........................................................................................................ 14
Chapter 4 – Community building of VNPhoto.net ............................................ 18
VNPHOTO.net’s vision ...................................................................................... 18
Business strategies .............................................................................................. 18
I. Social Network Builders .................................................................................. 18
II. Enhance collaboration among VNPhoto users for sharing and exchanging
photography hobby ............................................................................................. 24
III. Sustainable community development ........................................................... 32
Core Values ......................................................................................................... 32
Community Attributes ........................................................................................ 33
Business Development Plan ................................................................................ 33
I. Project timeline ................................................................................................ 33
II. Promoting VNPhoto ....................................................................................... 35
III. Return of Investment..................................................................................... 39
Chapter 5 – Conclusion ........................................................................................ 41
References .............................................................................................................. 41
Appendix ................................................................................................................ 43
VNPhoto Sitemap ............................................................................................... 43
VNPhoto features ................................................................................................ 43

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Abstract
This project “Community building for the online photography website
www.vnphoto.net” with ambitions to build and develop a social network for
Vietnamese photographers through the website www.vnphoto.net by creating
humanity attributes toward photography lovers from the core values of People,
Knowledge and Sharing for photo community.

The website www.vnphoto.net herein after referred to as VNPhoto.

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Chapter 1 - Introduction

Photography for everyone
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VNPhoto is one of the most popular and most professionally developed and
maintained digital photography and digital imaging web resources available
in Vietnam. It’s has been designed and maintained by professional web
specialists and volunteer photographers. Nowadays, VNPhoto has become
synonymous with:

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Established and highly respected photography community in Vietnam.

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The most active and informative discussion photography forums now
in Vietnam with more than 62,000 members and over 1,350,000
articles are posted. (See Appendix C-4)

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Attractive image gallery with more than 150,000 photographs. (See
Appendix C-3)

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Highest quality, most detailed camera reviews. (See Appendix C-5)

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Powerful searchable "knowledge base" of digital photography
information

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The most comprehensive, powerful and easy to use digital camera
specifications database.

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Members come from 67 countries around the world.

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VNPhoto was established in April, 2005. Today, VNPhoto has really become
a well-recognized and prestigious website for Vietnamese in sharing hobby,
building community, and helping each others for better photography.

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VNPhoto is an independent website dedicated for Vietnamese by providing
industry news, camera reviews, and image distribution platform for
photographers. (See Appendix C-1)

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Starting from April 2010, VNPhoto has been upgraded to its latest version
3.0 by implementation of social networking functions to aim for the social
destination for anyone who love photographs with the operational motto
“Photography for everyone”.

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Chapter 2 – Literature review
Trends in online photography
Number of camera users in Vietnam is growing rapidly. The major contribution for
this growth is not only by regular film or digital cameras but also extend by new
devices such as phone cameras, still camcorders. Owned by mature people who are
young, dynamic and wealthy are typical characteristics of this age groups in society.

This consumer tends to travel regularly, taking pictures on the go and sharing
photos on the internet, they confidently establish new consumer trends for sharing
and exchanging information through social network. They are also able to influence
others to join in their community, willing to express their preferences with regards
to camera products and photograph experience to others.

Younger generation also favour high-tech products, with an increasing number
using digital cameras. As this group always want the latest models and gadgets,
these items are changed regularly, which has resulted in Vietnam becoming a
dynamic market for camera equipment in last 2 years.

According to the Ministry of Information and Communication, there were 22.8
million internet users in Vietnam in 2009, accounting for 26.6% of the total
population, and an increase of 112.7% on 2005. For number of internet users,
Vietnam has been ranked seventh highest among the countries with high internet
use in Asia, by Internet World Stats. Therefore, younger generation go online and
spend more time in the social networks compare to last few years.

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According to the IDC, there were 675,000 digital cameras sold in Vietnam in 2009,
an increase of 250% from 2008. In addition, about 10 million mobile phones sold in
Vietnam markets which partial has phone camera function, estimated to account for
around 7% of the volume sales. Overall it calculated for around over 1.3 million
camera users per year.

Moreover, IDC expects that compact cameras will continue to commodify and
further become fashionable technology accessories. Digital camera will continue to
grow and comprise a stronger share of the global product mix as consumers
continue to embrace photography as a hobby, driven by lower-priced digital camera.

Photo user’s classification
In last 2 years, VNPhoto did several surveys by creating poll on forums, on its
members to understand Vietnamese photography insight, user background and what
their expectation for the products or service from clients. Though it has done within
VNPhoto community however it may reflect quite a large number of Vietnamese
users who touch base with photography community because VNPhoto is largest
photo website in Vietnam.

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Exhibit 1: Age of VNPhoto members. 727 members responded. Majority groups are
from 20 to 34 years old, which contribution 68.91% of total members.

Exhibit 2: Professionalism of VNPhoto members. 1,147 members responded.

Students, IT engineers, service firms are majority groups.

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Exhibit 3: Time do they spend for VNPhoto every day. 136 members responded.
Mostly VNPhoto members spend around 2 to 3 hours per day to visit the site.

Exhibit 4: Member’s expectation on VNPhoto activities. 87% members expect for
the photo contest, seminar, good review articles and offline meeting compare to the
rest of industry news, photo essay and camera’s promotion.

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Conclusion
The number of user’s using digital cameras increase rapidly in Vietnam, every year
there is more than 1 million new users, the growth rate almost double a year.
Majority of them are range in 20-34 year olds, spending 2 to 3 hours per day
sharing pictures, photo treks, or information with their friend throughout social
networks like VNPhoto website. New user become VNPhoto’s members or
potential users and what people contribute to the website become photography
assets and it may share to others to enrich the knowledge of Vietnamese
photography community. Therefore, building for the online photography
community will support and meet the trend of the growth of photography users in
Vietnam.

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Chapter 3 – Analytics of VNPhoto.net website
This chapter will provide the rich insights of VNPhoto through third party website
traffic tracker such as Google, Alexa. To date, VNPhoto is number one photography
website in Vietnam in many aspects: big number of active members, large
photograph library, powerful camera review sources, populated forums, etc…

Site statistics
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Some key number of VNPHOTO.net website by February 1st, 2011:
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over 62,000 members

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over 1,350,000 articles

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over 150,000 photos

Average of 300,000 unique visitors which contribute over 90 million hits to
the website per month.

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Source: Google Analytics - February 1st, 2011

Source: Google Analytics - February 1st, 2011
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VNPHOTO.net is among the first of all photography websites in Vietnam.
According to Alexa web traffic statistic in February 2011, it is ranked

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#33,504 in the world according to the three-month Alexa traffic rankings and
also #262 on top websites in Vietnam.

Source: Alexa Traffic Stats. - February 10th, 2011

 Based on internet averages, VNPhoto is visited more frequently by males
who are in the age range 18-24, are university educated and browse this site
from school/ office rather than home.
 Approximately 30% of visits to the site are bounces (one pageview only),

average 1 million pageviews per month. Daily time spend on site is around
18 minutes per user. The site has been online for more than six years.
Vnphoto.net is in the “Cộng đồng mạng” category of websites. Search
engines refer about 14% of visits to the site.
 Relative to the general internet population, people income with less than US$
30,000 a year are over-represented at VNPhoto compare to other income

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groups. It’s typical for mobile tech website like tinhte.com, but slightly
difference from online news such as vnexpress.net, yahoo.com.vn or
tuoitre.com.vn in term of user segmentation.

Source: Alexa Traffic Stats. - February 10th, 2011

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Chapter 4 – Community building of VNPhoto.net
VNPHOTO.net’s vision
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Maintain and develop the largest digital photography website for everyone
by providing platform for sharing hobby, building social network community,
and helping each others for better photography.

Business strategies
I.

Implement social network builder, make VNPhoto become the first
photography community in Vietnam

II.

Enhance collaboration among VNPhoto users for sharing and exchanging
photography hobby

III.

Sustainable community development, get VNPhoto become the social
destination for anyone who love photography with the operational motto
“Photography for everyone”.

I. Social Network Builders
Basic Structure of a Social Network
A social network is practically a website wherein users are encouraged to sign up
(usually for free) and connect to friends and acquaintances who are also members of
the social network. It almost similarly way that VNPhoto been done in last 5 years.
Meeting people online has now increased because of social network but the
connection is not just based on coincidence. Social network connections are
basically within people who seemed to be far from each other but would still prefer
to have a connection anytime.

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Standard Features in Social Networking
Like any social network, VNPhoto has been developed which have the standard
features which makes them part of the social networking group.
The most important feature of a social networking website is the ability to create
personalized homepage. Through this homepage, personal information and
preference is shared. From location, hobbies and even simple preferences could be
added. This data is then used by social networks to connect the user to like minded
individuals if they chose to.
Another basic feature of social networking is the ability to add friends and contacts
in their personal homepage. It is through this homepage that more people could
connect to others. They might not be familiar with each other but a request could be
made so that more information could be known.
Part of the simple features of the social networks is their ability to be integrated
with applications or widgets. These add-on applications and widgets, interaction
also increases interaction within the website.

Social Status as a Major Part of Structure
Social status may look like a simple part of the social network but it speaks so much
about the behavior of the individual as well as expected interaction. Through social
status, like minded individuals could come together and even communicate beyond
social networking because of the similarity on social status. When there is
similarity, the chances of knowing more about the other person also increases. A
status is practically a gateway to more information that increases connectivity to
other members of the social network. VNPhoto offer lots of features to promote
those who has contributed to the community such as member status, points of
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creditability, positive feedback benchmark, star rating, number of posts, etc…
Based on those features, one can easily recognize other ranking in the community.

VNPhoto community tool implementation
Starting from April 2010, VNPhoto has been upgraded to its latest version 3.0 by
implementation of social networking functions to aim for the social destination for
anyone who love photography. We keep learning from other social network sites
such as Facebook, Flickr, YouTube, etc… in order to fine tuning for VNPhoto in
order to keep it competitiveness and meet user expectation as the number one
photography community in Vietnam.

Exhibit: Comparison of the social network deliverables and what VNPhoto can
learn from industry

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VNPhoto Community Tool Capabilities
Supporting the platform for sharing hobby, building social network, VNPhoto is
equipped with community tools which offer capabilities and functions that
illustrated in the exhibit below:

Connect with friends are just one of the many benefits to social networking online.
One could develop an online friendship with someone in around the world, not just
Vietnam if they are the same sharing or hobby. At VNPhoto you can tag, add &

remove friend, view friend list, news feed, send message, update event, or blast out
something just in their mind…

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Exhibit: User page with community manager tool

Online community members share common interests in hobbies, share moment,
give comment to image you love, tag or add friend, so on so forth.

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Exhibit: User share photo moment, interest among community
VNPhoto members can take part in any activities open in community such as photo
contest, offline meeting, mentor series, photo club, etc… Social networking often
involves grouping specific individuals or organizations together. Once you are
inside this online community, you can begin to create your own network of friends
and eliminate members that do not share common interests or goals.

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Exhibit: User can watch for many activities happen in the community

II. Enhance collaboration among VNPhoto users for sharing and
exchanging photography hobby
Create Culture of Sharing
Create VNPhoto is a fun and engaging website that's designed to:


Offer a platform for communities, in partnership with their friends.

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Easily produce a variety of fun and engaging tools including picture upload,
engage community, social activities.

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Support members with a variety of easily accessible, culturally appropriate
sharing and learning tools;

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Enhance user engagement, encourage them to share.

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Develop awareness and value the knowledge of people who willing to share.

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

Strengthen communities and tightening partnership with third party vendors
to maintain and develop the site.

Engage Social Activities
Social activity engagement has taken a huge growth over the past 5 years with the
advent of social networks. The activities that promote photography community and
social change movements are now shifting to the social network, fostering online
communities based on interests, hobby, and purpose. VNPhoto members are
promoting ideas, organizing community groups, engaging in their hobbyist
discussions, and connecting with others. The engagement over social networks that
enable one’s ability to stay connected with members of this community. VNPhoto
engages activity such as sharing hobbies and interests. Through many activities
such as workshops, mentor series, offline meetings, photo contests, social voluntary
are reliable indicators of current trends among VNPhoto members.

Workshops
Camera workshop is one of the powerful tools to improve community knowledge
base as well as connecting people. VNPhoto has organized over 100 workshops for
its members in last 5 years. These activities created chance for people to meet each
others, get closer relationship, and improve knowledge of overall community.

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