Minh-Ngoc Nguyen
Research Expert covering Vietnam
Consumer electronics in Vietnam - statistics & facts
Vietnam’s growing middle class and the increase in disposable income of its population, among other factors, have contributed to the growth in spending on various goods and services, including consumer electronics. Nowadays, several consumer electronics devices have even become essential in the daily life of Vietnamese people, such as smartphones, tablets, and smart home entertainment devices. As the ownership rate of these devices rises, so does the revenue of the consumer electronics segment in Vietnam.
Thanks to its strategic location, stable politics, and low-cost labor, Vietnam has seen a gradual increase in manufacturing outsource partners or in-house production facilities of some of the biggest names in consumer electronics and technologies, including Samsung and Apple. According to a recent estimation, over 50 percent of Samsung’s mobile phones came from its factories in Vietnam, which employed more than 110,000 workers as of 2022. Meanwhile, Apple decided to move its AirPods production partially from China to Vietnam in the middle of 2020, in the wake of the US-China trade war. Furthermore, Samsung has recently integrated its Vietnamese facilities even more extensively in its global supply chain with a new research and development center opening in 2022, while Apple’s supplier, Foxconn, is currently building its subsidiary in the country.
Consumer electronics and Vietnam’s development story
Since the country’s economic reform in 1980, Vietnam has successfully oriented itself to be a manufacturing-based, export-oriented economy in recent years. Consumer electronics played an important role in Vietnam’s economic development. Around a third of the total exports in Vietnam came from consumer electronics, with the main export categories being phones and phone parts as well as computers and related accessories.Thanks to its strategic location, stable politics, and low-cost labor, Vietnam has seen a gradual increase in manufacturing outsource partners or in-house production facilities of some of the biggest names in consumer electronics and technologies, including Samsung and Apple. According to a recent estimation, over 50 percent of Samsung’s mobile phones came from its factories in Vietnam, which employed more than 110,000 workers as of 2022. Meanwhile, Apple decided to move its AirPods production partially from China to Vietnam in the middle of 2020, in the wake of the US-China trade war. Furthermore, Samsung has recently integrated its Vietnamese facilities even more extensively in its global supply chain with a new research and development center opening in 2022, while Apple’s supplier, Foxconn, is currently building its subsidiary in the country.
