— Overview
The material reads overseas entry as a struggle to raise a firm’s own strength in a harder world market, not merely as opening more branches. Korean companies, it says, looked for cheaper and better inputs, and by the time of writing had entered Vietnam and Indonesia most heavily after China and the United States, with investment rising as Korea’s image improved. Early moves centered on textiles and sewing that used low-wage local labor; later investment aimed at the local market in primary metals and electronic parts.
One closely told case is L company’s Debon cosmetics. Among foreign brands already sold in Vietnam — Lancôme, Revlon, Chanel, Shiseido, and Debon — cosmetics reward whoever arrives first, because a first use often creates ongoing demand. Young women in Ho Chi Minh City, the material says, were shifting from the cheapest goods toward higher-end products that matched their taste. Debon, shown from early 1998, took first place among foreign brands within a year.
In March 1998 L company set up a local sales firm, the first of its kind there, and ran publicity through to after-sales claims, including sponsorship of Miss Vietnam, free street make-up, and door-to-door selling that the material calls unprecedented in Vietnam. A later industrial caution is dated: according to the Financial News of 16 August 2015, Samsung Electronics’ local parts-procurement rate in Vietnam was 36 percent, and most of that still came from Korean suppliers and other foreign firms already on the ground, against 43 percent in China and 53 percent in Thailand in KOTRA’s 2014 figures.
Investment was concentrated in manufacturing, especially textiles and electronics; the writers wanted more movement into construction and wholesale and retail services. Those rates stay in 2014 and 2015; they are not a later official tally.
— Contents and key concepts
After China and the United States, a cosmetics case
The material reads overseas entry as a struggle to raise a firm’s own strength in a harder world market, not merely as opening more branches. Korean companies looked for cheaper and better inputs, and by the time of writing had entered Vietnam and Indonesia most heavily after China and the United States. Early moves centered on textiles and sewing that used low-wage local labor; later investment aimed at the local market in primary metals and electronic parts.
One closely told case is L company’s Debon cosmetics. Among foreign brands already sold in Vietnam — Lancôme, Revlon, Chanel, Shiseido, and Debon — cosmetics reward whoever arrives first. Debon, shown from early 1998, took first place among foreign brands within a year. In March 1998 L company set up a local sales firm, the first of its kind there, and ran publicity through to after-sales claims, including sponsorship of Miss Vietnam, free street make-up, and door-to-door selling that the material calls unprecedented in Vietnam.
A 36 percent parts rate in 2015
A later industrial caution is dated. According to the Financial News of 16 August 2015, Samsung Electronics’ local parts-procurement rate in Vietnam was 36 percent, and most of that still came from Korean suppliers and other foreign firms already on the ground, against 43 percent in China and 53 percent in Thailand in KOTRA’s 2014 figures.
Investment was concentrated in manufacturing, especially textiles and electronics; the writers wanted more movement into construction and wholesale and retail services. Those rates stay in 2014 and 2015; they are not a later official tally. The same Korean report, at fuller length, is on CampusDown.
Sources
- Korean FDI in Vietnam and Indonesia after China and the US, as of the material’s writing. Shift from textiles/sewing (low-wage labor) to primary metals and electronic parts (local-market entry). L company Debon: on sale from early 1998; local sales company March 1998; first place among foreign brands within a year; Miss Vietnam sponsorship, street make-up, door-to-door selling. Samsung Electronics local parts rate 36% in Vietnam, Financial News 16 Aug 2015; KOTRA 2014b: China 43%, Thailand 53%. Not later official tallies. Concentration in manufacturing; call to diversify into construction and wholesale/retail.
Last updated: 14 November 2026
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