Hanoi (VNA) - Vietnam is home to agrowing number of tech-savvy “connected consumers” that global corporationswill increasingly seek to court, according to a study conducted by Nielsen in cooperationwith Demand Institute.

The study found that companies looking forgrowth opportunities are increasingly unable to target the traditional middleclass, whose incomes have grown sluggishly in recent years. Instead, they mayturn to “a new emerging type of consumer,” said Rakesh Dayal, executivedirector of Consumer Insights, Nielsen Vietnam.

“Connected spenders are a fast-growing newsegment of consumers: digitally savvy consumers with discretionary income andare avid shoppers who punch above their income class in spending,” the directorsaid. “Our research shows that Vietnamese connected spenders will spend 800billion USD over the next decade. Therefore, for consumer-facing businessesseeking to grow in Vietnam, these are the consumers whose needs will need to beaddressed.”

There were 23 million connected spenders inVietnam in 2015, according to Nielsen Vietnam’s latest study, and that sum isexpected to grow nearly double to reach 40 million people in 2025. Theirspending will rise from 50 billion USD annually in 2015 to 99 billion USD by2025.

Connected spenders span a range of ages andincome groups.

Around one-third of Vietnamese connectedspenders are between the ages of 21 and 34 (34 percent), the report showed.

Over three-quarters of the consumers within thehigher income bracket are connected spenders, while nearly two-thirds ofmiddle-income Vietnamese are connected spenders. In the lower income bracket,43 percent fall into the category.

Connected spenders tend to be confident in thefuture: The Nielsen Confidence Consumer Index revealed that in 2015, connectedspenders had a consumer confidence score of 117, versus 99 for other Internetusers.- VNA