Vietnamese businesses make their mark on the world animation map

Sconnect owns a “asset” of about 50,000 animated videos. The content is translated into 20 languages ​​and released globally. This is one of the few businesses in the world that applies a variety of animation production technologies.

Exporting digital content to demanding markets 10 years ago, Sconnect Vietnam Technology and Service Investment Company Limited (abbreviated as Sconnect) was established with 8 initial members, specializing in editing video content and publishing on the YouTube platform. Lacking capital and lacking experience in exploiting content on YouTube, Sconnect still boldly took the challenging path: Creating good content, clean content to serve audiences in high-standard content consumption markets such as the US and Europe. Sharing the reason for choosing to export digital content to demanding markets right from the start instead of the domestic market, Sconnect founder and CEO Ta Manh Hoang said: "When researching standards and regulations for children's content, we realized that other countries have very clear regulations, we just need to learn and follow. Meanwhile, in Vietnam, there is no such system, the risk of encountering risks is quite high".

From the very first day of its establishment, Sconnect Vietnam has aimed to create good, clean content to serve audiences in markets with high standards. Photo: Sconnect

Sconnect has carefully calculated each step of its creative startup journey. For example, to conquer American parents, the production team has seriously studied the standards of cross-border platforms, researched the tastes of audiences in target markets to create content that is well received by audiences. In 2016, Sconnect's staff increased to 64 people. In addition to editorial content, the company expanded its research and expanded into the field of animation production for children, starting with 2D and stopmotion animation production.

Constantly exploring, learning, researching products, and developing markets, Sconnect has risen to affirm its position in the creative industry, gradually putting Vietnam's name on the world animation map.

The successful release of the animated film Wolfoo to global audiences in 2018 was a particularly important milestone for Sconnect Vietnam. Since then, animation has been identified as a core product on the sustainable development roadmap of this enterprise. Aiming for higher goals, the company quickly prepared resources for the acceleration phase of multi-industry expansion, from the core product of animation and expanding the exploitation of intellectual property (IP) animation business. Following the resounding success of the animated film Wolfoo, Sconnect continued to create and develop many animated character sets such as: Doodles; Fairy Tales; Max's Puppy Dog; Tiny - Clay Mixer; Luka,... along with accompanying animated products. By the end of 2023, the company had owned and developed 18 animation IPs, aiming to develop 10 more IPs in 2024. In addition to its success in English content, Sconnect also developed content in a variety of languages. “The multilingual channel system gradually grew, conquering more and more international audiences. From the first 1 million views, our channel system gradually reached 100 million views/month, then increased to billions of views/month,” Mr. Hoang shared.

Animated character ecosystem produced and copyrighted by Sconnect. Photo: Sconnect.

Sconnect Vietnam currently owns an "asset" of about 50,000 videos. The content is translated into 20 languages ​​and released globally. The regions with the most viewers include North America, Europe, China, Japan, India and other populous countries. This Vietnamese enterprise also owns about 500 channels, with more than 4.5 billion views/month on YouTube, 3 diamond buttons and more than 400 gold and silver buttons. Vietnam's animation ecosystem 'captures the hearts' of millions of children worldwide Sconnect is among the few enterprises in the world that apply a variety of animation production technologies: 2D, 2D Frame by Frame, 3D, Stop motion, Paper formation, Live Action... One of the biggest difficulties when the company expands production is the lack of high-quality human resources. To solve this problem, in 2021, Sconnect established the Sconnect International Animation Training Academy (Sconnect Academy, now SAMA) specializing in training animation production. Within 3 years, SAMA provided more than 3,000 workers to the labor market. 100% of graduates have jobs immediately. The training curriculum is continuously updated by leading domestic and international animation experts. SAMA is implementing 7 training majors in animation production and game design. Not only creating animated videos that capture the hearts of millions of children around the world, in 2021, Sconnect invested in developing educational game products from the Wolfoo cartoon character set. Each game is a small lesson for children to learn while playing, close to life and easy to implement. After 3 years of development, the company has programmed and published 140 games for children under 8 years old, with more than 3 million game downloads per month. Similar to animation, Wolfoo Game continues to conquer a series of American and European parents who want to encourage their children to "play games to learn, learn while playing".

Vietnamese businesses are ready to cooperate with international content distribution platforms to expand their markets. Photo: Sconnect Vietnam

The product's good and safe content for children is recognized by international education experts. To date, Wolfoo Game has received 54 Teacher Approve badges approved by teachers and education experts from Google. Another important piece in Sconnect's animation ecosystem is the playground system modeled after cartoon characters loved by children. In 2022, Sconnect opened the first educational (educational - entertainment) playground in Vietnam - Wolfoo City (now the Wolfoo World playground system), recreating images from the movie into real life. It is expected that by the end of 2025, the company will develop more than 30 Wolfoo World playgrounds nationwide, helping Sconnect diversify the Wolfoo product ecosystem and business fields. Sconnect has been awarded the first 2 Vietnamese Records in the field of animation, including: "The unit owning the largest number of copyrights for Vietnamese animated films" with 127 copyright certificates; "Wolfoo - Vietnamese animated film released in multiple languages ​​on Youtube with the most episodes" with 3,700 episodes, being translated into 17 languages. Recently, Sconnect has just announced the initiative to build an Animation Investment Fund, focusing on supporting and developing high-quality animated film projects, to further promote the development of Vietnam's animation industry. "We will cooperate with animation studios and creative teams to develop new animation IPs; coordinate with international content distribution platforms to expand the market. The Fund will play an important role in making animation a spearhead industry of the digital economy, enhancing the position of Vietnam's animation industry in the international market", CEO Sconnect emphasized.

From 8 initial employees, after 10 years of development, Sconnect has nearly 1,000 employees, headquartered in Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, the US, the Czech Republic, the UK, and Hungary. From an editorial content production enterprise, the company has built a creative business model, focusing on the main business lines: Content production, games, IP commerce, content distribution, entertainment services, creator support services, and animation outsourcing services.

Vietnamnet.vn

Source: https://vietnamnet.vn/doanh-nghiep-viet-ghi-danh-tren-ban-do-hoat-hinh-the-gioi-2314484.html