After eating bowl of Pho at one of Saigon’s best restaurants that specializes in the famous national dish, we headed to Glass Egg Digital Media, a technology company that specializes in building 3D models for objects, such as cars, in video games. There most famous contracts include all the “Forza” games, “Call of Duty: Black Ops III,” and “Need for Speed.”
Glass Egg faces challenges, including, but not exclusively: advancing their artistic and technological capabilities, so they can successfully design characters for video games, attracting game developers to make the journey to Vietnam to see the company up close, and deciding whether to remain stationed solely in Saigon or to expand and set up an office closer to North America or Europe. The COO and the co-owner of Glass Egg, together, described to us how being located in Ho Chi Minh City, an extra hours flight from Japan or Shanghai, does discourage some video game developers from outsourcing projects to Glass Egg. Still, this seemed to be the only big downside to being located in Vietnam for this business partnership. The co-owner did inform us that he makes business deal contracts between Glass Egg and video game developers via the British Virgin Islands, where the company can then outsource the projects to Vietnam. This is because most lawyers find it easier to comprehend and go over the law in the BVI’s, who follow British law, rather than in socialist Vietnam.
Benefits of doing business in Vietnam for Glass Egg include the hot and appealing climate, the cheapness of virtually everything (including labor) in comparison to other major financial centers of the world, and being located among the friendly and hardworking Vietnamese people.
Right now Glass Egg sees itself growing in Ho Chi Minh City, and the COO told us that they were preparing to buy more office space to accommodate their newly hired 40 trainees. The COO did mention that opening up an office in Vancouver or Tokyo had been contemplated, but the company is satisfied with where it lives as of today.