More than half of Vietnamese Internet users are gamers, a Thursday conference was told.

According to the Vietnam Software Association (Vinasa), Vietnam has 12 million gamers; meanwhile, statistics by the Vietnam Internet Center shows the country has 22.2 million Internet users as of October, 2009.

Most of Vietnamese gamers are students and office workers, according to Vinasa.

A Vinasa survey conducted on 1,250 Vietnamese gamers says 70 percent of them prefer online games, and 55 percent spend two to four hours a day playing games.

It also says 40 percent of gamers spend VND160,000-VND300,000 (US$8-16) and 60 percent spend VND70,000-160,000 ($4-8) on games each month.

Computer games were first introduced to the country in 1985. Online games made a later appearance in 2003 but the online gaming industry has been growing rapidly and become a part of pop culture in Vietnam.

The recent explosion of online gaming in Vietnam has worried local authorities and parents that their children will spend all their time tethered to keyboards in smoky Internet cafes.

Vietnam is the biggest market for computer games in Southeast Asia, with nearly 20 game distributors.

Most online games in Vietnam are imported from China and South Korea.

The number of online gamers in Vietnam is forecast to exceed 10 million by 2011, driven by rising incomes, increasing PC and Internet penetration rates and a large population of youth that are actively seeking out entertainment content.

It is estimated that game industry earned $130 million last year, accounting for 70 percent of the country’s earnings in digital industry, the conference heard.

(Source: TuoiTre)