This interview was featured on Vietnamnet. Chairman Ta Son Tung shared Rikkeisoft’s journey of global expansion.
Chairman Ta Son Tung shared that he has many Japanese friends. One advantageous aspect is that even Ritsumeikan University, where he studied, has a great support system for graduating students.
Japanese businesses, especially chairpersons and directors of large corporations, see Rikkeisoft as having ambition and vision, resembling their own image from 30 to 40 years ago. Partners are willing to share their experiences with Rikkeisoft and introduce many other Japanese companies as potential customers.
Along with recognition and high customer evaluation, Rikkeisoft has expanded into new services, from website systems, cloud storage, to large-scale business systems, production management systems, finance, accounting, banking, IoT systems, AI, Blockchain, and more.
Ta Son Tung shared that the key to success in the Japanese market is sincerity, honesty, and keeping promises. These factors have helped the company thrive in this market. Previously, China was Japan’s key market, Vietnamese businesses have gradually replaced that position.
Vietnamese possess the ability to work well, diligence, perseverance, and have cultural similarities with the Japanese. The role of Vietnamese companies within Japanese businesses has become number one. Currently, Rikkeisoft is the top company in the Japanese market with 250 engineers working in Japan, of which over 90% are Vietnamese.
Until now, Japan remains the best market for Rikkeisoft, but the company is expanding into other markets, especially the US.
“We are succeeding in the Japanese market, but Rikkeisoft wants to venture into the US market because it is the largest market. We see that most of the top 500 corporations are based in the US. Therefore, establishing a presence in the US is important but also challenging for any company,” shared Ta Son Tung.
Since 2016, Rikkeisoft has been making progress in the US market, but it wasn’t until 2023 that the company opened an office there. Interestingly, Japanese customers have helped Rikkeisoft connect with Japanese companies in the US to assist the company in entering this market. As a result, a series of Japanese customers in the US have become clients, and some Japanese-Americans have become advisors to Rikkeisoft.
However, Rikkeisoft’s leadership acknowledges that the US market is a challenging one. “In Japan, when issues arise, the parties involved sincerely work together to resolve them, and they continue to collaborate afterward. In the US, companies have numerous choices with partners from Eastern Europe, South America, India, and more. While Vietnamese companies hold a top position in Japan, we don’t have the same recognition in the US.
In 2016, with the help of our Japanese friends, we targeted niche markets in the US, but they were relatively small. Nonetheless, we remain determined to develop this market and have attracted experienced individuals in US market development. Rikkeisoft aims to conquer the American dream, which will be the driving force for the future in 5-7 years,” said Ta Son Tung.
He further stated that the Ministry of Information and Communications had set the goal of taking Vietnamese businesses abroad, which is the right objective. When we go abroad, we learn many things and become more mature. To achieve the goal of expanding businesses internationally, we need to understand the market, compete with large corporations, thus grow and mature in the process.
They can be a force that can be trained in vocational training and can do some software jobs well. In Japan, for example, about 60% of engineers come from non-IT-related fields of Literature, History and Geography. Even these people can do very well, even the difficult things, not just the easy ones in the software field. At Rikkeisoft, there are cases where they study other subjects but are passionate, self-taught and have become good IT engineers,” said Mr. Ta Son Tung.
Currently, Rikkeisoft is serving many major Japanese e-commerce systems. We have built large systems for large e-commerce chains in Japan, logistics chains, supermarket management. Therefore, the company hopes to develop this system for the Vietnamese market and other markets.
“The company has a scale of 1,600 people and this year’s target revenue is about VND 1,000 billion. Rikkeisoft aims to reach 250 million USD in revenue and will IPO in the US in 2027,” said Mr. Ta Son Tung.
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