The history of social networking sites goes back to 1997 when the first recognizable social networking site named SixDegrees.com was launched. Few years later, many others social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, etc. have emerged and now become a mass phenomenon, both in terms of number and size. Today, social networking sites consistently rank among the top sites just behind giant search engines. Vietnam is not an exception of this rule. Social networking sites have become more and more important in daily life of Vietnamese internet users. They made up 85% of internet population, gained 19% from 2010 to 2011, compared to 12% of the global average.
Facebook now is the leader in Vietnam, accounts for 70% market share. The second position belongs to Vietnamese Facebook’s clone, Zing Me with 20% market share. In fact, Zing Me seems to have more advantages than Facebook in Vietnam since it gets big support from parent company - a local-based internet giant VNG. Zing Me also is designed to localize for Vietnamese people. Furthermore, Facebook has been banned in Vietnam since late 2009. However, Zing Me's desire is to be able to take the lead of Facebook still hasn’t achieved.
The study is conducted bases on a case of Zing Me in Vietnam market. The objectives are to gain deeper understanding of Zing Me's situation by analyzing both of Zing Me and Facebook, then give recommendations for the local site to improve itself in order to dominate Vietnam market. Case study and in-depth interview are main methods for collecting data and analysis.
We formulate social networking sites evaluation framework which modified mainly bases on unified theory of acceptance of the new technology and the Tiger pleasure framework. The framework introduces several influential factors effect success of social networking sites. These factors will be applied on Facebook and Zing Me to answer the research questions.
Our results show that in order to sword Facebook, Zing Me has to stop being a Facebook’s clone and design itself as an original and localization. To archive this target, Zing Me needs to improve all the influential factors which facilitates and satisfies the users’ needs and demands.

The history of social networking sites goes back to 1997 when the first recognizable social networking site named SixDegrees.com was launched. Few years later, many others social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, etc. have emerged and now become a mass phenomenon, both in terms of number and size. Today, social networking sites consistently rank among the top sites just behind giant search engines. Vietnam is not an exception of this rule. Social networking sites have become more and more important in daily life of Vietnamese internet users. They made up 85% of internet population, gained 19% from 2010 to 2011, compared to 12% of the global average.
Facebook now is the leader in Vietnam, accounts for 70% market share. The second position belongs to Vietnamese Facebook’s clone, Zing Me with 20% market share. In fact, Zing Me seems to have more advantages than Facebook in Vietnam since it gets big support from parent company - a local-based internet giant VNG. Zing Me also is designed to localize for Vietnamese people. Furthermore, Facebook has been banned in Vietnam since late 2009. However, Zing Me’s desire is to be able to take the lead of Facebook still hasn’t achieved.
The study is conducted bases on a case of Zing Me in Vietnam market. The objectives are to gain deeper understanding of Zing Me’s situation by analyzing both of Zing Me and Facebook, then give recommendations for the local site to improve itself in order to dominate Vietnam market. Case study and in-depth interview are main methods for collecting data and analysis.
We formulate social networking sites evaluation framework which modified mainly bases on unified theory of acceptance of the new technology and the Tiger pleasure framework. The framework introduces several influential factors effect success of social networking sites. These factors will be applied on Facebook and Zing Me to answer the research questions.
Our results show that in order to sword Facebook, Zing Me has to stop being a Facebook’s clone and design itself as an original and localization. To archive this target, Zing Me needs to improve all the influential factors which facilitates and satisfies the users’ needs and demands.

Alexa statistics. Available at
http://www.alexa.com/topsites
Boyd, D, M. & Ellison, N, B. (2007), “Social network sites: Definition, history, and scholarship”, Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 13(1), article 11. Available at: http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol13/issue1/boyd.ellison.html
Brussee, R. & Hekman, E. (2009), “Social media are highly accessible media”, Crossmedialab. Available at: http://crossmedialab.nl/people/person/2/erik-hekman
Carolyn Boyce, Palena Neale (2006), “A Guide for Designing and Conducting In-Depth Interviews for Evaluation Input”. Available at
http://www2.pathfinder.org/site/DocServer/m_e_tool_series_indepth_interviews.pdf
Cassidy, J. (2006). “Me media: How hanging out on the Internet became big business”, The New Yorker. Available at: http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2006/05/15/060515fa_fact_cassidy
Checkfacebook.com statistic, 2012. Available at
http://www.checkfacebook.com/
Cimigo reports, 2010, 2011, 2012. Available at
http://www.cimigo.vn/en-US/Reports/Others/Common.aspx
Clippinger, J. (2000), “Human ad social networks”. Available at: http://www.dodccrp.org/files/Human_Nature.pdf
comScore report 2012. Available at
http://www.comscore.com/Press_Events
Cugelman, Brian; Thelwall, Mike; and Dawes, Phil (2009). “The Dimensions of Web Site Credibility and Their Relation to Active Trust and Behavioural Impact”, Communications of the Association for Information Systems: Vol. 24, Article 26.
Available at: http://aisel.aisnet.org/cais/vol24/iss1/26
Ellison, N. B., Steinfield, C., & Lampe, C. (2007), “The benefits of Facebook "friends:" Social capital and college students' use of online social network sites”, Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, article 1.
Available at http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol12/issue4/ellison.html
Google Adplanner statistics. Available at
https://www.google.com/adplanner/#siteSearch
Hart, J. & Ridley, C. & Taher, F. et al. (2008), “Exploring the Facebook Experience: A New Approach to Usability”. Available at:
http://delivery.acm.org/10.1145/1470000/1463222/p471-hart.pdf?key1=1463222&key2=2121138621&coll=GUIDE&dl=GUIDE&CFID=81481726&CFTOKEN=18377451
Jordan, P, W., (2000), “Designing pleasurable products. Taylor & Francis”, Taylor & Francis.
Juan Carlos Perez (2009), “Yahoo Sets Date for Shutting Down 360 Social Network”. Available at http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/165784/yahoo_sets_date_for_shutting_down_360_social_network.html
Kien Cuong (2009), “Yahoo – A sad story”. Available at
http://vietnamnet.vn/vn/cong-nghe-thong-tin-vien-thong/67299/yahoo-vn--nhung-chuyen-buon-chua-hoi-ket.html
Mack, N., Woodsong, C., Macqueen, K.M., Guest, G. & Namey,E. (2005) “Qualitative Research Methods: A Data Collector’s Field Guide”, Family Health International, North Carolina, p. 136.
Mayfield, A. (2008), “What is Social Media”. Available at:
http://www.icrossing.co.uk/fileadmin/uploads/eBooks/What_is_Social_Media_iCrossing_ebo
ok.pdf
Masoud Banbersta (2010), “The success factors of the Social Network Sites “Twitter”, Crossmedialab. Available at http://crossmedialab.nl/files/SNS_Research.pdf
Palmquist, R.A. (1997) “The Case Study as a Research Method”, Uses and Users of Information, LIS 391 D.1.
Quantcast statistics. Available at http://www.quantcast.com/measurement
Thelwall, M. (2009), “Social Network sites: Users and uses”, Advances in Computers, Vol.76 p. 23-26.　　　
Tiger, (1992), “The persuit of pleasure”, Little brown.
Venkatesh V, Morris M G, Davis G B, et al (2003), “User acceptance of information technology: Towards a unified view” MIS Quarterly, p.425-478.
Vietnam Internet Network Information Center. Available at
http://www.vnnic.vn/english/
VNG Report (2012). Available at: http://vng.com.vn/vn/trang-chu-tin-tuc/
Yin, R.K. (1984) “Case study research: Design and Methods”, Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
Yu-Lung Wu, Yu-Hui Tao, Pei-Chi Yang (2008), “The use of unified theory of acceptance and use of technology to confer the behavioral model of 3G mobile telecommunication users”, Journal of Statistics & Management Systems, Vol. 11, No. 5, p.919–949.