Young Vietnamese entrepreneurs are bucking trends and leaving traditionally sought-after careers to open up their own coffee houses. Hanoi has now become a hotspot for the country's trendy cafés.
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00:00It's freshly brewed coffee, poured over condensed milk.
00:06The drink of choice for many in Hanoi.
00:08The Vietnamese capital runs on its coffee.
00:11And for 32-year-old Vu Dinh Du, that means big business.
00:16Four years ago, Vu left his high-paying job in finance to open a cafe.
00:20He's part of a new generation of entrepreneurs breaking fresh ground in Vietnam's burgeoning
00:24coffee shop industry.
00:27He saw this venture as a long-term investment, but it took his parents some convincing.
00:49Vu has now opened four branches of his cafe, Refined, throughout the city.
00:54But there's tough competition.
00:56Downtown Hanoi has become a hotspot for trendy cafes.
01:00Economists say the country's coffeehouse market is booming, filled with ambitious entrepreneurs
01:05like Vu.
01:06You don't have to really get special training or special certificates to open a coffee shop.
01:13So if it goes well, then you continue.
01:16If it doesn't go well, then you won't change another one.
01:19So that's why you see that there are a lot of new brands, new coffee shops open, and
01:24the high turnover rate is also high.
01:27Coffee beans were introduced and popularized in Vietnam during the country's French colonial
01:31period.
01:32And a few decades ago, Vietnamese coffee planters started mass-producing Robusta beans, which
01:38are usually found in instant brews.
01:41This propelled the country to become the world's second-largest exporter of coffee beans, behind
01:46Brazil.
01:47Now Vietnamese people enjoy their coffee in many different ways.
01:51It's traditionally taken black or with condensed milk.
01:54But young people have begun to put their own spin on the drink.
01:58But even though coffee has become part of the country's cultural fabric, opening a cafe
02:02or being a barista is still a relatively new career path.
02:21A Vietnamese consultancy says the country's coffee shop industry is worth around 400 million
02:37U.S. dollars, and it's still growing.
02:40What's more, international coffeehouse giant Starbucks has struggled to establish itself
02:45in Vietnam.
02:46One international market researcher found in 2022 that it only accounted for around
02:512 percent of the country's market.
02:53This has left room for young movers and shakers in Hanoi, giving them a real shot at owning
02:58their own coffeehouses, and brewing up their own success story.
03:02Phu Hoa Hung and Wesley Lewis for Taiwan Plus.