Minet Asia is one of the pioneering startups in the field of influencer marketing in Southeast Asia, operating across three major markets: Vietnam, Thailand, and Indonesia. Founded in 2018, the startup has built a network of over 15,000 influencers and more than 20,000 content-sharing accounts on social media, providing a strong foundation for creative and highly viral communication campaigns. Amid the shifting marketing landscape—where strategies are moving away from celebrity endorsements toward more authentic engagement—Minet Asia was quick to recognize the potential of leveraging micro and mid-tier influencers with high engagement levels within their communities.
At the core of Minet Asia’s technology solution is a Social Feed Marketing platform integrated with artificial intelligence and machine learning to optimize corporate communication campaigns. The system can analyze demographic data, detect fake accounts, and recommend the most suitable influencers based on specific communication goals. As a result, brands can execute campaigns with a high degree of accuracy, rather than investing broadly using outdated methods. According to the startup’s data, this platform helps reduce costs by up to 11.2 times, increases engagement by 380 times, and boosts brand mentions by 39 times compared to traditional marketing channels.
Rather than chasing after celebrities with hundreds of thousands of followers but low actual engagement, Minet Asia focuses on tapping into the potential of micro-influencers—social media users with around 1,000 friends or followers who maintain authentic interactions and are trusted by their communities. This strategy sets the platform apart, enabling brands to connect more naturally and effectively with their target audiences. Leveraging a community of real, highly interactive users also helps address a widespread issue in influencer marketing today: the inflation of performance metrics due to fake accounts or inauthentic interactions, which undermines campaign effectiveness.
Over its development journey, Minet Asia has achieved several notable milestones. The startup was named among the Top 10 at TECHFEST Vietnam 2019, organized by the Ministry of Science and Technology—one of the largest national innovation programs in Vietnam. During this period, Minet Asia successfully secured funding from Vietnam Silicon Valley and was valued at over 1 million USD, laying the financial groundwork to further develop its technology platform and expand its market reach.
One of the key lessons Minet Asia offers to the startup ecosystem is the importance of clearly understanding the problem technology is meant to solve, rather than investing in overly complex solutions that fail to align with market realities. Instead of building a massive but hard-to-operate technical system, the startup chose to optimize its technology to directly address business needs: identifying the right influencers, enhancing efficiency, and reducing costs. High usability, measurable outcomes, and practical application have earned Minet Asia the trust of both businesses and users.
Additionally, its early regional market entry strategy stands out. At a time when the influencer marketing landscape in Vietnam was still fragmented and lacked professional tools, Minet Asia identified similar gaps in neighboring markets such as Thailand and Indonesia—countries with highly active social media bases but limited analytics and connection tools. Expanding into these countries has not only increased user base scale but also established a sustainable competitive advantage in the region.
With its technological advantages and expertise in influencer marketing, Minet Asia has become a trusted partner for major brands such as Vingroup, Doji, Casio, Golden Gate, and Traveloka.
