Gapo has been billed as a local version of Facebook, which is wildly popular in communist Vietnam with more than 53 million registered users in the country of 95 million people.
But the social media giant, along with Google, YouTube and other global tech firms, is facing stricter scrutiny after a draconian cybersecurity law was passed last year. The controversial Bill has yet to be implemented, but when enacted could require companies to hand over user data and remove content if requested by the government to do so.
Vietnam, where more than half the population is aged under 30, is seeking more locally made social media platforms.Gapo on Monday became the latest social media site to launch in Vietnam and hopes to sign up 20 million users by 2021. But hours into its launch on Monday evening, the site ran into technical difficulties amid an onslaught of new users trying to sign up.“There are errors that only happen when the system reaches a certain level,” Gapo’s co-founder Duong Vi Khoa said in a Facebook post. — AFP