From 40 businesses to more than 700 businesses
The Postal Law was passed by the National Assembly on June 17, 2010 and took effect from January 1, 2011. The Ministry of Science and Technology said that after 15 years, this legal framework has laid the foundation for the formation and development of the postal market, expanded the participation of businesses and promoted competition.
According to the Ministry of Science and Technology, if in 2010 only about 40 businesses were granted postal licenses or confirmed operating notices by management agencies, by 2025, this number reached 740 businesses after reviewing businesses that are no longer operating. The number of businesses increased nearly 19 times, of which more than 99% belong to the private economic sector.
Along with the number of businesses, revenue also increased rapidly. The summary report of the Ministry of Science and Technology said that postal service revenue increased from about 4,135 billion VND in 2010 to 72,570 billion VND in 2024. The average growth rate in the period 2017-2024 is about 25% per year.
In 2024, the entire market reached 3.318 billion parcels, an increase of 37.1% compared to the previous year. Packages and goods accounted for 90.1% of total output and an increase of 42.8%.
By 2025, the scale will continue to increase to about 4.1 billion parcels, 12 times higher than in 2010. Postal service revenue reached about 87,000 billion VND and more than 90% of the output is packages and packages of goods.
These figures show that postal services have become a much larger market than when the 2010 Postal Law was built.
Postal services change with e-commerce
According to the Ministry of Science and Technology, at the time of drafting the 2010 Postal Law, the market still had traditional characteristics, in which mail played an important role. After 15 years, the strong development of e-commerce has profoundly changed the postal structure.
The Ministry also said that the period 2020-2025 witnessed the explosive development of e-commerce. Packages and packages of goods accounted for more than 90% of the total postal output, leading to the requirement to adjust regulations on freight rates, quality, safety and postal security.
Posts are therefore no longer simply the activity of receiving, transporting and delivering letters. The postal system is increasingly associated with logistics and the supply chain of e-commerce. This is a notable shift in the market as technology begins to change the way businesses organize postal activities.
From physical networks to digital infrastructure
The development of e-commerce also changes the role of postal services. According to the Ministry of Science and Technology, the postal industry is oriented towards linking physical networks, digital infrastructure and data infrastructure, taking digital platforms as breakthrough solutions. Postal businesses are oriented to become businesses applying digital technology to create new products and services.
In the policy dossier, the Ministry of Science and Technology proposed to add concepts such as "digital mail", "digital postal infrastructure", "digital address", "travel data", "digital postal code" and API tracking. The dossier also raises the issue of building a data sharing mechanism between postal enterprises and e-commerce platforms.
Thus, after 15 years, the change of postal services is not only reflected in the number of mails sent or revenue. A new ecosystem is forming, in which postal services are increasingly closely linked to e-commerce, logistics, digital platforms and data. This is also the basis for management agencies to raise the issue of building a new legal framework suitable to the scale and operating methods of the current market.
