Permate's 10-Year Journey in America and the Dream of Returning to Elevate Vietnam's Affiliate Market

By Dan Alexander

Published: Jan 14, 2025 05:42:07 PM IST

When the young founders of Permate entered the U.S. affiliate marketing arena, they wanted to put themselves to the test. They were Vietnamese expats who came into the field with a mindset of can-do and a willingness to be challenged with a single burning desire: "If we can win the fiercest market reset, we can go home to give back to our country one day." After around 10 years of "hustling" in the land of stars and stripes, they returned to Vietnam with a big idea: A Permate affiliate platform to "transform" affiliate marketing in Vietnam.

If personal safety were our highest concern, we would not return to Vietnam to launch a business. However, we want to do something for the land that gave us life. The Permate team experienced it all when in the U.S: from late payments to fraudulent publishers to too-rigid brands to a competitive race on hundreds of affiliate platforms. However, these same challenges arguably gave them some of their most valuable experience. They recognized that measurement technology is just one side of the coin; the most important side is cultivating transparency and sustainable relationships between brands, publishers, and platforms.

In Vietnam, they witnessed a burgeoning affiliate landscape that was not without its gaps. Today, in so many networks that are out there, it "eats up everything," from campaign management to fraud detection. That dynamic, in turn, can spawn conflicts of interest: the more conversions, the more the network stands to gain, so will they ignore fraudulent publishers? What does that mean, however, for the interests of brands? The big one, though, in all of these is trust.

Continued growing sentiment led Permate to a different conclusion - building an affiliate marketplace where brands can post their own campaigns instead. The founders jokingly refer to it as "a mini Shopee for affiliate marketing campaigns." They want to reduce the need for intermediaries while allowing both parties more power and increasing transparency over data. By doing this, brands have a "first-hand view" of the conversion rates, while publishers can "directly raise concerns" with the brands. They hope to foster a spirit of partnership instead of waiting for a network to fix things.

This is no small task, of course. The market sees brands handing things over to a network and letting them do everything. And some of the smaller brands might be thinking: if we do our campaigns, is there a dedicated team of experts for that? Publishers are cautious: "What does a new marketplace mean for us? That begs the question: will there be strong action in disputes between us and the brands?” Such hesitancy demands the Permate founding team to pour in tons of resources, not just into building out the system but also into "nurturing" both parties to become comfortable with this marketplace model.

Regarding technology, Permate pledges to optimize its infrastructure to be equivalent to international standards. Based on their experience in the U.S, they invest in real-time tracking systems and Artificial intelligence-based traffic anomaly detection to reduce fraud. Ethical publishers and dedicated brands naturally seek long-term engagements based on their practical experiences. A "marketplace" implies transparency, and thus, both sides will have to adjust — e.g., commission rates at different levels or simply checking the conversion rates by themselves.

Naturally, it's not all rosy. This leaves room for other players such as Permate, but what about long-established affiliate networks with a steadied client base? Would Permate be convincing enough? Trust is golden. Everybody knows this: some brands have lost billions on the worst affiliate campaigns; on the other hand, publishers receive late payments or the campaign was stopped immediately without warning. Permate are not just about slogans; they plan to hold trainings, become more knowledgeable, and continue "educating the market" for many years. It will not be easy, but they are confident that: "When people understand the value of a marketplace model, they will support it with all their might."

Another interesting fact is that the people behind Permate have all lived in the "start-up culture" of big U.S. metropolitan economies. Failure is part of the game for them, but the decider is the capacity to get back up. They are idealistic but realistic: "If we lose this fight, we will still have gained so much. Because we dedicated ourselves to our mission to give back so that Vietnam's market would be another alternative, perhaps this model will encourage thousands of other projects.

Permate is challenging us to fan into flames the hope of much more: "All change takes those who are courageous enough to go straight in." A decade and weathered by all that America's fiercest markets throw up, these young founders have made it, but their eyes stay firmly on their motherland. You can almost feel their burning desire to give back in every word, a willingness to add value to the next generation of Vietnamese entrepreneurs bent on not "shying away from the big ambitions."

Will they reform the playing field and bring in a fresh new era for affiliates in Vietnam? Only time will tell the truth. But if history has shown us anything about entrepreneurs, the people who are brave enough to take a leap drive progress. Permate went that way, equipped with faith, enthusiasm, and a tremendous sense of duty to the place that had always been…home.

(This story appears in the 10 January, 2025 issue of Forbes India. To visit our Archives, click here.)