Social media makes Hanoi debut

Tom Lancaster is the co-founder of the "The New Hanoian," Hanoi's first social media website aimed at expats and young Hanoians looking to share arts and entertainment information. Tom's "other baby" is on his back (Sam Butterfield)

When Tom Lancaster, a British-born, American-raised software developer came to Hanoi in 2005, he was, like many expatriates in any foreign city, in need of help with assimilation from locals in the know. What Lancaster soon recognized was the absence of a central hub for sharing information about services in Hanoi.

So he did what any enterprising person in the 21st century would do upon discovering a service gap: He founded Hanoi’s first social networking site for expats: The New Hanoian (

http://newhanoian.xemzi.com),

As stays for expats in foreign cities can be a fleeting affair, Lancaster, now 37, and cofounder Elliott Price, a 35-year-old Missouri native, set out to create a platform for expatriates and locals alike to review businesses and share tips on how to get by in a city which can be daunting for non-natives. 

Five years later, The New Hanoian has become a 20,000-user strong network. 

“Elliott and I agreed on the need for a resource that would serve as a community database and help to prevent the loss of information that happens when a knowledgeable expat leaves for their next assignment,” Lancaster said via email about the project’s origins. 

In a nation where just one in four citizens has Internet access, The New Hanoian is a new phenomenon. Before Lancaster and Price’s venture, there was no platform for sharing insights on restaurants, bars, hotels and other services. As such, The New Hanoian, now approaching one million hits per month according to Lancaster and Price, illustrates both how this Southeast Asian nation’s capital is becoming more Internet savvy, and how some web ingenuity can link both locals and visitors in an increasingly dynamic, interconnected city.

Lancaster noted that while he does not believe that the expatriate community has grown much in size since his arrival here, he feels the site came into existence at just the right moment in Hanoi, as local establishments continue to attempt to provide higher-quality services for a population which, with greater buying power, is demanding more and more amenities and products. Concurrently, businesses are attempting to increase their visibility on the web, as Vietnam’s Internet infrastructure continues to expand.

“Certainly the overall volume of leisure-oriented business has ballooned here, but that's driven more by the new wealth that's been created among Vietnamese,” said Lancaster.