Returning to Vietnam in 2014 after completing a Master’s degree in Business Administration at the prestigious Harvard University in the United States, Bui Quang Minh decided to start his second entrepreneurial venture following the success of the F&B project Doco Donuts. This time, the chosen field was movie theaters, targeting the mass market segment. Beta Cinemas was born and has now become a name closely associated with the entrepreneur born in 1983.
With an initial capital of 5 billion VND, Beta Media – the company operating Beta Cinemas – was valued at 600 billion VND after 3 years of establishment. In 2020, with an investment of $8 million USD from Daiwa PI Partners investment fund (Japan), Beta Media reached a company valuation of 1,000 billion VND, despite the Covid-19 situation which has impacted the movie theater industry.
Sharing about the development and operation of the billion-dollar theater chain at the Shark Tank Forum event in 2020, Minh Beta – a new face joining the “shark tank” from season 6 – said that when he entered the market, people often thought there was nothing new to be done in the film industry.
“The way I did it was simple: I looked at the ticket prices of existing theater chains at that time, which were quite high compared to the income of the majority of Vietnamese people. I thought that creating a business model with lower costs, not being located in expensive shopping centers but going to slightly more remote areas, and focusing on the lower income group of customers was an innovative and creative choice. Only after implementing it did I know if it was effective or not,” analyzed Shark Minh Beta.
In the process of developing the business, due to the impact of Covid-19, Beta Cinemas had to continue to innovate. A typical example was starting to expand the cinema franchise model.
“This is a very unusual approach in Vietnam as well as in the region. No one else has franchised movie theaters, but I did it. Up to now, I have franchised 4 locations and signed several contracts for the coming years,” said Shark Minh.
According to research, Beta Cinemas currently offers 3 franchise packages, including: Beta Lite – youthful design, standard quality; Beta Standard – modern design, international quality; and Beta Premium – luxurious design, premium quality. The brand includes nearly 20 theater complexes nationwide and is continuing to expand.
At an event in 2020, Shark Minh Beta revealed that the Beta Cinemas team, during the Covid-19 period, was also working on the concept of a “portable cinema” – meaning a mobile movie theater.
“Many Vietnamese people can’t go to modern theaters in the city centers now. I thought that if they can’t come to us, we will bring the movie theater to them. From there, we came up with the concept of a movie theater on a truck, which can reach many rural areas,” Shark Minh Beta shared the idea.
However, not every idea is successful, as the saying goes “you won’t know until you try”. Referring to the failure in developing the Beta Cinemas chain, Shark Minh Beta said that he once believed that besides watching movies, people also have a need for dining, so he decided to build a complex including both movies and F&B services, with various types of food such as Thai, Vietnamese, Korean…
“However, when I started implementing it, I realized that operating F&B in such a theater chain was too complicated, putting a lot of pressure on my team and drowning us in F&B issues, while the revenue and profit from that area accounted for a relatively small proportion of the overall business.
When I realized it was not right, I decided to let it go and focus only on the movie theaters, leaving the F&B part to partnering companies. Only by trying will I know if I can succeed or not,” Shark Minh explained.
