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3.5. Strategic adaptation under market and regulatory pressures
Despite its advantages, a closed ecosystem is not static. In response to pressures
from regulators, market competition, and content providers, Apple Inc. has gradually
relaxed certain DRM restrictions, allowing for the distribution of DRM-free content under
specific conditions.
This evolution reflects the need to balance three interrelated objectives: (1)
protecting intellectual property rights, (2) sustaining ecosystem-based competitive
advantages, and (3) addressing consumer demand for interoperability. Research by
(Hazlett, T.W., Weisman, D.L, 2011) argues that the company’s success lies not merely in
locking down its ecosystem, but in its capacity to flexibly calibrate the degree of openness
and control in order to optimize commercial value at different stages of digital market
development.
3.6. Key learned lessons
Several generalizable insights can be derived from this case: i) DRM is most effective
when integrated into a broader ecosystem strategy rather than deployed solely as an
anti-piracy mechanism; ii) Technological control can generate sustainable competitive
advantages when accompanied by superior user experience and clear consumer value
propositions; iii) The “walled garden” model requires continuous adjustment to balance
ecosystem control with interoperability and evolving industry standards; and iv) Legal
frameworks and competition policies play an increasingly important role in defining the
boundary between legitimate innovation protection and anti-competitive conduct.
4. Current situation of the “Walled Garden” model and DRM in Vietnam
4.1. The development context of Vietnam’s digital content market
Over the past decade, alongside the national digital transformation process,
Vietnam’s digital content market has experienced rapid growth across multiple sectors,
including online music, Over-the-Top (OTT) television services, video games, digital
publishing, and value-added services delivered through telecommunications platforms.
The increasing number of Internet users, the widespread adoption of smart mobile
devices, and the expansion of digital payment systems have created favorable conditions
for the emergence of domestic content-distribution ecosystems, operating in parallel with
the presence of cross-border platforms. Within this evolving landscape, domestic firms
have begun to construct integrated service ecosystems that combine content distribution,
user management, and payment systems within unified technological environments.
These developments represent early manifestations of the “walled garden” model in
Vietnam. However, compared to global technology firms, the degree of vertical
integration, technological standardization, and ecosystem control remains relatively
limited.
4.2. The emergence of domestic platform ecosystems
Vietnamese enterprises have increasingly adopted ecosystem-based strategies,
though their implementation remains partial and heterogeneous. For instance, VNG
Corporation has developed an interconnected ecosystem centered on digital
entertainment. Its platform integrates online gaming (ZingPlay), digital music (Zing MP3),
messaging and social interaction (Zalo), and cloud infrastructure and digital services. This
ecosystem demonstrates early forms of user lock-in through account integration and
cross-service data utilization, although DRM implementation remains relatively basic,
focusing primarily on access control and content hosting rather than advanced rights
governance (Corporation, 2025). Similarly, Viettel Group leverages its

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