Although online surveys have become an important quantitative research method throughout the world, thanks to their relative low cost and high speed, their application in marketing research in emerging countries is still limited due to infrastructure and sociocuitural barriers. This exploratory study assesses the potential for the deployment and use in the South-East Asian emerging country of Vietnam. Results suggest that the potential use of online surveys for marketing research in Vietnam is at the moment limited to companies, and to young and high-income social classes. All things being equal, the conditions necessary for online surveys to be successfully used in a country such as Vietnam are still five to seven years in the future. The paper discusses the difficulties in applying this survey method, and gives recommendations on how to adapt the online surveys method for use in present-day Vietnam.