The Metro Viet News was established to serve the growing population of Vietnamese Americans in the Greater Philadelphia area. The paper is published by New Mainstream Press, who also operates The Metro Chinese Weekly: the largest Chinese weekly in the area. The Philadelphia Vietnamese community is a vibrant community, which ranks as the second largest Asian-American population in the region. The Philadelphia population ranks ninth nationally and third on the east coast. Recently the local banks, auto dealerships and supermarkets have been impressed by the volume of businesses from the Vietnamese community.

The majority of Philadelphia’s Vietnamese population resides in South and Northeast Philadelphia, where Vietnamese businesses, stores, restaurants and community organizations have been growing for decades. There are eight full-scale oriental supermarkets serving the Vietnamese customers in Philadelphia. In a survey of businesses, Vietnamese customers were found to be easier clients to deal with, compared to Korean and Chinese customers. Vietnamese customers were also found to be quicker to make purchasing decisions. Vietnamese Americans own and operate over 680 nail salons in the region.