This Messaging App With 73M Users is Emerging as Vietnam’s 2nd Most Used E-Wallet
by Fintech News Vietnam April 4, 2023Studies conducted by market research and analytics company Decision Lab, in partnership with marketing trade association MMA Vietnam, have revealed that ZaloPay is now the second most popular e-wallet service in Vietnam.
Over the past three quarters, ZaloPay was used by 59% of the consumers polled during Q2 and Q3, and 54% of those surveyed during Q4 2022, according to a series of studies conducted throughout 2022.
Top e-wallets in Vietnam in Q2 and Q3 2022 – Penetration rates, Source: The Connected Consumer Q2/Q3 2022, Decision Lab/MMA Vietnam
Top e-wallets in Vietnam in Q4 2022- Penetration rates, Source: The Connected Consumer Q4 2022, Decision Lab/MMA Vietnam
These findings were shared in the latest Connected Consumer reports. These reports analyze Vietnamese consumers’ online habits, including social media usage, entertainment consumption (music, movies, videos), browser usage, as well as communication and shopping, on a quarterly basis, and share key trends observed during the periods.
Established at the end of 2016, ZaloPay is a payment platform that allows users to make payments, transfers, pay their bills, add credit to their mobile phone, and more. ZaloPay runs as a standalone mobile payment app or can be used right from Zalo as an integrated offering.
Zalo is Vietnam’s number-one messaging app, boasting more than 73 million active users and a usage rate of 87%, according to the Connected Consumer Q4 2022 report. It’s also the second most used social media platform in the country with a penetration rate of more than 90%.
More than 10,000 government agencies have set up their Zalo accounts to better connect with people, according to the Ministry of Information and Communication. The government has identified Zalo as a critical information system in its national plan, the National Digital Transformation Program to 2025 with a Vision to 2023.
Top 3 social media platforms in Vietnam – Penetration rates (%), Source: The Connected Consumer Q4 2022, Decision Lab/MMA Vietnam
Both Zalo and ZaloPay are products of VNG Corporation, a Vietnamese tech company specializing in digital content, online entertainment, social networking, and e-commerce.
VNG Corporation began its listing on the local Unlisted Public Company Market (UPCoM) on January 2023 at a slashed valuation of VND 8.6 trillion (US$360 million), or only a sixth of the US$2.2-2.5 billion it was valued in 2021, a person familiar with the matter told Bloomberg in 2022.
Operated by the Hanoi Stock Exchange, UPCoM is seen as a transition bourse for unlisted companies to test the appetite of investors before listing on an official exchange.
According to the 2022 Bloomberg report, VNG Corporation is also reportedly contemplating a US listing, a move that would make it the first Vietnamese tech company to list in America.
MoMo leads domestic e-wallet market
ZaloPay is behind only M_Service’s MoMo with a market share of 68% in Q4 2022, 79% in Q3 2022 and 77% in Q2 2022.
MoMo is the market leader in the domestic mobile wallet space with 31 million customers. Its main product is a mobile app that allows customers to conduct transactions directly from their mobile devices. The company claims 50,000 domestic partners, and 140,000 payment acceptance points nationwide in partnership with 70 banks and international cards.
MoMo’s owner M_Service is one of Vietnam’s most well-funded fintech startups. The company has set out aspirations to become a leading super-app.
After MoMo and ZaloPay, other prominent e-wallets in Vietnam include Viettelpay, ShopeePay (Airpay) and VNPay.
Viettelpay is a digital payment service provided by state-owned Viettel, the country’s largest mobile network operator. 32% of the consumers polled in Q4 2022 said they use the service.
ShopeePay is the mobile wallet service of Shopee, a Singaporean multinational technology company specializing in e-commerce. 30% of consumers utilized the platform in Q4 2022.
And VNPay is a Vietnamese digital payment company that provides an array of products, including VNPay-POS, an “all-in-one” payment solution for merchants, and VNPay-QR, a QR code payment solution integrated into more than 30 mobile banking applications and several e-wallets. In Q4 2022, 19% of Vietnamese consumers said they use VNPay.
In Vietnam, cashless payments have risen in popularity over the past years, driven by changing consumer behavior and preferences. According to a recent report by Visa, 65% of consumers in Vietnam now carry lesser physical cash than pre-COVID-19, while 76% have adopted e-wallets. Over 80% of consumers said they use card payments, QR code transactions, and e-wallets weekly.
Featured image credit: edited from Freepik
