Vietnamese e-wallet market heats up as competition intensifies

Competition is fierce in Vietnam’s digital wallet market. The country now has a crowded field of more than 40 digital wallet providers, seven times more compared to 2015. According to Vietdata, from October 2018 to October 2022, the number of e-wallet users has increased rapidly from 12.3 million to 41.3 million, an increase of 235%. It is expected that by 2024, this market will have 50 million active users, 100 million users in 2026 and 150 million users in 2030.

Unicorn MoMo

In Vietnam, MoMo is currently considered the "national" e-wallet with more than 31 million users, accounting for the largest market share compared to competitors. The ecosystem covers 63 provinces and cities with more than 50,000 partners, 140,000 payment acceptance points, and cooperation with a large number of banking partners, financial institutions, supermarkets, restaurants, carriers, and airlines. , Transportation…

From an e-wallet, MoMo has now become a super application with more than 200 services in many fields such as consumer finance, insurance, entertainment, e-commerce, dining... Even, "MoMo" is now a slang word. just "transfer money, pay online".

The business behind MoMo e-Wallet is the Online Mobile Services Joint Stock Company (M_Service). According to introductory information, M_Service Company was born in 2007, officially launching the MoMo e-wallet brand in 2010. M_Service was founded by 4 founders, all of whom are well-trained and have studied abroad.

The first founders are businesswoman Nguyen Thi Minh Hien, a businesswoman who has been a mobile phone distributor for many years, Mr. Nguyen Ba Diep, who worked at VNPT, Pham Thanh Duc - a leader FPT senior and Mr. Nguyen Manh Tuong who graduated from the University of Chicago in the US.

ZaloPay

ZaloPay e-wallet was developed by Zion. The competitive advantage of this e-wallet lies in its association with the Zalo application - Vietnam's leading chat platform with more than 100 million users. ZaloPay Wallet is currently a partner of famous brands such as Lazada,

Beamin, Tiki, Sendo, Circle K, Big C, Be in many different areas from e-commerce shopping to health and beauty. Zalopay is also spending money heavily, and suffering quite large losses to attract consumers.

Regarding the business situation, the latest updated data from Vietdata shows that in 2021, Zalo Pay brought in revenue of only nearly 270 billion VND, but also recorded a net loss of up to 1.2 trillion VND. Parent company VNG has spent a total accumulated provision cost as of September 2022 for this e-wallet of 2.3 trillion VND.

ViettelPay

ViettelPay, part of Vietnam’s largest mobile network operator Viettel Group, is the nation’s leading mobile online payment service provider. ViettelPay is the fastest growing fintech app in Vietnam. The financial services startup offers mobile banking services, a digital banking platform, cash withdrawal from ATMs and domestic bank transfers.

ViettelPay was launched to provide innovative personal finance to everybody. The innovative fintech brings a host of payment methods that are in line with Vietnam’s wider digital growth. 

Through its mobile app, ViettelPay lets users make financial transactions from wherever they are based. It is particularly focused on expanding the country’s e-commerce and digital payments markets. All payment services can be carried out through ViettelPay. This includes paying for utilitiy bills, buying air and travel tickets, online shopping, buying and charging phone card services and more. 

ShopeePay

The ShopeePay is a digital wallet service offered by Shopee that functions to make online transactions in applications or offline transactions with merchants who accept payments through ShopeePay. In addition, the Shopee PayLater is an instant loan solution service provided by Shopee without a credit card that allows consumers to pay for a transaction at a later date, either by being paid directly or in installments

Shopee is a leading e-commerce platform in Southeast Asia and Taiwan. Founded in Singapore in 2015, Shopee has since expanded rapidly across the region. As of 2023, Shopee is the largest e-commerce operator in Southeast Asia and Taiwan based on gross merchandise value (GMV). Vietnam is one of Shopee’s biggest markets. The platform launched there in 2016 and has grown at an astonishing rate. Shopee Vietnam is now the country’s most popular online marketplace.

VNPay

VNPay, with the strength of its electronic payment gateway platform, owns a large network of payment affiliate partners. In December 2022, VNPay announced a partnership with Vietnam's leading retailer, Saigon Co.op, to expand its customer base.

Regarding VNPay's business situation, according to Vietdata data, in recent years, VNPay recorded positive growth rates in both revenue and profit after tax. Specifically, this tycoon's revenue reached more than 22 trillion VND by the end of 2021, an increase of 4 times compared to 2017. After slowing down in 2019, VNPay's after-tax profit began to grow again. and reach nearly 320 billion VND in 2021, an increase of 87% compared to 2020.

At the end of July 2021, VNPay announced receiving an investment of 250 million USD from General Atlantic, Dragoneer Investment Group, Paypal Ventures,.... thereby further exciting the competition between e-wallets. as well as creating competition between e-wallets and similar services from banks and telecommunications companies.

Payoo

Payoo is an e-wallet owned by Viet Community Online Services Joint Stock Company (Viet Union). To date, Payoo has linked with nearly 25,000 points nationwide, paying nearly 1,000 different types of utility bills. With a large and regular user base, the total transaction value through Payoo reaches nearly 100 trillion VND/year.

Once successful with bill payments, Payoo returned to conquer retail partners with new payment solutions. After retail, Payoo also expanded into many new fields. Up to now, Payoo has been serving most of the leading partners in many fields from technology, electronics, supermarkets, convenience stores, F&B, motorbikes, pharmacies, health care, beauty spa,…

Payoo's business picture is quite bright when Vietdata data shows that in 2020 VietUnion's revenue reached nearly 2.9 trillion VND. Then decrease to 14.6% in 2021 and increase again to the revenue mark of nearly 2.9 billion VND in 2022.VietUnion's profit after tax (net profit) tends to increase steadily for 3 years. Accordingly, in 2020, VietUnion achieved more than 160 billion VND in net profit, then increased to more than 220 billion VND in 2021 and reached 226 billion VND in 2022.

VietUnion Online Services Joint Stock Company (VietUnion), the enterprise that operates Payoo - the e-wallet with the largest net profit in the Vietnamese market in 2022 is now "in the hands" of a Japanese corporation.

Ngan Luong e-wallet

Ngan Luong is an e-wallet belonging to Ngan Luong Payment Intermediary Joint Stock Company, established in 2009. With huge capital from the world's leading financial corporations such as IDG (USA), SoftBank (Japan), eBay (USA) helps Ngan Luong have the ability to ensure finance for all online transactions in Vietnam. Ngan Luong has built an advanced system directly linked with nearly 40 financial and telecommunications organizations in Vietnam and internationally.

Regarding the business situation, Vietdata's data shows that Ngan Luong's revenue in recent years has fluctuated quite a bit. Revenue in 2021 has increased compared to 2020, but is still lower than the years 2017-2018. Specifically, in 2021, Ngan Luong's revenue will reach about 430 billion VND, an increase of 20% compared to 2020, profit after tax also increased 35% compared to 2020.

Moca e-wallet(Grab Pay)

In 2013, Moca Technology and Services Joint Stock Company was founded by a group of former senior employees of Microsoft, Google and leading experts in the finance and banking industry in Vietnam.

If Momo and ZaloPay are mostly used to top up phones, transfer money and pay periodic bills, Moca is mainly used for payment for technology vehicles and food delivery. Moca chose to cooperate with Grab to build a mobile payment ecosystem for the entire ecosystem of this super application. In addition, Moca also cooperates with Tiki to meet the increasing demand for shopping and electronic payments, especially in the current context.

Regarding the business situation, Vietdata data shows that Moca closed 2021 with full of fluctuations, this brand's revenue reached about 235 billion VND, down 13% compared to 2020. Just like Zalopay, Moca continues to "burn money" in recent years. Accordingly, Moca's profit after tax is continuously negative. By 2021, this business reported a loss of nearly 165 billion VND.