E-wallet services start to gain momentum in Vietnam

E-wallet services are no longer so alien to Vietnamese consumers

Today (March 25), Cimigo Market Research published a research on e-wallet users’ perception and behaviour towards popular e-wallet brands in Vietnam. The result is based on 505 interviews with users who had used at least one e-wallet in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi. The research was conducted in the fourth quarter of 2019. In addition to recording users’ perceptions and behaviour towards popular e-wallet brands in Vietnam, the research also found key factors driving users' brand choices as a reference for e-wallet brands to improve their services.

Firstly, the research shows that Momo, Moca, and ZaloPay are the three most popular e-wallets in the two main cities of Vietnam. These three e-wallets account for more than 90 per cent of e-wallet users.

In addition, the result also shows that e-wallets are mostly used for mobile top-up, money transfer, utility bill payments, food delivery, and ride-hailing payments. Momo and ZaloPay are mostly used for mobile top-up, money transfer, and utility bill payments. Moca is mostly used for ride-hailing payments, mobile top-up, money transfer, and food delivery payments.

The research results show that the usage frequency and value of payments via e-wallet are high. In particular, via e-wallets, users spent an average of VND230,000-274,000 ($10-11.91) per transaction, with a frequency of 1.6-2.2 transactions a day. Among these, Moca users have the highest usage frequency. On average, Moca users make approximately 2.2 transactions a day, more than Momo users (2.0 transactions) or ZaloPay users (1.6 transactions).

Regarding value of payments, Momo users spend about VND520,000 ($22.61) a day, followed by Moca users with VND506,000 ($22) and ZaloPay users with VND441,600 ($19.2).

In terms of user satisfaction, Moca, Momo, and ZaloPay have almost equal overall satisfaction scores. However, factors impacting these satisfaction scores are different among the three e-wallets. "Few payment errors" has the highest impact on satisfaction among Momo’s and Moca’s users, while "User friendly" plays the main role at ZaloPay. Also among these three e-wallets, Moca is rated well for brand recommendation with 8.6 points, just ahead of ZaloPay and Momo, which scored 8.5 and 8.3 points, respectively.

In terms of brand stickiness, Moca is the leading brand with 95 per cent of users saying that they will continue to use Moca even without promotions. This figure is 89 per cent for MoMo and 84 per cent for ZaloPay.

Based on the results, there are six key factors driving the choice of an e-wallet brand, including user-friendly interface; different and regular promotions; safety and security; ability to be linked to various banks; ability to use in many places; and diversity in payment services.

In Vietnam, the ratio of cashless payments to the total means of payment has only reached 14 per cent, according to the Government and the State Bank of Vietnam. This context provides e-wallet brands a potential environment to grow and gradually change the cash payment habits of the population, which helps contribute to the government's direction of developing cashless payments in Vietnam.

With the on-going COVID-19 outbreak, the State Bank of Vietnam has also advised people to limit cash usage and increase the use of digital payments in order to reduce the risk of infection. Cashless payment, including e-wallets, are becoming increasingly popular and are welcomed by more users.