E-wallets' promotion programmes see less appetising

MoMo recently launched the Lax Xi season 3 promotion programme for the Lunar New Year

Pulling out the breaks for the coming Lunar New Year holiday, local leading e-commerce platform MoMo recently launched the Lac Xi season 3 promotion programme offering diverse prizes such as vouchers for food and drinks, phone cards, iPhone 12, MacBook, Apple Watch, and millions of red packets containing cash and savings books worth a total of VND300 billion ($13 million).

In addition to programmes for every New Year, MoMo offers hundreds of promotions each year, aiming to attract more and more users. For example, last December alone, the platform offered 37 promotions.

Other competitors like Airpay and Moca use the same methods to approach consumers.

However, over the past 2-3 years, these campaigns seem to be losing their edge as users are now looking for more than just promotions.

“What I need is an e-wallet that I can use to me pay at the wet market,” said Le Thi Ha, a 56-year-old homemaker in Hanoi. “I go there regularly and the vendors only accept cash, so e-wallets are useless for me.”

A report published by market research company Cimigo pointed out six factors affecting the success of an e-wallet application, including user-friendly themes and easy use, diverse promotions, privacy and security, connection to diverse banks, being widely accepted, and diverse payment services. Of these, ease of use is the key factor deciding the success of e-wallet platforms.

In a recent meeting with the media, MoMo stated that it has been attempting to diversify its usership, including small-scale vendors who make a living at the wet market. However, in contrast with online vendors, market stalls are more used to paying via cash.

Despite plentiful promotion campaigns, to date, e-wallet payments make up only 14 per cent of all payment methods in Vietnam. Meanwhile, cash still accounts for the majority with nearly 80 per cent.