Vietnam e-payments, mobile wallets and the future of payments | Cimigo

Cimigo explored Vietnamese consumer behaviour towards Vietnam e-payments and mobile wallets and the future of payments. The nascent e-payments and mobile wallet market has attracted a plethora of competitors and private equity financing has followed for start-ups, whilst banks have raced to launch mobile applications to fend of increased competition from fintech players. Some banks have opted to invest in mobile wallet companies (e.g. Standard Chartered was an early investor in Momo).

15 minutes read

Understand the rise of e-payments and mobile wallets in Vietnam

In quarter one of 2019 Cimigo interviewed 725 consumers aged 18 to 55 in HCMC and Hanoi from economic class ABC (above 9,000,000 VND household monthly income) to understand the rise in e-payments and mobile wallets.

Download the report here

Revenue is generated through commissions collected from merchants and charging users service fees when they conduct online transactions and payments through mobile wallets or payment gateway platforms. Most key players have access to a wide customer base either through:

A pre-established online presence through other developed services and platforms e.g. VTpay via the VietTel mobile network operator, Samsung Pay via pre-installation on smartphone handsets, or Zalo Pay through instant messaging application and other properties within Vinagame’s eco-system (although they are yet to be fully integrated).
Partnerships with other large corporations e.g. Grab Pay by Moca.

There are 30 licensed non-bank payment intermediary services according to the State Bank of Vietnam, with around 20 of these services offer mobile wallets. See a detailed list here. More than 40 banks also provide mobile payment services. Four main models are apparent;

Mobile e-wallet: An e-payment service that allows users to make online payments via a mobile wallet account. Users do not need to have a bank account in advance.
An e-payment service platform that offers electronic portals to enable online payment processing via bank accounts. Users need to have a bank account in advance.
A mixed business model where the company will provide both a mobile wallet and payment gateway services.
Banks have launched their own mobile applications for payments.

Opportunity for e-payments and mobile wallets in Vietnam

The future opportunity for e-payments in Vietnam has four driving forces;

Internet usage in Vietnam has reached 67%. Internet economy reached US$9 billion in 2018, accounting for 3.8% GDP. See more here.
Smartphone penetration amongst adults aged 15+ nationally reached 85%. . See more here.
Proactive support from the government creates favorable conditions to foster and develop supply side e-payment services in Vietnam. See more here
Online shopping is exploding, Cimigo found that 60% of consumers shopping online in HCMC and Hanoi in Q1 2019. See more here.

Barriers to faster consumer adoption of e-payments

With 80% of grocery sales emanating from the traditional trade, arming merchants with e-payment facilities is the biggest challenge to driving growth of e-payments. The merchants are mostly small and micro businesses that are happy to transact in cash and are not willing to pay transaction fees, pay for mobile data up-links nor invest in point of sale software.

Vietnam has a highly organised cash on delivery (COD) system, whether it is online shopping where Cimigo found that 88% paid for cash on delivery (COD) or the ability to pay cash at the doorstep for utilities. Both are highly efficient and convenient for consumers. Lessor yet additional barriers include;

People do not always trust financial institutions data privacy and transaction. When you can find bank customer databases online this is off little surprise.
Secrecy and the avoidance of transparency with authorities for consumers and merchants alike.
It is difficult for cash users to transition to digital methods of payment, as it is a new experience for them.

E-payment and mobile wallet use amongst Vietnamese consumers

Cash is the only payment method used by 5 in 10 respondents. Remember that the audience for this study is the top 50% of household wealth in urban HCMC and Hanoi. Bank mobile applications (30%) and mobile wallets (29%) are the most common e-payment methods, both are ahead of credit card usage (23%) in the past three months.

Bear in mind this is not a proportion of transactions (nor the value of those transactions) but merely a prevalence rate. That is, the proportion whom has transacted at least once in the past three months using the said method. It is too easy to generate click-bait hype around e-payments and mobile wallets by misquoting data. A classic case in point are false headlines generated from a management consulting report claiming that 60% of the Vietnamese population use mobile payments, which is clearly a fantasy, fueling further ignorance and misinformed hype.

Many mobile wallets users also use a bank’s mobile application (or vice versa). E-payment users are typically young, high-income white-collar professionals. They are mostly initially recruited by promotions for cash back or discounts; be that a cash back of 200,000 VND on an electricity bill or 20% off their favourite bubble tea.

The leading bank mobile application transactions are for money transfers, postpaid mobile credit top ups and paying utility bills. Whilst the leading mobile e-wallet transactions are primarily for food and beverage delivery and postpaid mobile credit top ups.

Download the report here

User experience (UX) with e-payments and mobile wallets in Vietnam

Perceptions towards e-payments are stark in their dichotomy; e-payment and mobile wallets are perceived as fast, simple and cheap. Contrasting with bank cards which are associated with a good reputation, large networks and a stable secure system.

Mobile wallet early successes in Vietnam

Mobile e-wallets are dependent on promotions to drive transaction volume, the most satisfying aspect experienced from e-wallet users is the simple process and then the promotions. Mobile e-wallets are the payment method with the highest net promoter score for recommendations (likelihood to recommend), compared with all other methods.

7 in 10 mobile e-wallet users top up wallets directly from their bank account with an average of 1,000,000VND. Momo is the most salient mobile e-wallet by far, 9 in 10 consumers will mention Momo first when asked to recall mobile e-wallet brands. Momo achieves the highest use share with three quarters of mobile e-wallet users reporting to use Momo, this is followed by Zalo Pay, VT Pay, Grab Pay (Moca) and AirPay.

Compared to other payment methods, mobile e-wallets have the advantage on ease, speed, rewards, promotions and low fees. They have a strong user experience and high net promoter score. Whilst bank mobile applications provide a good user experience, they lack rewards, promotions and have a poor reputation for customer care.

Mobile e-wallet providers still face State Bank hurdles with the inability to provide interest nor credit and the necessity to be linked to a bank account (and that providers are prohibited from issuing more than one wallet to the same bank account).

Vietnam e-payment and mobile wallet futures

Compared with bank mobile applications, mobile e-wallets have far greater consumer centricity and have much to teach banks, ultimately, they could perhaps provide a good distribution (and marketing channel) for an extended range of financial services. However, if banks can step up their customer centricity, mobile e-wallets may struggle for a meaningful role in consumer payments. Momo leads the market today, but faces increased competition for smartphone real (screen) estate, saliency and continued meaning in consumer lives.

Zalo is the leading instant messenger application in Vietnam, but has failed to leverage this reach and thus far it has not effectively integrated Zalo Pay. With Tencent (WeChat) as a shareholder, ambitions to be replicate the WeChat super application eco-system and payments must be ever present boardroom conversation. Grab Pay by Moca continues to expand its role in consumer lives beyond ride hailing; to food and to payments. Like Zalo Pay, Grab Pay is a contender for creating a super application we cannot live without.

Only the Vietnamese consumer can win in the short term

A diverse set of international and local competitors from Apple, Facebook, Visa, GoViet, Bao Viet and VIMO will join the battle and seek to win dominance in mobile enabled e-payments. The battle will be long and the investments losses substantial. Much like Vietnam’s online shopping platforms, until a dominant player can comfortably increase fees and cease to subsidise transactions, the only winner will be the consumer.

Download the report here

End.

View all articles here >>

The rise of Indonesian films: Opportunities and challenges

Dec 20, 2024

The holiday season is here, and for many Indonesians, watching films is the top choice for quality

Indonesia consumer trends 2024

Dec 07, 2024

As Southeast Asia’s largest economy, Indonesia is poised for remarkable transformation in

Vietnam retail banking 2024

Dec 02, 2024

Vietnam’s retail banking sector is in a transformative phase, with digital adoption accelerating

Minh Thu - Consumer Market Insights Manager

Working with Cimigo has been incredibly rewarding. Their exceptional service and unwavering commitment to excellence have been truly impressive. Together, we've successfully completed projects ranging from fabric care like detergents and fabric softener to home essentials like floor cleaner and dishwashing liquid in both urban and rural settings, showcasing Cimigo's versatility and dedication to reaching diverse markets. Thanks to Cimigo's dedication and expertise, we secured a major project with our client last year. I'm grateful for our partnership and excited for future collaborations.

Travis Mitchell - Executive Director

Cimigo has been an excellent partner for AmCham. They provided insightful feedback during the planning phase of our project and offered suggestions to ensure that we met our goals. Their analysis was comprehensive, thoughtful, and accurate, and I appreciated their customer service skills – I always felt that Cimigo had our best interests at heart. I’m very much looking forward to working with Cimigo again in the near future!

Malcolm Farmer - Managing Director

I have never seen or had support for our business like we have received from Cimigo Vietnam. The depth & understanding of our business shows how well you have studied both Jardines Distribution Inc. and Koppers Performance Chemicals. We, (JDI & KPC), really appreciate the efforts the whole Cimigo team have put into your research. The help to connect potential distributors for both our Industrial and retail products are absolutely on point. I will have no hesitation in recommending Cimigo Vietnam to any company wanting to venture into the Vietnam market.

Hy Vu - Head of Research Department

Cimigo is one of the top research companies in Vietnam that provides very good services and actionable insights. We have the pleasure of working with Cimigo. With extensive knowledge of Vietnamese consumers, Cimigo keeps bringing value to our company. We look forward to working with them in the future.

Joe Nelson - New Zealand Consulate General

The research provided by Cimigo provided our clients with very specific insights into consumer behaviour in Viet Nam. What I liked was the way Cimigo interpreted these insights to develop a clear call to action for our clients, which they are responding to with confidence.

Steve Kretschmer - Executive Director

Cimigo conducted a large, nationally representative demand forecasting study in Vietnam for us, including a discreet choice component, to assess demand for potential new male contraceptives in development to support funding decisions by The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The research was additionally complex by linking interviews with men and separate interviews with their female partners. The Cimigo team was were professional, knowledgeable and adaptive through the process of understanding our needs and collaborating to find solutions that would work, resulting in a very successful study.

York Spencer - Global Marketing Director

I've had the pleasure to work with Richard and Cimigo over many years and across multiple markets. Cimigo was a key partner in our business decision making process including market entry strategy, brand positioning development, shopper insights, brand equity tracking, and consumer need state segmentation development. The Cimigo team are local market experts who understand consumer culture like no other. I would highly recommend them.

Mai Trang - Brand Manager of Romano

Cimigo is the research agency that I appreciate for their expertise and customer service. Cimigo understand well the business context for each of project hence they can design the research to best fit with the objectives. The optimization on methodologies, sample size and questionnaire bring the value to the projects I have worked with them. Cimigo can go beyond data and give me valuable insights for each of research projects based on their knowledge and experience with the industry. All of these support me well to navigate the brand strategy in short term and long term.

Hanh Dang - Product Marketing Manager

We partnered with Cimigo on assessing TET campaign launch focusing on improving booking through our platform. Cimigo, provided its customized campaign evaluation technique based on Cimigo Online Communities that fully meets our requirement in terms of type of respondents and expected timelines. The report provided insightful findings with benchmarks to identify the next course of action for launching the campaign. We will recommend Cimigo team and its Online communities for its quality reporting and scale of coverage.

Max Lee - Project Manager

Cido have worked with Cimigo in Vietnam for more than 10 years. All our projects, both qualitative and quantitative, have been delivered in a timely manner with a high standard of quality throughout. Cimigo’s client service team has provided great support over the years which has ensured smooth project execution and helped us to deliver work on time and exceed our client’s expectations.

Chris Elkin - Founder

I have partnered with Cimigo over the past 15 years. Most recently Cimigo engaged us to collaborate on an unusually tough new product development project, which was akin to selling ice to Eskimos. Cimigo bought alive the consumer, her shopping journey, her cooking rituals and potential brand promises. Cimigo inspired our creative team to build alternate brand propositions and accompanying package designs. Cimigo then went back to consumers to evaluate, iterate and optimise these in focus groups. The Doodle team were able to observe this process and subtly adjust the expression of the brand between focus groups. The result of this great collaboration was a winning brand proposition and packaging design that hit consumer needs head on whilst appealing to their hearts.

Ronald Reagan - Deputy Group Head After Sales & CS Operation

We have worked together with Cimigo many times. The findings from Cimigo are factual, accurate & reliable. They deliver value from the voice of our customer so we can easily determine the next step. Working with Cimigo feels like not only building a partnership but a sense of family. Very amazing to work with Cimigo, they always go beyond our expectations.

Chad Ovel - Partner

Cimigo digs deep to understand the key issues we need to address. Then, they quickly customize a highly suitable research approach to provide us the insights we need to achieve our breakthrough business targets. From tough questions to aha answers in just a few easy conversations!

Private English Language Schools - Chief Executive Officer

Our relationship with Cimigo goes back many years. We engaged Cimigo to provide an independent view on what our customers and potential customers think of our company. The insights from Cimigo were very helpful for us to better understand the Vietnam market and also in developing our brand manifesto.

Rick Reid - Creative Director

As a creative director I have used the services of Cimigo for the past 15 years when developing communications, so I know their style, innovations and resources well. Most recently we tested copy for print, out of home and digital communications to put an Australian colloquialism into a Vietnamese context. A job and budget so small I felt it was highly likely to fall through the cracks. I was astounded at their incredible response. From their advice and style of how we should present the stimulus material, to their cross-reference manoeuvres used in the testing. Their over-delivering response, was to an embarrassing level. We walked away with a clear winner and could present back to our client with confidence and clarity. Cimigo made us look great. Plus they even threw in a few extra insights on the awareness and perception of the product in Vietnam.

Dr. Jean-Marcel Guillon - Chief Executive Officer

Cimigo have built and managed both our employee and customer experience programme since 2012. We have a complex suite of services with in-patient, out-patient, surgical, diagnostic, consultative and facilities to account for, all amongst patients who are naturally sensitive regarding their privacy and experience. Yet Cimigo have designed a system to measure customer experience across multiple languages and cultures and direct us in improving this experience. Our net promoter score (NPS) has grown as a direct result of changes implemented based on this direction and continuously listening to patient feedback. The NPS growth correlates directly to new patient numbers and improved profitability, as happier customers drives our business growth.

Matt Thwaites - Commercial Director

Cimigo designed a customer experience programme for Coats that reached into Vietnamese, Chinese and Korean customers across various levels of seniority. Cimigo instilled the importance of the voice of the customer within our executive committee. This led to fundamental changes in our structure, services and speed to market. Significant investments were made behind these improvement programmes, for example in reducing delivery times and in managing specialised custom orders, which in turn have led to improved revenue streams and higher margin sales.

Aashish Kapoor - Head of Marketing

Cimigo - The best “Glocal” market research firm in Vietnam with whom we have developed a great partnership since many years. While the quality of research and findings are of top standard, the added advantage being the local insights that Richard and his team are able to provide in helping us make important decisions.

Kelly Vo - Founder & Host

I respect Cimigo not only because of their dedication, meticulousness, and high-quality services but also how much they care about the local community here. I proposed the idea of doing a survey with the digital young generation on the topic of social impact and leadership. I wanted to identify, shape, and develop our content so that could really speak to the heart of the problems and empower young Vietnamese to take action on social impact in Vietnam. The Cimigo team agreed pro-bono to help without hesitation. The research findings are truly helpful in providing us a deeper understanding of our targeted audiences, what they need and are concerned about in life. The results show us how we can help them to achieve their goals and dreams. It is no longer a shot in the dark!

Hamish Glendinning - Business Lead

Cimigo not only delivered an exceptional piece of qualitative research for us, but provided hugely valuable direction when it came to product development and market positioning which we have since implemented. We can’t wait to work with the team again.

Thuy Le - Consumer Insight Manager

Pharmacity started a Brand Health Check with Cimigo in 2020 and we were immediately impressed with their great consultancy and supportive spirit. The study had interesting analysis and insights which helped us efficiently shape the marketing plan and direction moving forward. We are now working with Cimigo on a tracking basis to continuously monitor and foster our brand performance.

Richard Willis - Director

When we were looking to develop one of the worlds the leading economic indicator in Vietnam, the Purchasing Managers’ Index™ (PMI®) Cimigo showed an immediate understanding of our needs and showed their understanding of the Vietnamese market. IHS Markit has now been working with Cimigo since 2013. Every month Cimigo continues to provide high quality data, a representative panel, on time data and great customer service. We look forward to many more years of working together.

Ha Dinh - Project Lead

I have worked with CIMIGO on educational research for over 4 months. This is extremely impressive to me by the way CIMIGO approaches, cooperating and supporting me during the research launched. Specifically, the design for both qualitative and quantitative research are practical and logical with accurate questionnaires and appropriate interviews methodology for different respondents. Moreover, the outcomes of this research helps us to recognize our opportunities in the current English Language Training Market and understand profoundly our customer needs, behaviours and expectations when sending their children to us.

Louise Knox - Consumer Technical Insights

Just to say a huge thank you for all of the film footage. We are absolutely delighted with it all. The Vox Pops are really interesting and have turned out very well – those ladies were great at talking spontaneously. Cimigo did a great job. Thank you for your patience and perseverance with getting this off the ground.

Aimee Shear - Senior Research Executive

We partnered up with the Cimigo team on what was a particularly challenging project – we were faced with numerous timeline delays and logistical concerns – yet Cimigo were incredibly accommodating through their patience, flexibility and commitment. Not only were Cimigo supportive during the set up of our project, but we were really impressed by the outputs delivered – Cimigo were insightful, rich and very comprehensive. Cimigo were brilliant partners to work with and we look forward to working with them again.

Dennis Kurnia - Head of Consumer Insights

Over the last 5 years I have worked with Cimigo on a wide array of projects, ranging from market segmentation to product testing. At all times, I found Cimigo to be swift in response and providing high quality insights and business recommendations applicable to our business. Furthermore, I am satisfied with Cimigo fieldwork quality despite the crunched timeline that we had in some projects. Overall, I highly recommend Cimigo for their professionalism.

Tania Desela - Senior Product Manager

It was a pleasure working with Cimigo. Their expertise in consumer and market research was a significant benefit as they assisted our organization in understanding our market position in more detail and validating our hypothesis in go-to-market strategy. We were more than happy with the findings and would definitely recommend Cimigo.

Thu Phung - CTI Manager

Cimigo is not the type of agency that "fill in the template", but it's customized as per the needs and expectations of Client. Cimigo makes research interesting by applying new approaches to address the business issue, for example, it's known by default that product test is CLT, but at Cimigo, we did group debate for deeper understandings and insights and that resulted as a winning product which is selling well in the market. Last but not least, Cimigo makes me understand that research is a journey, not just a project."

Linda Yeoh - CMI Manager

We have worked with Cimigo over 2 projects in Vietnam. Cimigo has proven to be reliable being on top of the projects, managing different stakeholders and business objectives. They are flexible in terms of ways of working and are able to cope with last minute changes. The research findings (Quant + Qual) have helped us understand Vietnamese in a deeper level, allowing us to make clear decisions to be successful in the market. Thank you Cimigo team for supporting us.

Team

Cimigo’s market research team in Vietnam and Indonesia love to help you make better choices.

Solutions

Cimigo provides market research solutions in Vietnam and Indonesia that will help you make better choices.

Trends

Cimigo provides a range of consumer marketing trends and market research on market sectors and consumer segments in Vietnam and Indonesia.

Reports

Cimigo provides a range of free market research reports on market sectors and consumer segments in Vietnam and Indonesia.