When numerous commercial banks raised their fees via Internet Banking, Mobile Banking and ATM withdrawals, many customers have switched to using electronic wallets (e-wallets) on smartphones.
Earn points no costs
Nguyen Vu (Thu Duc district, Hochiminh city) said that every month he uses Momo e-wallet to pay electricity, water and internet bills, and top up phone accounts, etc. Every time he goes out with friends, instead of carrying cash, he only has to open Momo application (app) to pay directly via his smartphone. Recently, when banks adjusted their service charges, he has switched to use e-wallets more often.
“E-wallets provide users many integrated services such as buying movie tickets and paying airfares, monthly consumer loans and insurance premiums, etc. All e-wallets have programmes for users to earn points, promotions or discounts when making payment. Some e-wallets also give bonus money to users when they invite friends to open new accounts”, said Vu.
According to Pham Minh (Hoan Kiem district, Hanoi), over the past year, she has paid electricity and water bills and mobile top-ups, etc. via Vi Viet e-wallet. This app is fairly convenient and does not require any transaction fees nor apply management or account maintenance fees, etc.
Although there are no specific statistics, leaders of some banks said that users tend to favour e-wallets for the payment of bills, shopping, and popular services, etc. According to representative of a joint stock bank with headquarter in Hanoi, e-wallets currently do not charge users and provide quite a lot of advantages to compete with services on Internet Banking and Mobile Banking of banks. More importantly, opening an e-wallet account is very easy; users only need a smartphone with internet connection, particularly convenient in the areas where there are no branches or transaction offices of banks.
Nguyen Ba Diep, vice Chair of the Board of directors (BOD) of Momo e-wallet said that in 2018, Momo focuses on serving the 20 billion USD tourism market of Vietnam. Customers can book air tickets, train tickets and passenger cars directly on the Momo app, and buy travel and health insurance. In addition to the daily needs, users can also order housemaid services, buy flowers, pay instalments to finance companies, etc. Momo e-wallet currently has about six million users and strives to reach 50 million app installers by 2020.
Meanwhile, according to Lien Viet Post Commercial Joint Stock Bank (LienVietPostBank), the bank has recently signed a cooperation agreement with two Japanese companies to deploy human resource management solution and payment of wages to workers in Vietnam through Vi Viet app. Specifically, the affiliate product allows to pay wages daily when requested by the employee, and pay monthly wages when requested by Japanese companies, etc. After receiving wages through Vi Viet, employees can immediately use the utilities of this e-wallet. After nearly two years of presence, Vi Viet has about 2.2 million users and 19,000 card accepting points across the country.
Statistics show that there are more than 20 e-wallets on the market such as Vi Viet, Momo, Payoo, Moca, Baokim, MobiVi, Nganluong, and Wepay, etc. Some commercial banks also plan to launch e-wallet to expand their operation.
Although the opportunities and potential of e-wallets are huge, experts said that in fact the number of “live” e-wallets is just counted at the fingertips. According to a representative of an enterprise, investing in e-wallet is like “spending billions and collecting silver coins”. The revenue mainly comes from intermediary payment but is not much and cannot offset the investment costs. Most e-wallets are suffering loss and are in the stage of investing for the future.
The representative added that although the market is very potential, the biggest weakness of e-wallets is that users do not yet have confidence to spend a lot of money to use them. Most customers transfer money into their wallets to pay for need services or just transfer or receive money and withdraw immediately.
Experts said that Vietnam is a potential market in the field of e-payment, including e-wallet. This is a long-term race in terms of technology, financial strength and the ability to adapt to the market in order to bring the most convenient products to users. Currently, users prefer e-wallets mainly because of the discounts, money rewards, point earnings and gift redemption. If e-wallets charge fees, they can hardly attract users and compete with other payment methods.
