On November 1, the e-wallet market was abuzz with the effort of MoMo e-wallet with a 50 percent refund programme for users. That was the ‘biggest’ refund programme of an electronic wallet in recent years, attracting the attention of users.
For the first time in Vietnam, a technology and finance company (fintech) promoted that every customer who paid for petrol via MoMo e-wallet would receive a 50 percent refund (maximum of 30,000 dong, equivalent to 1.5 litres gasoline) on November 1. Therefore, early in the morning, many people lined up waiting for gas at petrol stations of PetroVietnam Oil Corporation (PVOIL) and Comeco MaterialsPetroleum Joint Stock Company (Comeco) in Hochiminh City and Hanoi.
Recorded at the gas station showed that there were usually about 40 to 50 customers waiting for gas and paying by e-wallet, most of which was the driver of technology vehicles. According to these drivers, the discount of 30,000 dong when refuelling (equivalent to a few picks for passenger motorbikes) was so attractive that many people wait in line for their turn. Many drivers said that their car had been nearly out of gas from the previous day, but they still tried to wait until that morning to fill and get a refund.
MoMo representative said that on November 1, not only filling gasoline but also paying for goods and services by MoMo would customers be refunded up to 50 percent. Specifically, each customer would receive a refund of up to 50 percent for three offers with many choices: playing, shopping, including supermarket payment, convenience store, food and drink, dating coffee, refuel, and so on. That significant event of MoMo had attracted many users to shopping places for a refund.
Besides MoMo, from October 31, customers paying for the first time via VinID Pay wallet would receive a refund of up to 50 percent (maximum of 200,000 dong). Customers who used to transact via VinID Pay wallet would also receive a 50 percent refund, up to 80,000 dong. VinID Pay was an integrated electronic wallet in VinIDa super application of Vingroup with eight million membersproviding payment solutions at 2,400 VinMart supermarkets and VinMart + stores; paying bills for electricity, water, television, internet, phone recharge.
Besides, a series of other electronic wallets such as AirPay, Grab by Moca, ZaloPay, ViettelPay, etc, also had many promotions, discounts, refunds to attract and entice users.
General director of PVOil, Cao Hoai Duong, acknowledged that in a short time, e-wallets certainly could not replace cash. Customers still had two options to pay by cash or MoMo wallet when filling gas in the system of PVOil and Comeco. However in the long term, e-payment would prevail in Duong’s opinion. PVOil and MoMo wallets were trying to change customer habits by providing a safe and convenient mobile payment experience, Cao Hoai Duong said.
Nguyen Dinh Thang, Chair of Lien Viet Post Commercial Joint Stock Bank (Vi Viet e-wallet owner), said that new products on the market, including e-wallets, wanted to attract customers had to spend a vast amount of money for discount and promotion programmes. Therefore, the return on investment was another story that would be the business development strategy of fintech and banks. The problem of competition in the market was that those who could follow in the long distances would be the winners in the race for promotions and discounts. Regardlessly, the e-wallets were currently free to trade for users, but might be charged in the future. At that time, the risk that users switched to other payment channels would be unavoidable.
The promotion was a common way to attract customers and sell products. However, after the promotion ended, whether customers would continue to stay in business or not depended on the quality of the service and the manner of service. Many banks and fintech services had stopped racing after a while which was an inevitable trend, according to Nguyen Dinh Thang.
Be careful with security
In fact, the race for promotions, discounts, refunds as well as the proliferation of e-wallets, the explosion of smartphones and the increasingly cheap network connection cost had attracted many users to this form of payment. In big cities like Hochiminh City and Hanoi, phones of young people, office workers often had no less than two e-wallets associated with bank cards to hunt for promotions. However, that raised the issue of security and risk of losing money in their accounts.
Hoang Giang (an office worker in District 5, Hochiminh City) admitted that she loved to use e-wallets because of special offers and discounts. Each wallet often had different promotions with all kinds of services. According to Giang, bank account had to be linked with the e-wallet. She used three e-wallets at the same time meant that she had to connect her bank payment account with three different wallets. If she accidentally lost money in the wallet or account, the question was that who would be responsible for compensating her for the damage.
Deputy general director of a joint-stock bank in Hochiminh City said that the utility of electronic wallets was undeniable, but it was true that security could not be ignored. When users wanted to link their wallet account to their bank account, e-wallets also had to meet specific security regulations.
According to the representative of the MoMo e-wallet, during using, all transactions arising on the wallet or associated bank account must be certified by the wallet owner. MoMo did not save any bank account information and international cardholders. For all incidents, MoMo would coordinate with the wallet bank’s bank to solve satisfactorily.
Leaders of many commercial banks and e-wallets had affirmed that no matter how fierce the competition for customers and the market was, they never forgot the security factor. Users of e-wallets also often received information about security requirements, absolutely did not disclose or provide account information, personal information and OTP code to anyone.
