Digital payments, anytime, anywhere
Instead of cash, mobile wallets, cards, and QR codes have become the go-to payment alternatives for many Vietnamese these days. In 2022, the value of transactions of digital payments in Vietnam was forecast to reach over 19 billion U.S. dollars, the fourth highest in Southeast Asia, surpassing that of Singapore and Malaysia. Additionally, Vietnam recently beat other developed nations, including the UK, Germany, and the US, in terms of the penetration rate of mobile POS payment, fueled by the popularity of smartphones as the device to access the internet in the country.Digital payments, together with other sub-sectors of fintech, are believed to be the key to financial inclusion and are, therefore, well promoted by the Vietnamese government. While the acceptance and usage of payment means like mobile wallets are more prevalent in bigger cities and with modern trade channels, other payment methods have been designed to work with even traditional retail outlets, and in smaller cities or rural areas. For instance, in 2021, the government approved a pilot program for mobile money services that allows telecommunication subscriptions to be used for making payments domestically. This was created to target rural, mountainous, and remote areas, as telecommunication services are already widely available across the country. Since the introduction of this program, the number of people using mobile money services in the country has grown each month, reaching almost two million in the middle of 2022.
