Zalo for business: The complete guide

To connect with the Vietnamese audience, you need to speak their language and use the right channel to reach them on. That means getting to know Zalo, the homegrown superstar app used by 73 million people in the country, including more than 155,000 companies.

Before we dive into business use cases, let’s go through the key facts about Zalo, and why it became so popular in Vietnam.

Launched in 2012, Zalo is a Vietnam-based social platform that became the nation’s favorite messaging app within a decade. Like other OTT messaging apps, it enables users to text, make voice and video calls, share files and engage in group chats.

In 2022, Zalo secured its place as the most-used messaging app in Vietnam. Among the country’s 93 million smartphone users, a remarkable 87% are active on Zalo. A year later, it still leads the list with over 73 million active users, a feat that’s even more impressive considering that Vietnam is among the top 10 markets in app downloads globally.

Zalo is owned by VNG Corporations, a video gaming and social media startup that rose to the status of Vietnam’s first tech unicorn. The name “Zalo” is a combination of the words „alo“, the greeting Vietnamese people use when picking up the phone, and „Zing“, a suite of online services offered by VNG.

Today, Zalo is considered by many to be a “super app“, as VNG’s ecosystem offers services that range from social interactions to seamless payments, and convenient online shopping.

Like WeChat in China, KakaoTalk in South Korea, and LINE in Japan, Zalo was developed by a local company, in the local language.

Consequently, it offers a highly localized user experience that surpasses the ones offered by global competitors. Powered by its natural language processing, it secures high engagement rates through lively stickers for conversations in Vietnamese.

Zalo implemented end-to-end encryption in May 2022, offering the same level of security similar to chat apps such as WhatsApp. On top of that, seamless integrations to services like ZaloPay, Zalo Shop, and Zalo Bank enable users to pay their bills, transfer money to friends and family, buy products online, and even get micro-loans — all in an already familiar setting.

This widespread adoption is why many organizations, such as government agencies, and enterprises have also also started using the app to connect with users in Vietnam.

From authenticating user accounts to sending important updates, Zalo offers many ways to engage with users and customers. Let’s explore the different business use cases of Zalo:

The most popular way of using Zalo is sending verification codes for authenticating users (also known as 2FA). This means that, for example, when a user registers their account on a platform, they can get a Zalo message to verify their phone number or account.

You can see two examples below (for a bank on the left, and a web shop on the right):

Zalo also supports sending notifications about transactions, or confirmation of customer requests. This includes order confirmations, successful booking, registration for services or events, order delivery updates, etc.

Businesses can send automated Zalo messages after transactions have been completed. For example, customers can get confirmation messages with details about successful deliveries. Other types of post-transaction messages include:

Zalo enables businesses to send support-related notifications to existing customers. This can be used to:

To keep customers up to date, businesses can send Zalo messages to notify of important changes, like working times during holidays or scheduled system maintenance. Other examples include:

To ensure an ongoing relationship with their customers, businesses can send after-sales notices or ask previously engaged Zalo users for feedback.

There are two ways you can start using Zalo for your business, depending on whether you have a legal entity in Vietnam.

You can see examples of a generic sender (left) and a branded sender (right) for sending verification codes below:

Here is a video on sending Zalo messages with the Zalo Notifications Services (ZNS) via Infobip’s web platform:

And here is how to connect Zalo via API:

When using Zalo Notification Services, the feedback you get matters. If Zalo users report your messages as bad, it can affect your status.

Zalo grades Official Accounts (OA) into three categories: Good, Medium, and Low. Your grade depends on how many negative reports you get. The features you can use, like how many messages and what kind of content you can send, depend on your grade. If you’re doing well, you can send more messages. But if you get too many bad reports, Zalo might limit your messaging or even stop it for a while.

Your grade can change based on the quality of your messages over the past week. Zalo checks this every day. If your grade changes, you might have to wait a bit before you see any new features.

To illustrate all this, here are some examples: the below image shows a message template that users reported as bad. It is written in a very formal way, with the purpose of informing customers on due payments. This information can be both unpleasant to read in a Zalo message, and also unnecessary if a customer had already paid.

On the other hand, the image below shows a good example of a Zalo message. It is written in a warm tone, asking for a review of a customer order. This increases the chances of getting positive feedback, especially for orders customers are happy with.

Zalo is more than just a chat app. It has become a way of life for millions of Vietnamese people, which has already led to more than 155,000 companies using it. If you want to start using Zalo too, here are the key things you need to keep in mind: