COMPANY PROFILE

Company Overview

M Service is a technology company (30-35% of total investment is for technology) with super application products currently targeting customers are Vietnamese Gen Y, Gen Z and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). MoMo focuses on 2 key points, which are ecosystem and customer experience, while the focused feature of the application is transferring money. MoMo provides users with several all-in-one functions

Paying bills or services. Users can pay electricity, water, internet bills, buy tickets for cars, planes, trains, movies, or buy goods on e-commerce platforms.

Paying personal loans and insurance

Pay to FE Credit, Home Credit, Shinhan Finance, Prudential Finance

Paying shopping bills by scanning QR code. Currently, there are 140,000 points accepting payments via MoMo Buying data, phone card, game card. MoMo applies a 4% discount on phone recharge, 10% on all 3G/4G data packages. In addition, users can also buy game cards, phone cards of Viettel, Mobifone, Vinaphone, Vietnamobile, Gmobile networks with diverse promoting policies.

ShopeePay as an e-wallet for e-commerce shopping is most used by consumers for promotions and convenience in making online purchases As e-commerce is emerging strongly in Vietnam, ShopeePay has an advantage with its consumer ecosystem, not to mention its solid investment from the holding company - SEA group. ShopeePay reminds us of Alipay, a successful E-wallet developed by Alibaba However, whether the E-wallet’s future follows Alipay remains unsure.

Transfer – Withdrawal. Transferring money, withdrawing money to more than 20 affiliated domestic banks, recharging from ATM domestic card via NAPAS gateway of all banks and international debit cards such as Visa, Mastercard, JCB. Furthermore, users can deposit and withdraw money at Circle K, Ministop, Viettel Post, F88, FPT Shop, and more than 4000 transaction points worldwide. Offers. There are several discounts for MoMo’s users, refund policies as well as free services

Automatic reminders

For Paying

on time. Reminders are made every time a payment is due as well as allowing recording and transaction statistics to manage budget easier. vision and mission is to become a super app in Vietnam and reach at least 50 million users, promoting the retail industry and the digital transformation of the Vietnamese economy with many breakthroughs. With the super app, MoMo e-wallet will help partners solve revenue and expense problems through technology In particular, MoMo facilitates small and single partners (such as small merchants, street vendors, startups, etc) to "Goonline" to sell and pay online The super application of MoMo Wallet with the integration of Big Data technology, AI... developed by MoMo, can help partners understand and approach customers in a deep and accurate direction, not only at the right time, but also at the right time, the right message. This will help partners reach millions of new customers at a lower cost, while providing better and more effective customer care

History & Key Milestones

a Establishment and first appearance:

Starting as a Startup, in 2007, M Service Company was founded by 4 founders: Nguyen Thi Minh Hien, Nguyen Ba Diep, Pham Thanh Duc, Nguyen Manh Tuong The idea was rooted in a quite vague and general thought, which was to provide a product or a service that can help people pay their shopping bills through mobile phones. It was nurtured by the fact that people are using mobile phones more and more throughout time Therefore, M Service was founded with a feature of mobile recharging service.

In October 2010, MoMo wallet brand appeared on the market as a linking service between the Vinaphone network with banking systems, allowing mobile subscribers to make payments and transfers right on their devices. However, each subscriber using MoMo's e-wallet service must pay a fee of 5,000 VND per month and an additional 200 VND for each separate transaction. Furthermore, MoMo was established in the context that 80% of Vietnamese people did not have bank accounts Citizens in developing countries, in general, were not familiar with professional financial services such as saving, transferring money, and investing. Nguyen Manh Tuong one of the co-founders of M Service –admitted that the application could run, but there were no users due to the impact of under-development of technology on customer experience and distribution [10].

b. Breakthrough and expansions:

By 2013, after a long way to overcome the initial difficulties, this time due to the availability of a network of hundreds of thousands of transaction points, plus links with telecommunications carriers, the transaction point system of e-wallets, MoMo technology quickly spread into provinces and cities It became an effective extension arm of commercial banks when acting as an intermediary to sell microfinance products and services such as collection of electricity, water bills, and chemical payments, purchase orders, pay directly at the supermarket, pay for airline tickets, pay for taxis, apply for consumer loans [11] Plus, M Service decided to invest in writing a dedicated application for mobile phones, attracting the first strategic investor, Goldman Sachs Global Investment Bank with USD 575 million [12] It has set the stage for the next bigger steps of M Service and the MoMo app.

From June 2014, MoMo appeared on the app store for Android and iOS phones respectively, becoming the first e-wallet with a mobile version Hundreds of thousands of downloads put MoMo in the group of 5 financial apps with the highest number of downloads for phones After that, MoMo's user growth rate increased exponentially At the same time, a series of MoMo offices appeared in Hanoi, Da Nang, and Ho Chi Minh City. At that time, MoMo's growth increased by 20% - 30% compared to the initial stage, attracting more investors [13]

In 2017, MoMo stepped up to partner with commercial banks – something it had not done successfully before – and financial companies to include MoMo wallets in deferred consumer lending services By expanding the network of transaction points, MoMo quickly attracted millions of customers to register and use accounts Currently, MoMo wallet has built an ecosystem that meets most of the essential needs of more than 23 million customers with more than 20.000 business partners in fields such as consumer finance, insurance, money transfer, payment, entertainment, e-commerce, shopping, transportation and food service, charity donation [14].

Discussion

Leading the market with 0 initial users - how has MoMo managed to acquire its millions-worth customer base?

a. Choose easy-to-remember slogans, leaving a strong impression on customers.

With the desire to maintain its leading position and outperform competitors in the same category, MoMo has made its familiar features more special and different with the Money Transfer button and the slogan “Chuyển tiềnMoMo liền" (Transfer money - Instant MoMo) b. Raise awareness through attractive Promotion activities c. 4P's marketing campaign i Product:

This message shows MoMo's ambition in occupying the Top-of-mind position in the eyes of consumers, putting the name of the brand and product associated with the verb "transfer money". Indeed, the phrases “MoMo đi", “MoMo nhé" (let’s MoMo) are increasingly popular and used by Gen Z young people in daily life This is also a right step in MoMo's Branding strategy, helping the brand win the sympathy and trust of users.

MoMo's strength also includes marketing and promotional activities such as "Shaking lucky money - Shaking a golden pig to receive lucky money", "MoMo Payment Festival - Super cashback saving up to 50%. It is the attractive promotions, cashback programs, and the introduction of outstanding, breakthrough, convenient, safe, secure and economical payment features that the MoMo super application is becoming more and more popular and attractive.

MoMo uses several campaigns on 4Ps (product, price, place, promotion).

As having been mentioned, MoMo e-wallet integrated a lot of features all-in-one It can be said that MoMo is gradually improving itself to become a potential super app. The services that this brand provides are very close to the user, and are the individual daily utilities that everyone needs With an excellent product strategy, MoMo has succeeded in attracting and retaining customers ii Price:

MoMo meets the criteria of good quality at an affordable price. To put it simply, managers have adopted an intrusive pricing strategy.

The goal of this strategy is to entice customers to try new products and strengthen market share in the hope of retaining customers, while limiting the risk of price competition from competitors in the same segment. Currently, MoMo only charges fees for 2 services: withdrawal and cash transfer at MoMo transaction points The applicable fee schedule ranges from 8,00035,000 VND or 0.6% of the transaction value.

iii. Place:

With a wide presence, covering all consumer needs, MoMo has gradually been in the subconscious of the citizens.

iv. Promotion:

To promote its products, MoMo did not hesitate to spend heavily in advertising campaigns such as TVC on national television stations (VTV1, VTV3 ) In addition, this brand also effectively uses the social platform with viral clips. Cooperating with potential young musician Bui Cong Nam, MoMo has released a song with a fun, easy-to-remember melody that is deeply ingrained in the audience's subconscious. In addition, MoMo also cooperates with KOL, quality influencers to convey messages such as Dieu Nhi, Long Chun, Minh Du, Mac Van Khoa, etc This campaign is very effective when the viral wave has not shown any signs of slowing down, making a strong impression on the target audience

Then why do customers stay with MoMo?

Having used effective marketing strategies to acquire new users, it is the large ecosystem with proper customer services that retain those current customers There are 2 main components that helped M Service to build such a complete ecosystem.

a. MoMo is the first e-wallet in Vietnam b. The affluent funds helped MoMo to generously bring its plan to play

Being the first player in the e-wallet market, M Service had the advantage of introducing, connecting, and co-operating earlier with banks and other partners Indeed, MoMo has 30,000 business partners, connects with 32 domestic and international banks in Vietnam, provides services for more than 90% people with bank accounts across the country [15] Especially, the “Finance – Insurance” service has attracted 10 million people out of 31 million current users after 4 years establishing MoMo [16] The reason behind this is that MoMo has more than 70 financial partners [17] Also, MoMo is the first unit to build connections with supermarkets, F&B points, taxis, air tickets – hotels.

It could not be denied that the capital invested in MoMo is significantly crucial as it is the foundation for M Service to execute projects and expand to other features or larger scales. In 2016, M Service announced a $28 million investment from Standard Chartered Private Equity and Global Investment Bank Goldman Sachs, with a total investment of $28 million. MoMo said the new investment ($28 million) will be used to strengthen MoMo's presence nationwide, develop services and expand the ecosystem

Warburg Pincus Private Equity Fund Management Company invested in M Service in January 2019 MoMo did not disclose the investment value but said that this could be said to be the highest number so far of foreign investors investing in Fintech and Ecommerce in Vietnam According to MoMo leaders, this money will be used to expand the payment ecosystem and realize the desire to develop millions of payment acceptance points nationwide.

Standing behind that success is a mighty human resource

a. It is a mistake if not mentioning M Service’s 4 founders

It can be easily seen that the 4 founders of M Service are persistent business makers Although they had to endure 6 years of no success, wearing out their resources, they still continued their initial idea so that it could be as developed as the present Also, they are brilliant businessmen who seized the opportunities at the right time There must be an accurate judgment of the market movements in order to make such punctual decisions b. And the dynamic, active, gifted current employees

In the context of the year 2025, financial demand in Vietnam is expected to continue to grow strongly when the 40 revolution is booming. As a matter of fact, Vietnam's young future generations also become more invested and involved in this field MoMo, as the ranked e-wallet in Vietnam, also focuses on developing this potential human resource With over 16,000 staff including 600 technical engineers, their creation, non-stop learning, teamwork, and excellent execution played an important role in creating today’s M Service [19]

Independent working environment, freedom of research and challenging goals, affirming Vietnamese intelligence are the two factors that attract such talents Currently, many of the leaders of MoMo have studied and worked in foreign companies for many years, attending great schools such as Chicago, Harvard, Yale, Stanford, OxfordMoMo also provides several learning opportunities for their staff. Working in the company, the employees are trained in English, functional training (Product Foundation, Project Management Fundamentals, Train The Trainer), and other online training courses [20].

AI-driven - M Service announces its next strategic trajectory

In the medium and long-term development strategy, technology is determined to be the "core engine" for MoMo's growth and AI is the key component: Customer Care and Customer Experience, language processing nature and computer vision, business growth, growth and discovery, advertising, and building platforms for ML and experimentation to expand the use of big data and AI Starting to invest heavily in AI/Data since 2019, MoMo has widely deployed AI on its super-app platform, such as: Product recommendation system, offer distribution, protection user. In addition to internal applications, MoMo is currently expanding the integration of its AI solutions into products associated with MoMo external partners. One of the products currently being highly appreciated by partners in the financial/banking industry is the eKYC solution, in which, in addition to popular features, MoMo has integrated a lot of anti-counterfeiting features, risk identification based on our experience and unique database

Facing ever heating competition, what will be the future for MoMo?

a. Opportunities

i. Increasing demand for e-wallets

In recent years, it is clear that the demand for online payments is increasing To explain this we need to consider the shift between generations of consumers. Gen Z is gradually becoming the dominant system of the labor market, so they will be the key consumers in the near future According to Nielsen, gen Z surveyed said that they have a certain influence on shopping and living decisions for the family [21] For this generation, they are often quick to accept change and development, especially technology With the conveniences that e-wallets bring, gen Z quickly changed their payment habits, leading to a significant increase in usage demand Vietnam's $340 billion economy is also smaller than that of Indonesia, as well as that of Thailand and the Philippines. But investors say Vietnam's fintech market is particularly attractive for a number of reasons Vietnam has one of the highest rates of mobile phone usage in the region with about 74% of the adult population [22]. That combination has created fertile ground for startups that want to provide financial services via smartphones

ii Assistance from authorities

Towards the goal of developing the digital economy and digital society, the Vietnamese government has set a target from 2021 to 2025 In which, the value of non-cash payments is expected to be 25 times higher than GDP by the end of the year 2025, equal to 50% in the e-commerce floor, striving to achieve growth of 20-25% per year [23] In order to achieve this, the authorities have addressed some solutions regarding both state agencies and commercial banks Indeed, regulators have moved to support the FinTech economy, typically handing out ewallet licenses to dozens of companies.

b. Threats i Facing stiff competition

Seeing the potential of the e-wallet market, many businesses have begun to "jump into the game" with the desire to gain market share. Only e-wallet service providers, so far, more than 30 businesses have entered this fertile market Although Momo's main competitors only revolve around names such as Moca, ZaloPay, Viettel Pay, smaller providers are also launching many attractive promotions to attract users Therefore, Momo still needs to be careful to help come up with a reasonable strategy

ii. Risks in e-wallet payment

It can be said that this is not a small challenge for the FinTech field. Indeed, when it comes to payment methods via e-wallets, many people are concerned about their safety and are more used to using cash on hand Although there have been no serious cases so far, e-wallet users can still face some risks such as losing money, fraud or stealing personal information In addition to external factors affecting, customers also face the risk when the internal system has an error causing payment interruption.

Conclusion

Throughout the article, we have gained information about the past, present, and future of M Service company with MoMo ewallet, mainly about previous milestones, current position, and future prospects Also, the background information and some speculations about MoMo in the future are also given.

MoMo deserves to be considered as a typical case of start-up, from the primary stage of establishment to the grab at precious opportunities, and then comes to the position of the number one e-wallet as it is now.

It has left valuable lessons for students and start-ups in this field about the ordinary difficulties that they must experience, how to deal with, and what the core value of success is. MoMo is the combination of fortune and lucidity, of the talents and management board so that it can start from zero, but be at hero and still have a lot of capability in the future It has been the game changer in the FinTech industry and is expected to create another game-changer application in the near future with more technological advances and better meet the growing needs of customers: Early entrant, funding and effective marketing and promotion that targets the right customer segment.

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