Is ZaloPay profitable in 2026?

Not clearly. ZaloPay's payments revenue hit VND1.11 trillion (about $42.19M) in 2025, up 47% YoY, but parent VNG posted a net loss of VND263 billion (about $10M) in 2025, its fifth consecutive loss year, as of 2026-04-02.

ZaloPay is operated by Zion Joint Stock Company, a fintech subsidiary majority owned by VNG Corporation. VNG's stake in Zion dropped to about 60% by Q3 2019 after Zion issued new shares VNG didn't fully subscribe to, per a 2020-02-05 report.

Is MoMo ZaloPay's biggest competitor?

Yes. MoMo leads Vietnam's e-wallet market with 30M+ claimed users versus ZaloPay's roughly 22M (2026-07-23), turned profitable in 2024, and as of 2026-07-05 was in talks to sell up to a 50% stake to Blackstone, CVC, and MUFG at up to $3B valuation.

Could AI replace ZaloPay?

Not the licensed payment rails themselves, but the conversational UX layer is at risk: as of 2026-07-22 no evidence shows ZaloPay has shipped an AI assistant, while China's Alipay opened its 'Ah Bao' AI assistant to public beta and WeChat Pay added an AI card around mid-2026.

How many users does ZaloPay have?

As of 2026-07-23, ZaloPay reported serving over 22 million users nationwide with 86,000+ partners and 200,000+ payment acceptance points, though earlier 2026 vendor figures cited only about 15 million registered/5 million monthly active users.

Is ZaloPay's parent VNG going public in the US?

VNG withdrew its Nasdaq IPO filing in January 2024 but stated it 'intends to file a new registration statement in the future.' VNG has instead traded on Vietnam's UPCoM market under ticker VNZ since January 2023.

Payments companies · subsidiary of VNG Corporation (through Zion Joint Stock Company operating entity) · Vietnam

ZaloPay

zalopay.vn ↗

Vietnamese e-wallet app built into the Zalo messaging platform, licensed for payments.

Losing its protection

Assessed 26 July 2026 · Evidence as of 26 July 2026

The structural protection is eroding.

On the recordSince 26 July 2026 · Checkable from Q1 2027 · Every call on the record Checkpoint: MoMo's Blackstone/CVC/MUFG stake sale is expected to close

The call

ZaloPay is growing fast on the back of Zalo's user base but remains unprofitable and second to a better-funded, profitable rival in a market banks are squeezing from both sides.

ZaloPay is a payments service built into Zalo, a messaging app with 78 million users in Vietnam. It is hard to replace because it has a government license and reaches millions of people through Zalo, but MoMo, its main competitor, is already profitable, has more users, and is about to get billions in fresh funding from major investors. The one thing that could change everything is if MoMo's new funding deal closes soon, which would make it even stronger, or if Zalo faces more regulatory trouble that drives users away.

Why

AI pressure: Alipay's 'Ah Bao' assistant and WeChat Pay's AI card. Chinese rivals ship agentic wallet assistants; ZaloPay has no equivalent live in Vietnam as of mid 2026. Could AI do the core job? Only partly.

Bigger players: MoMo. MoMo leads Vietnam's wallet market, is profitable, and is closing a $1 to 3 billion raise from Blackstone, CVC, and MUFG. Could a giant copy it? Probably.

What protects it. Baked-in distribution through Zalo's 78 million monthly users plus a State Bank of Vietnam payment license and 86,000 merchant partners.

What would change this call

MoMo's Blackstone/CVC/MUFG stake sale closes within 6 months. Confirms MoMo has capital firepower to widen its lead over ZaloPay.
VNG's next annual disclosure reports Zion JSC (ZaloPay) standalone profit or loss. Shows whether ZaloPay can sustain itself without VNG's backing.
ZaloPay launches an agentic AI assistant comparable to Alipay's 'Ah Bao' or WeChat Pay's AI card. Indicates whether ZaloPay can match regional peers' product layer or falls further behind.

Key numbers

ZaloPay 2025 revenue about $42.19M, up 47% YoY (2026-04-02)
ZaloPay total payment volume up 63% YoY in H1 2025 (2025-09-05)
Zalo messaging app has about 78 million monthly users (2025-09-05)

Named risks

Parent VNG has posted net losses for five consecutive years through 2025. Severity: high
MoMo's pending $2-3B capital raise could widen the funding and feature gap. Severity: high
Zalo faced a regulatory fine and reputational decline over data practices in 2026. Severity: medium
No AI/LLM assistant shipped versus regional rivals Alipay and WeChat Pay as of July 2026. Severity: medium
Publicly reported user counts vary widely (5M to 22M) across sources and dates. Severity: low

Rivals, as read in July 2026

Rival	Direction	Evidence
MoMo	losing to	MoMo profitable since 2024, ~30M users vs ZaloPay's ~22M, raising up to $3B stake sale as of 2026-07-05
Vietnamese banks (Vietcombank, Techcombank, etc.)	losing to	Improving mobile banking apps squeezing e-wallet use cases per 2026-06-22 reporting
Alipay / WeChat Pay	losing to	Both shipped AI agentic assistants (Ah Bao public beta, WeChat AI card) mid-2026; ZaloPay has none
VNPay	contesting	Bank-integrated QR rival cited among Vietnam's top-3 wallets alongside MoMo and ZaloPay, 2025-06-23

Questions people ask

Is ZaloPay profitable in 2026?: Not clearly. ZaloPay's payments revenue hit VND1.11 trillion (about $42.19M) in 2025, up 47% YoY, but parent VNG posted a net loss of VND263 billion (about $10M) in 2025, its fifth consecutive loss year, as of 2026-04-02.
Who owns ZaloPay?: ZaloPay is operated by Zion Joint Stock Company, a fintech subsidiary majority owned by VNG Corporation. VNG's stake in Zion dropped to about 60% by Q3 2019 after Zion issued new shares VNG didn't fully subscribe to, per a 2020-02-05 report.
Is MoMo ZaloPay's biggest competitor?: Yes. MoMo leads Vietnam's e-wallet market with 30M+ claimed users versus ZaloPay's roughly 22M (2026-07-23), turned profitable in 2024, and as of 2026-07-05 was in talks to sell up to a 50% stake to Blackstone, CVC, and MUFG at up to $3B valuation.
Could AI replace ZaloPay?: Not the licensed payment rails themselves, but the conversational UX layer is at risk: as of 2026-07-22 no evidence shows ZaloPay has shipped an AI assistant, while China's Alipay opened its 'Ah Bao' AI assistant to public beta and WeChat Pay added an AI card around mid-2026.
How many users does ZaloPay have?: As of 2026-07-23, ZaloPay reported serving over 22 million users nationwide with 86,000+ partners and 200,000+ payment acceptance points, though earlier 2026 vendor figures cited only about 15 million registered/5 million monthly active users.
Is ZaloPay's parent VNG going public in the US?: VNG withdrew its Nasdaq IPO filing in January 2024 but stated it 'intends to file a new registration statement in the future.' VNG has instead traded on Vietnam's UPCoM market under ticker VNZ since January 2023.

Timeline

2026-07-23ZaloPay named to CNBC/Statista Top Fintech Payments list for second time, reports 22M+ users
2026-07-21Reporting says Zalo is 'no longer Vietnam's favorite messaging app' amid data controversy
2026-07-05Blackstone, CVC, MUFG reported bidding for up to 50% MoMo stake at $2-3B valuation
2026-06-22Reports say MoMo has 30M+ users and turned profitable in 2024
2026-04-02VNG 2025 results: ZaloPay revenue $42.19M (+47% YoY); VNG posts 5th straight loss year
2026-01Vietnam's National Competition Commission fines Zalo about $31,000 over data-sharing ToS update
2025-09-05ZaloPay H1 2025 TPV up 63% YoY; multi-function QR payment volume up 5x
2024-01-23VNG withdraws its Nasdaq IPO filing
2023-07-17ZaloPay launches in-app securities trading via DNSE Securities partnership
2016ZaloPay launched by VNG Corporation

Revision history

26 July 2026

First assessed. Losing its protection. The text above is fixed as of this date and is not edited afterwards.

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