Facebook, Zalo, and YouTube the most popular social media platforms

Facebook, Zalo, and YouTube remain the most popular social media platforms in Vietnam, according to the Connected Consumer Q1 2023 report released recently by Decision Lab and the Mobile Marketing Association Vietnam (MMA).

The three platforms’ usage rates were maintained from the previous quarter. Facebook remains the Number 1 social media platform in Vietnam in terms of usage, with a penetration rate of 95 per cent, followed by Zalo with 93 per cent and YouTube with 90 per cent.

The number of people using Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn fell slightly. Nevertheless, the decline in Instagram usage was only noticeable among Generations X and Y, indicating that younger users continue to favor the platform.

In terms of platforms for entertainment videos, YouTube continued to dominate, with penetration of 93 per cent. Meanwhile, Facebook and TikTok’s growth as platforms for entertainment videos took a small hit in the first quarter, with penetration rates of 63 per cent and 50 per cent, respectively.

Regarding e-commerce platforms, the quarter saw the continued rise of TikTok Shop, growing 5 percentage points quarter-on-quarter. Shopee suffered from a continued loss of consumer favorability among the top platforms, reaching a 79 per cent penetration rate, down 3 per cent quarter-on-quarter. Lazada and Facebook followed, with penetration rates of 59 per cent and 38 per cent, respectively.

Zalo continued to dominate the messaging app market, with a penetration rate of 86 per cent. It was Vietnam’s second most-used social media platform and remains the most popular for connecting with family and friends. Facebook, Messenger, and Instagram were also popular, with penetration rates of 71 per cent, 57 per cent, and 14 per cent, respectively.

Grab Food and ShopeeFood were the two biggest food delivery apps, with penetration rates of 48 per cent and 42 per cent.

MoMo’s penetration rate in the e-wallet market reached 68 per cent in the first quarter, making it the most popular among Vietnamese users, followed by Zalopay with 53 per cent, Viettelpay 27 per cent, ShopeePay 25 per cent, VNPay 16 per cent, and Moca 7 per cent.

In the ride-hailling market, Grab maintained its usage rate from the previous quarter, of 70 per cent, while GoJek saw a 3 percentage point decrease to 24 per cent. The Mai Linh Taxi app from the Mai Linh traditional taxi company is becoming increasingly popular, with a penetration rate of 29 per cent, up 1 per cent quarter-on-quarter.