On the morning of December 30th, 2 international messaging applications, WhatsApp and Viber, unexpectedly rose to the top of the ranking of the most downloaded free apps on both iOS and CH Play.
Meanwhile, Meta's Messenger only ranked 35th, while Zalo dropped to 43rd after concerns about user information gathering.
Parallel to the rise of WhatsApp and Viber, Zalo is facing a wave of negative reviews on app stores. On the App Store, Zalo's average rating dropped to 3/5 stars, along with many comments scoring only 1 star. Many opinions expressed concern about security and user privacy issues. A similar situation also appeared on Google's CH Play, when most of the latest reviews for Zalo are at a low level.
An account on the App Store said that user data is collected but there is no clear commitment to safety assurance, causing risks to fall on users.
Besides negative reviews, many users called for boycotting and deleting the Zalo application after the platform requested updates to controversial new service terms. According to user feedback, the terms allow Zalo to collect, use and share personal data, while exempting responsibility if data leaks occur.
However, not everyone can comfortably switch messaging applications from Zalo to other platforms. Ms. Thu Huong, a university employee in Hanoi, said that Zalo is used as a method of communication and main job exchange at her workplace. Therefore, she is forced to press "agree" with Zalo's terms so that work is not interrupted.
Like Ms. Huong, Mr. Phuong Duy, manager of a steel manufacturing enterprise in Hai Phong, also had to "agree" with Zalo's new clause due to work reasons.
Regarding family and personal matters, I usually do not text via Zalo but use some other messaging platforms. However, when talking to colleagues at the company, Zalo is very important. Converting the messaging application in the working environment is not simple, so we are forced to agree to this clause," Mr. Duy said, adding that many people are very upset when Zalo announces that the account will not be able to continue using if users do not agree to the new clause.
Notably, this platform also stated that the system will automatically delete accounts after 45 days if users do not change their decisions. These factors are considered the reason for the decline in user confidence, in the context that WhatsApp and Viber or Messenger recorded strong downloads and rose to the top group of popular messaging applications.
