Zalo slashes cloud storage without notice

Phuong Anh in Hanoi uploaded a file on Zalo Cloud Wednesday morning only to find out that she had run out of storage.

For years Anh has been taking advantage of the app’s 1 gigabyte of free storage to keep her important files, but now it says she only has 500 megabytes of storage available.

"My files are still there for now, but will the storage be reduced even further?", she said, adding that she has moved important files to another platform due to fear of losing them.

Other users have faced the same issue as Zalo, operated by internet services and gaming company VNG Corp., implemented the storage reduction without prior notice.

"They should have told us before making the change, even though the storage is free", said Thanh Hung in Hanoi.

All files that exceed storage space will be stored temporarily for a week on the cloud before being removed.

Zalo for years has been offering 1 gigabyte of free storage on its cloud services, which is a major feature that attracts users amid high competition from Facebook’s Messenger and Telegram.

An user can easily upload a file easily by sending himself a message. The file will then be available on all platforms.

Zalo has yet to provide any comment on the new storage policy.

Dang Huu Tri, a social media advertiser, said that Zalo’s change might create a higher demand for storage from users and urge them to pay to store more data.

It now sells a 100-gigabyte storage subscription at VND490,000 ($19.67) a year, higher than Google Drive’s VND450,000 price tag.