The 46-year-old is one of the most prominent among Vietnam’s first generation of tech engineers in the early 2000s, and contributed to the creation of several major internet products, most notably Zalo.
Launched in 2012, that messaging app has surpassed foreign competitors to become Vietnam’s most widely used communication platform, with nearly 80 million users.
Khai recently spoke with VnExpress about building a platform by Vietnamese for Vietnamese, moments of confronting failure, and his vision in the AI era.
Zalo was born when international platforms dominated the local market. What made you and your team believe you stood a chance?
When we started building Zalo, we had only two things: hard lessons from past failures and the romantic, almost unrealistic, belief that Vietnamese could create a tech product of international quality. Without either of those, we probably would not have had enough reason to begin or made it this far.
Users have equal access to all products on the Internet, and they all cost nothing, and so why would anyone choose an inferior one? That was the lesson I learned after developing the social network Zing Me in 2009. It reached 10 million users but lost ground to Facebook and was shut down.
That failure forced me to rethink the creation of value. Competing head-on with global giants by making a similar yet better product was impossible. The only way was to go the opposite direction, find the niches they overlooked and turn weaknesses into advantages.
We could not match the huge workforce and countless features of foreign competitors, and so I chose to make Zalo simple enough for anyone to use. At that time OTT services were often unstable on Vietnam’s underdeveloped telecom infrastructure, and so we focused on reliability, speed and stability in messaging. Competing with Facebook’s global network of billions, I prioritized privacy, where only friends could view and interact with others. Pressure from competitors forced us to concentrate on simplicity, reliability and privacy, values that turned out to be a decisive foundation for our product.
Zalo founder Vuong Quang Khai
Many Vietnamese projects start strong with clear ideals, but eventually lose focus and fade away. What’s the biggest lesson you have learned from building Zalo from scratch into a platform with tens of millions of users?
I believe product building must start from the creator. I see myself as ‘User Zero’, the most demanding user. I have to answer this question: ‘What do I personally want in a communication product?’ Once we had a clear product vision, we used market data and feedback to test and refine it.
At first Zalo was designed for close groups of families and friends. Over time people began using it for work, and new demands arose. Businesses wanted less privacy to reach customers, and office workers wanted features to support work. This risked making the platform complicated and unstable. My top priority was to preserve the product’s core values. Some technical requests seemed easy but went against those values, and so we deliberately avoided them: For example, allowing simultaneous logins on multiple devices.
This was a conscious trade-off but also a source of criticism. I accept that a product cannot meet all user demands. The market is big enough for several chat apps, and Zalo must stay focused on the mainstream users who are our reason for being. In the long term, to balance needs, we have developed specialized versions like Zalo Business for advanced demands, without affecting the majority’s experience.
Zalo’s recent policy changes limit user benefits and charge for premium features, a risky move in a market used to free internet products. Why is your team committed to this approach?
The common internet model is to provide free products, attract as many users as possible, then monetize through advertising. But this model has a core weakness.
You can see it in Google’s search results today, which are flooded with ads and low-quality sites.
Facebook’s feed is heavily commercialized, with content losing its personal touch. In tech circles, this is called ‘enshittification of platforms,’ where products increasingly cater to advertisers, not users. Looking at Facebook as an example, I do not want Zalo to become a place full of ads and business activity instead of human connection.
For sustainable growth, I concluded that platforms should earn directly from users. Apple is a great example, they make quality products and services that people are willing to pay for. Zalo is gradually shifting to a freemium model, like ChatGPT, Zoom or Telegram. Premium features for business and professional use will be available in paid subscription packages, while basic messaging and calling will remain free for all.
I understand that introducing paid plans may make some uncomfortable, or even outright upset. I read all that feedback and take it seriously. This is a defining choice: either follow the advertising path, sacrificing user experience for revenue, or take the harder, more sustainable route to keep investing in the product. I chose the second because I don’t want to build something that disappears after a few years."
Why not push harder into international markets?
"Every company dreams of going global, and we are no exception. Inspired by earlier generations like FPT and Viettel, Zalo tested a few markets around 2015. The hard lesson we learned was that success at home did not come from having the best product, but from having one that is suitable for Vietnamese users. That advantage is gone in a foreign market.
Globally successful tech products mostly come from western countries with a strong cultural identity. Often, it is not that their products fit the world, it is the world that adapts to use them.
So instead of chasing the global dream, we focus on expanding our ecosystem domestically. The market potential is huge. We are branching into areas like business support, public services and AI integration.
Speaking of AI, how do you see its adoption in Vietnam today?
History shows that every 10 to 15 years, there is a new technological wave. The best PC-era companies failed to stay on top in the mobile era. The same will happen with AI. Each wave forces us to figure out what is coming next.
I believe AI is that new wave, and it will bring about massive changes, not only in tech, but in life in general. Its impact could be so big that most people can’t even imagine it yet. Like early smartphones ... Few could predict that one day everyone would have one. My generation saw computers as a luxury; the next sees smartphones as a given. I believe that in a few years AI will feel just as normal, and these waves always bring sweeping change.
AI adoption today comes in two forms: products where AI is the core and existing products enhanced by AI. We are pursuing both because we believe AI can quietly make life smoother and more connected. Around 20 million people use AI-powered features on Zalo each month, but I think the biggest opportunities are still ahead as technology will continue to break new grounds."
What do you say to those who think AI development is just a way to collect user data?
That may be true for open, ad-driven social networks. But privacy-first platforms are different. From the start we designed Zalo to not store user content. We have never, and will not, use message content for business. If we need data to train AI, we explicitly ask for consent and will only do so with permission.
Legal and ethical boundaries matter for tech products because of their social impact. We define ethics as the things we choose to do, or not do, even when not required by law. With our philosophy of building for ourselves and our loved ones, I always ask: ‘Would I want to be treated this way?’ That is our test for ethical decisions."
As someone who operates a platform with tens of millions of users, what stands out about Vietnamese tech behavior?
"It may sound strange, but Vietnam is an especially demanding digital market. We have a large, young, English-fluent, highly adaptive user base. They are open to the latest internet technology and have the highest standards. Vietnamese products compete directly against global giants, a challenge digital services face that traditional products don’t.
Our way to stand out is to observe daily habits and make them more convenient. In 2023 I noticed people often sent bank account numbers, then copied and pasted them into their banking app to transfer money. Zalo added a feature allowing senders to save account numbers, and recipients to open the banking app with pre-filled details. It was very well received."
And what about human resources? Why don’t more Vietnamese engineers build world-class products?
Vietnamese engineers’ technical ability is undeniable, even at top Silicon Valley companies. But developing world-class tech products requires another skill: product design. It is the difference between an architect, who decides what to build for both functionality and beauty, and a construction engineer, who figures out how to build it efficiently and securely. We have many engineers, but too few tech architects.
Tech powerhouses like China, South Korea and Japan spent years working for foreign companies, learning the craft before creating products of their own.
If a startup in Vietnam said it wants to replace ChatGPT, what will you tell them?
"I would advise them not to, that they should do something different. Our lesson from competing with Facebook is that a direct race with Silicon Valley giants is virtually impossible. Even matching 90% of what they do is not enough. Instead, find the unique value they lack, and focus all your effort there. ChatGPT will also have weaknesses, not because they aren’t skilled, but because those areas go against their values. Identify and solve those, and opportunities will come.
I believe young people are full of belief and romanticism, two things essential for pursuing Vietnam’s tech dreams: belief in the power of the internet to change lives, and the romantic determination to stay the course."
