Danal and Shinhan Bank Introduce Vietnam's ZaloPay for Foreign Student Tuition Payments in Korea for the First Time

Danal and Shinhan Bank have expanded into the foreign student tuition payment market in Korea by introducing ZaloPay, the leading Vietnamese simple payment platform, to domestic university tuition payment services for international students.

On June 11, Danal announced that, together with Shinhan Bank, it has integrated ZaloPay into the university tuition payment service for international students in Korea for the first time. With this new service, Vietnamese students and their parents can conveniently pay tuition fees via QR code using the Zalo or ZaloPay application, without needing to visit a bank in person.

ZaloPay is a simple payment platform based on "Zalo," Vietnam’s leading messenger app, which boasts around 80 million users. Universities can continue to use their existing virtual account-based tuition payment and settlement systems, while automatically receiving tuition payments settled in Korean won, allowing them to use the service without the burden of additional system changes.

The foreign student tuition payment service operated by Danal and Shinhan Bank already supports a variety of global payment methods, including WeChat Pay and PayPal, and continues to grow. The service is currently offered in partnership with more than 94 universities in Korea, and with the addition of ZaloPay, the convenience of tuition payments for Vietnamese students is expected to improve significantly.

The international student market in Korea is also expanding rapidly. According to Ministry of Justice statistics, as of February this year, the number of international students in Korea reached 314,397, more than doubling from about 150,000 in 2020 over the past five years. By nationality, Vietnamese students ranked first with 115,131, followed by Chinese students with 78,529.

With the introduction of ZaloPay, Danal has secured a payment infrastructure that covers both Vietnamese and Chinese students, who together represent the largest proportion of international students in Korea. As a result, the company anticipates increased use of related services and greater revenue growth potential.

The company is also considering linking ZaloPay with offline merchant QR payments and a planned prepaid card exclusively for international students. In addition, Danal plans to sequentially connect local payment solutions in countries such as Mongolia, Uzbekistan, Nepal, and Myanmar, where the number of international students coming to Korea has been growing recently.

A Danal representative stated, "By supporting Vietnamese ZaloPay in addition to China’s WeChat Pay and global PayPal, most international students in Korea can now pay tuition using familiar local payment methods. Since the service is directly connected to local bank accounts, it also reduces various risks that can arise during the remittance process, so we expect the number of users and partner universities to continue to grow."

With the introduction of ZaloPay, Danal, which now has payment networks in key student-sending countries such as China and Vietnam, is expected to further expand its influence in the foreign student tuition payment market and accelerate the growth of its related business.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.