Technology company VNG Corporation on February 13 saw its market price surge 15% to hit VND1,027,400 (US$43.55) per share, becoming the first Vietnamese stock to reach VND1 million (US$42.39) ever.

The photo shows the interface of Zalo, a communication app developed by VNG Group. Photo: The Hanoi Times

The stock VNZ made its debut on the Unlisted Public Company Market (UPCoM) on January 1, 2023, at VND336,000 ($14.24) per share. The company's share values have tripled in the past nine trading days to trade at VND1.027 million ($43.55) per share on February 13.

The previous most valuable stock on the Vietnamese market was Binh Dinh Minerals JSC (HoSE: BMC) when the mining firm's share reached the price of VND847,000 ($35.91) per share on May 21, 2007.

Executives of VNG Corporation attributed the skyrocketing growth of VNZ shares to the market's elasticity and investor valuation, affirming that company executives have taken no action regarding the stock's gain.

With more than 35.8 million shares tradeable on the market, VNG Corporation saw its market capitalization reach VND36.8 trillion ($1.56 billion) on February 13.

The value is still far below the valuation of VNG Corporation in 2019 when the Singaporean investment fund valued the company at $2.2 billion.

At the moment, a majority of VNZ shares are held by foreign shareholders and senior executives in the company. The free-float share ratio at VNG Corporation is only 40% or 11 million shares.

VNG Corporation is among Vietnam’s leading tech companies. It is well-known for a wide range of digital solutions and programs in the fields of fintech, communication, video game development, and cloud database. In 2014, the World Startup Report valued VNG Corporation at US$1 billion, making it the first Vietnamese unicorn in the world.

The company's main products include Zalo, the ZaloPay e-wallet, and the ZingMP3 music platform. VNG Corporation launched the first Vietnamese social network, Zing Me, in August 2010, but soon had to shut down due to competition from other platforms, such as Facebook and Instagram.

However, Zalo becomes the most popular app in Vietnam. Launched in 2012 by a group of Vietnamese developers, including VNG Corporation, Zalo is a communication app that offers a wide range of functions, including chat, video calls, and conference calls.

The app has experienced rapid development in the last 10 years and become one of the most popular communication channels for Vietnamese people. As of the end of 2022, Zalo had more than 73.4 million active users, exchanging some two billion messages each day, and was among the top 20 most favorite apps on Apple Store.

For its popularity, Hanoi municipal authorities last week opened an official Zalo account to handle complaints and petitions from local citizens and enterprises, thus fulfilling their commitment to put citizens and businesses at the heart of their operations and measure the performance of Government agencies based on public satisfaction.

So far, more than 10,000 Government agencies have set up their Zalo accounts to better connect to people and improve services.