(Dan Tri) - Many users have expressed their frustration when they discovered that Zalo will charge a fee of 5,000 VND to receive an authentication code every time they register a new account.

According to many users, when they register a Zalo account from a new phone number, this application will require users to send a message to the switchboard to receive a confirmation code to activate the account, with a texting fee of 5,000 VND.

In addition, in case the user forgets their Zalo account login password and requests a new password, Zalo will also force the user to text the switchboard to receive a confirmation code, at a fee of 1,000 VND/message.

Notably, many users said they composed a message according to the syntax to send to the switchboard as requested by Zalo but did not receive the authentication code or the code was incorrect, causing their subscription to be deducted money but still unable to register for a Zalo account.

Previously, registering an account, re-issuing a password or receiving a confirmation code from Zalo were completely free, so the fact that this social network suddenly charged a fee made many users feel frustrated.

"Why doesn't Zalo send SMS messages to the registered phone number like before, but forces users to send messages to the switchboard to receive the confirmation code and collect user fees?", Facebook account V.Anh commented.

"Even though we know that using a free service is not allowed to ask for much and businesses also need to make money to maintain the service, but charging a fee to register a new account is not advisable at all, especially for a service with many users like Zalo," Facebook account C. Hieu commented.

"It has a reputation as a free messaging and calling application over the Internet, but now it charges a fee to register a new account, so how can it be called a free application? It's hard to accept," a Facebook account named T.Tai expressed frustration.

Many users think that Zalo should charge users for expanded and advanced features, instead of charging money for new registration accounts.

Previously in August 2022, Zalo also began implementing user fee packages, while cutting features for free accounts.

Specifically, if the user uses a free Zalo account, the contact list will only have a maximum of 1,000 contacts; strangers (those not yet in your contacts or friends list) will not be able to view or comment on the diary; Each free account only has 40 impressions/month when strangers search via phone number; Only allowed to respond to 40 messages from strangers per month.

In addition, free accounts will no longer be able to use unique usernames and can only create up to 5 quick message templates to send feedback in case there is no time to compose a message or listen to a call.

Before the fee was charged, free accounts on Zalo were not limited to the number of replies to messages or searches via phone numbers from strangers, and the friends list could also reach a maximum of 3,000 people.

To remove the limitations of free accounts, users can order Zalo packages.

By August last year, Zalo continued to silently reduce the free storage capacity of the Cloud service by half, from 1GB to 500MB. This also made many users feel dissatisfied, but still unable to give up this service because they have been with it for a long time.