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In Vietnam, provincial mascot inspires stickers of local chat app

In Vietnam, provincial mascot inspires stickers of local chat app

Thursday, July 13, 2017, 10:27 GMT+7

The mascot of Dong Thap Province in southern Vietnam has become the source of inspiration for a set of stickers used in a popular Vietnamese social media and chat application.

‘Baby Lotus,’ the official mascot of Dong Thap since 2014, now takes on a range of emotions in a new sticker collection introduced by Zalo.

A product of Vietnam’s tech giant VNG Corp., Zalo allows users to send text messages and make phone calls free-of-charge via the Internet, as well as open a social media profile to connect with friends in a manner similar to Facebook.

It is considered Vietnam’s leading over-the-top app, beating out strong foreign competitors such as Viber, Line, and the Facebook-owned Whatsapp in the local market.

‘Baby Lotus’ is a pink lotus bud with a yellow body, wearing a lotus leaf as its skirt.

It was selected as the mascot of Dong Thap by the provincial administration in June 2014, and has been officially included in the province’s identity design since 2017.

The mascot was developed into a set of Zalo stickers following an agreement between the local administration and the tech firm in order to promote the province’s image to the app’s massive user base.

In February last year, Zalo announced that its users had totaled more than 45 million, a significant expansion from one million users in 2013.

The company reported a user base of 70 million in February this year, after having raked in 20 million new registrations in ten months.

“The three colors of Baby Lotus signify the friendliness, hospitability and creativeness of the Land of the Lotus, and its lovable appearance [in the stickers] has brought joy to users of the social media platform,” said Le Minh Hoan, chief of the provincial Party Committee.

This is the first time Zalo has worked with a local administration in promoting its image through such stickers.

Last week, the social app announced its partnership with southern Dong Nai Province in providing users with the ability to check the progress of administrative procedures via a simple QR code scan.

Upon submitting their papers at the provincial public service hub, Dong Nai residents are handed a QR-coded appointment slip, which they can scan with the Zalo app to check its progress.

Users can also chat with public workers via the app’s messaging feature to have their questions answered.

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