Livestreams are still not considered a career in China, but a livestream service association managed by the state has been established and there were about 15 million direct livestreamers by the end of 2023, called "wangluo zhubo”.

Since livestreaming is not recognized as a career, livestreamers cannot meet the requirements to receive support from the government in fields such as training and development.

But the situation in China may change soon as the Chinese Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security in May 2024 released a list of 19 fields which will be recognized as careers, including livestreams.

Pham Kim Thu, Rector of Huu Nghi Junior College, which is providing training in livestreaming, believes it can be considered as a career.

She said the rapid development of the internet, social networks and online platforms such as YouTube, Facebook, X and TikTok create favorable conditions for many people to earn a living by livestreaming content.

This is a field with great potential, especially for those who can attract audiences thanks to creative content, who have good interaction skills, and can maintain viewers’ interests.

Livestreams brings income from various sources, from ads, sponsors, subscriptions from viewers, goods sales and content sales.

Many people and businesses use livestreams to develop their private brands. They attract followers with their professionalism, personality, and original content.

Livestreaming not only requires good communication skills and interaction with audiences, but also the ability to organize and create content and understand livestream technology. To succeed, one must spend a lot of time and effort.

Many countries have considered livestreaming as a legitimate, setting up regulations on taxes and legality.

Tonkin Media’s Vo Quoc Hung said, with the current development of livestream, no other field will be able to replace it in the short or medium term.

However, like other careers, there must be clear regulations on the skills one must have. Livestreamers, including KOLs, need to undergo training and be given ethics lessons, sothey can understand their responsibility and possible impact on society.

Licensing livestreams

The question is whether it is necessary to require KOLs to obtain certificates to be eligible for livestream, especially because of the following cases: An actor who doesn’t have knowledge about medicine and pharmacy advertises drugs and earns tens or hundreds of million of dong from the advertisements. An ordinary person without knowledge about laws conducts livestreams to discuss, analyze and comment about criminal cases.

Thu from Huu Nghi college thinks the issue needs to be considered from different perspectives. Though livestreaming is a form of freely showing, interacting and sharing feelings, some issues need to be under stricter control.

In terms of livestreaming to sell goods and e-commerce, for example, licensing is a necessary procedure. The requirement for licensing or business registration will help ensure transparency and consumer protection, and ensure fairness in the business environment. This will also help taxation agencies better control taxation and tax payments.

Licensing is necessary if livestreams are related to information, politics, health, education, or topics with large impact on society. The strict control, in this case, will help prevent misinformation from being disseminated and causing harm to society.

If livestreams use copyrighted content (music, video, images, etc), they must be controlled to avoid copyright infringement. The licensing or certifying of content copyright before livestreaming will protect creators’ interests.

If livestreamers only want to interact with other individuals, share individual experiences or publish videos for entertainment purposes, then licensing is unnecessary. In principle, individuals have the freedom to express their thoughts.

Le Ba Hai Sieu, a high-growth strategy specialist, thinks there is no need to require licensing in this field. Livestreaming to sell goods, he said, is just like selling goods at physical shops, and the only thing that is different is that the former uses the platforms of third parties. He said that government agencies can use technologies, such as social listening, to scan content and find violators. 

Le My