VietNamNet Bridge – More and more video hosting websites, which provide films of different quality, from SD to HD quality films to the community, have been mushrooming. However, the investments still cannot bring profits at this moment.

Le Van Chinh, technical advisor to Soncamedia, thinks that there are some 150 video hosting webs existing on Internet. In order to have that figure, Chinh asked his staff type the keyword and then count every website.

One and all, men rush to set up film websites

Several years ago, some communities gathering the people who liked watching films were set up. The people shared their own films by uploading video content to share, distribute or place on websites, thus generating film stores.

At first, the film stores were just the places from which the communities’ members could download films to their private computers. It was very difficult to watch the films online due to the low quality of the Internet transmission.

Later, since late 2012, more and more video hosting websites have appeared which provide the huge number of videos of up to several thousands.

Tam Tay, a service provider, has decided to follow the US Netfix’s model, has set up a film web for the users who download Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea and Vietnam drama series.

Tam Tay’s owners believe that the webs would attract a lot of customers, especially the ones from the current 10 million members of the social network tamtay.vn and the customers who play the investor’s online games.

However, the owners of the video hosting websites admitted that most of the films shown on their websites are unlicensed. The films can be uploaded on the websites just several days after their first hit the large screen.

Viet Anh from HD Vietnam Forum commented that the film websites which allow watching films free of charge have been developing very rapidly, because they can provide what the Internet users want.

The quality of the films shown on the websites, of course, is low, but it is “acceptable” for those, who still can watch films without having to pay money. Meanwhile, the image and sound quality has been upgraded significantly recently.

Investors still cannot make profit

An investor, who asked to be anonymous, said his film store comprises of 3,000 films and the initial investment capital has reached VND15 billion.

He said that the movies shown on the websites are the ones which were on air one year ago; while television dramas are the ones are uploaded on the website just two months after they are on television.

Another investor affirmed that he has paid royalty for all of his films and spent money to produce music products himself. He declined to give the exact figure about the sum of money, but said it was “very big.”

Besides, the film web owners also have to pay money for the network infrastructure to Internet Service Provider (ISP). Viet Tuan, a worker of VDC 2 Company, said the cost is between VND20 million and VND30 million.

However, though spending big money on developing film websites, investors dare not expect big profits.

In general, their sources of income are from ads and fees from watchers. Meanwhile, the income from ads remains modest, because they only get money if customers click the ad pieces, while watchers only want to watch films free of charge.

Thanh Mai