In 2006, YouTube began trying in-video advertisements, which was considered a stepping stone for YouTube Partners, a program allowing the sharing of revenue from ads with content producers.

Tam Mao brothers show a document proving that they have paid VND214 million in personal income tax

A recent report showed that there are 50 million content producers who create 500 viewing hours each minute, attracting 2 billion users for YouTube.

Google’s 2019 annual report shows that YouTube brings $15 billion to the search giant and makes up 10 percent of its total revenue. This is a profitable investment deal if noting that Google only spent $1.65 billion to acquire YouTube in 2006.

That is why YouTube cannot live without Hung Vlog, NTN Vlogs and other big content producers.

With the current revenue sharing mechanism, YouTubers in Vietnam can only receive very low profit rate from YouTube, but still can attract young people.

According to experts, the RPM (revenue per impression, i.e revenue for every 1,000 ad impressions) of the revenue-sharing platforms like YouTube in Vietnam is slow, below, just below $0.2, while it is around $2 in the US.

In other words, for a video with 1 million viewers in Vietnam, the content producer would receive $200-300, and they have to re-share with MCN (multi-channel network).

Therefore, many YouTubers in Vietnam try every possible means to obtain more views. That is why low-quality content and nonsensical videos are posted every day.

The smaller the channels are, the bigger content producers have to share with MCN, which could be up to 50 percent of revenue.

NTN Vlogs and Hung Vlog are just a very small part of the big community of content producers who are making money for YouTube every day.

This has promptef content producers to make videos with unhealthy content. In return, MCN acts as a ‘protector’ which makes them feel secure and protected about the content they create.

As such, YouTube steadily collects money from ads, while content producers feel secure enough to continue producing videos.

However, the amount of money Vietnamese YouTubers can earn from content production is still high. Tam Mao brothers have recently shown a document proving that they have paid VND214 million in personal income tax on income of VND4.7 billion from YouTube they earned during the last two years.

YouTube can severely punish MCNs. However, analysts say the platform rarely punishes MCNs by eliminating big channels, because it's like ‘breaking its own rice bowl’.

YouTube even tolerates people who make false content. For example, NTN Vlogs, after many times making videos with nonsense content, was fiercely opposed by users, but YouTube turned it off only for certain period of time to make money.

YouTube even winks at unhealthy videos. NTN Vlogs posted many videos with nonsensical content and faced criticism from the public, but YouTube just turned off the monetization button for a certain time.

After that, Nguyen Thanh Nam continued producing videos with unhealthy content. Only when appropriate agencies punished Hung Vlog did YouTube delete six nonsensical videos.

YouTube argues that it doesn’t delete the videos because they don’t violate community standards and are labelled ‘18+’.

An Instagram hotgirl advertised to sell ‘18+’ videos and ‘sensitive’ products. Just after a short time, 1.71 million people subscribed to her channel and YouTube did not eliminate the channel despite harsh criticism.

The harm of the videos with unhealthy content is clear, but YouTube hasn't applied drastic measures to thoroughly prevent them.

Meanwhile, the promised huge profits encourage YouTubers to continue making these videos. Despite protest from the public, YouTube is still letting unhealthy videos harm the cyber space not only in Vietnam but all over the globe. 

Phuong Nguyen

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