Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

Internet celebrities are becoming an important role in going out to Vietnam.

Since the beginning of this year, there has been a heated discussion about the "next factory of the world" in the Vietnamese market, and Vietnam has once again become one of the preferred targets for overseas entrepreneurs. These overseas companies flocking to Vietnam have led to the rapid development of many local related industries, such as the Internet celebrity economy, an industry that has not received much attention in Vietnam before.

Statistics show that 73.2 per cent of the total population of Vietnam has 73.2 per cent of Internet users and 78.1 per cent of socially active users, which has become the basis for the rise of Vietnam's online celebrity industry. In the past two years, the number of local online celebrities and MCN has skyrocketed as more and more Chinese e-commerce platforms, cross-border sellers, social entertainment platforms and online game products have gone out to Vietnam.

Chinese companies have gone out to sea to promote the development of Vietnam's online celebrity economy, which has also brought more convenience to Vietnam.

In February this year, TikTok Shop announced its expansion into Southeast Asia, adding new TikTok Shop stores in Vietnam, Thailand and Malaysia, and sending invitations to many companies with cross-border live broadcast experience. Alex, who is doing cross-border live broadcast in TikTok in the UK, did not hesitate to take his team to try it in Southeast Asian countries after receiving the invitation to settle in.

The company founded by Alex is called Sea Rabbit Technology. He told Xiaguang that since the form of "live broadcast with goods" only entered Vietnam at the beginning of this year, it still needs a process of market education. At the beginning of entering the Vietnamese market, more than a dozen live broadcast accounts of Sea Rabbit Technology could only sell more than 10 orders a day, with a conversion rate of less than 1%.

In fact, the earlier "short video recommendation" is more popular in Vietnam. Alex said that to this day, short video products still account for a larger share of sales in Vietnam than live video products. However, the development of live streaming in China has convinced him that this is a higher-ceiling business model, which also has great potential in Vietnam, and he also insists on learning the domestic style of live streaming.

"Vietnam's game in the live room with goods is not as rich as that in China, and the anchors often do not receive enough training, and the live broadcast form is relatively monotonous, so they can only focus on low prices to attract consumers." but Alex believes that people yearn for beautiful and interesting things, and while adhering to the low-price strategy, they must enhance the interest of the live broadcast room.

Two months later, Sea Rabbit Technology ran out of Vietnam's first live studio with a GMV of more than $10, 000 per game, thanks to their efforts to train anchors. Alex says the average daily turnover of each cross-border e-commerce studio in Vietnam has exceeded 1000, and the conversion rate has risen to 4 per cent.

Some people hurried in after smelling the wind, while others prepared in advance to preempt the layout for a long time.

Three years ago, Uncle Li heard that TikTok had plans to open ofo's function in the Southeast Asian market. He immediately came to Vietnam with investors'$5 million to set up his own MCN organization, Vzone. To his surprise, TikTok has been slow to lay out its e-commerce business in Southeast Asia, but what has come is the COVID-19 epidemic that has ravaged the world. As a result, in the past two years, he had to focus on incubating online celebrity accounts and decided to gather enough fans before starting to bring goods.

The effort is worth the effort, and when the financing of US $5 million is about to bottom out, live e-commerce in Vietnam finally broke out in the first half of this year. At this time, Uncle Li's Vzone has incubated 15 accounts, and the most popular online celebrity has more than 10 million followers, equivalent to one in 10 Vietnamese.

At present, Uncle Li's Vzone has become one of the largest live MCN of TikTok Vietnam Station, and the company has also achieved a break-even.

Uncle Li's online celebrity anchor group. Photo Source: IT Times this year, with the launch of TikTok Shop in Southeast Asia, the popularity of going out to sea immediately shifted to live e-commerce. Both content and e-commerce people "borrowed ships to go to sea" and went to Vietnam to do live broadcasts and bring goods. Statistics show that in the first half of 2022, Vietnam became the second largest e-commerce market in Southeast Asia after Indonesia. In addition, more than 77% of online celebrities in Vietnam are active on TikTok, making it the most active country in Southeast Asia. All these have ignited Vietnam's live streaming market.

According to Vietnam's Saigon Liberation Daily, there are currently more than 2.5 million live events in Vietnam every month, and about 50,000 companies are here to dig gold from the Chinese mode of carrying goods.

The crazy growth of live e-commerce is inseparable from the support of a large number of MCN institutions.

At present, there are no official statistics on the number of local MCN, but according to people familiar with the matter, different sizes of MCN are springing up every day. There are more than 100 Vietnamese MCN cooperated by TikTok alone, and many institutions have Chinese backgrounds, and many MCN from China have even moved their live broadcast bases to Vietnam directly.

Janis, who has been operating the platform in Vietnam for six years, feels that the current ecology of online celebrities in Vietnam can be described as "Hong Bo surges up and has a bright future", much like China's online celebrity market in 2017.

"these new forms of live streaming and consumer recommendation are still very new to the younger generation in Vietnam, and there is still some time and room for development." Janis believes that Vietnam's economic development is still at the level of China three or seven years ago, and Vietnamese consumerism is more about how to make ends meet. To do MCN in Vietnam, we should focus on creating more money-making opportunities for young people, let locals know that being online celebrities can make money, and then further guide fan groups to spend.

A video costs 10, 000 US dollars, and the cooperative quotation goes up. In addition to bringing goods live, many Chinese and local enterprises sailing to Vietnam are also looking for local MCN cooperation to promote their brands.

Janis said that if a product wants to go deep into the hearts of Vietnamese netizens, it must find local stars or online celebrities. For example, the Vietnamese version of "Arena of Valor" frequently interacts with local game contestants, game network celebrities, painters, and celebrities who have questions.

The Vietnamese version of "Arena of Valor" of Garena has recently been recruiting 100+KOL and game anchors to participate in activities the Vietnamese game market is developing well. Luke, an entrepreneur based in Vietnam, told Xiaguang that because of the easy pace of life, most Vietnamese gamers spend a long time online and like to socialize. Newzoo mentioned in the 2021 Global Game Market report that Vietnamese players are more loyal and more willing to pay than Chinese players.

Nowadays, more and more young Vietnamese are becoming content creators of live games and short videos, and they generate more e-sports content than event-based content. Because players can broadcast live games as well as be rewarded by fans, live games have quickly become one of the most popular forms of entertainment in Vietnam. Janis told us that the quotations of online celebrities in Vietnamese games are usually much higher than those in other categories and are a sought-after resource in the online celebrity market.

Nimo TV, HUYA's overseas product, is one of the most important players in Vietnam's game live streaming market. in order to attract more young people, Nimo TV competes with local game platforms for popular e-sports players and e-sports anchors, such as inviting D Mixi, one of the well-known local anchors, to stay. They will follow the local popular games and promote Nimo TV in the video to attract vertical target users. At the same time, select urban couples with high interaction and strong ability to carry goods, oral reviews, drama talent, through the way of soft implantation, mining potential user groups.

Xia Guang has learned that quotations for online celebrities in Vietnamese games are getting higher and higher as live game platforms such as Nimo TV and local VNG compete for online celebrity resources. at present, a head game anchor in Vietnam can earn tens of thousands of dollars a month.

V Qing nHo à ng, a well-known anchor in NimoTV Vietnam. Image source: all MCN of IT Times will choose content creators who understand game content or entertainment to compete with their quality and price. Vietnam's online celebrity market quickly poached each other: some companies offered attractive terms, offering salaries of more than 100% or more, "online celebrities running away" often occurred, and the market became more and more "rolling".

Luke said that from about June this year, the feeling of "volume" has become stronger. Since the beginning of this year, the domestic media have rushed to report the good time to go to Vietnam, many Chinese companies have gone to Vietnam, and the local online celebrity market has also exploded.

However, in Luke's view, the way to earn revenue from MCN and social media by poaching people is not sustainable. "this industry needs online celebrities to continue to create high-quality content for platforms and brands, so even if you find the right online celebrities, if you don't have a mature mode of operation, if you just rely on burning money to poach people, your platform or organization will be a flash in the pan."

Although the competition in the economy of online celebrities in Vietnam is becoming more and more fierce, we know from many practitioners that the industry is still in the early stage of development and the operating mechanism is not mature, so the cooperative quotations of local online celebrities are more reasonable than those in China.

"for online celebrities with about 500000 fans in games, beauty makeup TikTok and YouTube, online celebrities with about 500000 fans in MCN from China to Vietnam, the price for a video ranges from US $4,000 to US $12,000; for online celebrities with about 1 million fans, the price for a video is about US $12000," Janis said, but if they are working with local MCN in Vietnam, their online celebrity partnership price is 1pm 2 of the above price.

In terms of the income of online celebrities, Xiaguang learned that at present, Vietnamese head online celebrities can earn more than 10,000 US dollars a month, which is considerable in Vietnam, where the per capita salary is only about 2000 yuan and the monthly income of middle-level leaders of local enterprises is only 2000 US dollars.

Although the quotation of Vietnamese online celebrity cooperation is not high, the quality of the content produced is not poor.

Not long ago, FAPtv, a top Vietnamese YouTuber group with 1300 million followers, released a micro-film about a story between a female anchor and her fans. In less than an hour's video, fans help anchors identify cheating boyfriends, rescue embarrassing scenes and a series of ups and downs, which have been viewed more than 4 million times a month.

Xiaguang found that MICO, a social product from China, was "implanted" in the microfilm. In the story, the female host is the anchor of MICO. In the video, the social software appears frequently but not deliberately, making people unwittingly remember the App of the purple icon.

Seven, head of the Vietnam operations of MICO, a microfilm shot by the top YouTuber group FAPtv in Vietnam, revealed that several members of FAPtv had a live broadcast on MICO last year, which attracted many fans to watch, so when MICO decided to release a short film in Vietnam this year, they immediately thought of FAPtv. Finally, the short play also made a name for MICO's further penetration in the local area.

Seven did not disclose the specific cost of shooting, but he admitted that the cooperation with the top of Vietnam, the performance-to-price ratio is still good, "much cheaper than domestic."

In the process of shooting promotional films with online celebrities from several MCN organizations, Seven observed that many online celebrities in Vietnam cherish the dream of being a star. They are not willing to be online celebrities all the time and take every shot very seriously. "usually, when the brand gives the content direction, these online celebrities and the content team behind them will also fully polish the script, resulting in video quality and effect that often exceed our expectations."

The prosperity of Vietnam's online celebrity industry provides more ways to play seafood. on the other hand, the online celebrity industry is also the actual beneficiary of the Vietnam craze. As more and more enterprises go to Vietnam, Vietnamese Internet celebrities have more room for display and development, and there are more and more opportunities for business cooperation.

Janis was impressed by the fact that in 2016, her company partnered with a Vietnamese game YouTuber with 1 million fans to promote videos and Facebook short posts for $1200. By 2018, the number of YouTuber fans had reached 6 million, and the cooperative offer also went up. An one-and-a-half-minute video costs $4000. Now that he has 11 million followers, brands need to apply in advance if they want to place ads in the video.

Working in Vietnam for six years, Janis has witnessed the story of many local online celebrities who have gone from not making a penny to becoming head Internet celebrities step by step. Janis said that the rising market prices of online celebrities in Vietnam are not only based on the adjustment of the local market, but also inseparable from the efforts of these online celebrities.

Vietnam, which has been pushed to the "altar", is it really a god? A Qiu, who has worked in an integrated service platform for Southeast Asia for four years, told Xiaguang that in the eyes of employees in cross-border e-commerce, pan-entertainment and other industries, traffic is the most critical. So Vietnam's Internet celebrity industry, which has not received much attention in the past, is finally in the spotlight.

According to the Southeast Asia Internet economy report 2021, Vietnam's Internet economy will reach 57 billion US dollars in 2025, which will become the first in Southeast Asia. According to the international e-commerce conference held in Singapore in September this year, Vietnam will become the second largest e-commerce market in Southeast Asia, after Indonesia.

A Qiu believes that as a blue sea of live e-commerce, Vietnam has become a "hot cake" for cross-border e-commerce platforms and sellers because of its rapid economic growth and what many people call "the back garden made in China".

"Last year, many cross-border sellers were blocked by Amazon, and these people turned their attention to Southeast Asia, only to find that the atmosphere of e-commerce in Southeast Asia was hotter than that in Europe and the United States," he says. some sellers feel that being a brand in China is really too "curly." so they began to be cross-border sellers in Southeast Asia and European and American markets, forming a double cycle. The first stop for many people is Vietnam.

And TikTok has undoubtedly accelerated the development of cross-border e-commerce in Vietnam, but also let the e-commerce market here more and more "volume". Before TikTok e-commerce arrived in Vietnam, the main e-commerce platforms here were Shopee, Lazada and Tiki, of which only TiKi was the local e-commerce platform in Vietnam, with Tencent and Alibaba behind the first two. 'Today, Tiki obviously can't compete with Chinese platforms, and its visits and GMV can't compete with Shopee, Lazada and TikTok, 'Mr. Qiu said.

Shopee, Lazada and Tiki Janis said that the live streaming and recommendation in Vietnam had been developed to varying degrees before the TikTok Shop layout in Vietnam. As early as 2017, local merchants began to broadcast goods and "recommendations" live on Facebook, and most online celebrities sell goods on their own fan colleges. In the past two years, the rise of Shopee and Lazada in Vietnam has brought the new mode of live streaming to the eyes of more people, while the addition of TikTok has directly pushed the model to its peak.

Although it has been opened, A Chiu believes that Vietnam's e-commerce market is still in its early stage, more like the "hundred Regiments War" in China's e-commerce market a decade ago. Local platforms and merchants are still building infrastructure, customer acquisition, and spelling unit prices, and have not yet formed a virtuous circle. If they are not affected by other policies, they will grow rapidly in the next two years.

In addition to cross-border e-commerce, Vietnam's market for social entertainment applications is also sizeable. According to Statista statistics, the total revenue of entertainment applications in Vietnam is expected to be US $22.53 million in 2022, with a compound annual growth rate of 8.19% from 2022 to 2026. In addition, the online dating market in Vietnam is expected to reach $44 million by 2025.

However, unlike those who went to sea in Vietnam in the early years, Vietnam's social entertainment industry is now quite mature, and in order to gain a foothold in order to gain a foothold, it needs to pay attention to brand promotion and meticulous operation.

MICO, where Seven is located, has been operating in Vietnam for nearly three years. With the increasing certainty of the Vietnamese market, there is a growing demand for brand influence there. In addition to co-producing microfilms with online celebrities, MICO has also produced Vietnamese theme songs and MV this year, and co-produced promotional films with dozens of online celebrities in Vietnam.

"unlike buying volume, there is no very accurate way to measure ROI in brand investment," Seven said frankly. For example, after the broadcast of micro-movies, there has indeed been a significant increase in the number of natural downloads of products, but how many accurate users, how many people can stay, and how to do a good job in undertaking transformation still need to be explored.

Behind the prosperity of the online celebrity industry is the rise of the wave of going out to Vietnam, but going to Vietnam is not as simple as we thought.

Today, there is still wave after wave of entrepreneurs coming to the Nuggets in Vietnam, such as moving the live broadcast base to MCN in Vietnam. Luke believes that if you think of setting up MCN as an online celebrity industry in Vietnam, there will still be a wave of dividends. "Vietnam TikTok still lacks high-quality content. If you copy the domestic methodology, it is easy to accumulate a group of fans in a short period of time, but at this stage cash is still the biggest problem for local MCN institutions."

For entrepreneurs who want to go to Vietnam, A Qiu suggested that priority should be given to social entertainment, leisure games, cross-border e-commerce, financial technology and other areas. "Vietnam's economy is developing rapidly after the epidemic, because the market and user habits are similar. Pan-entertainment and e-commerce industry will basically copy China's development route. For example, e-commerce in Vietnam does not start early compared with other Southeast Asian countries, but it is currently the fastest growing in Southeast Asia."

On this point, a Chinese expert who works as a consultant in Vietnam said that the Vietnamese do not save much money and there are advantages in these industries, but they still need to be cautious about going to Vietnam: "it is dangerous to start a business in Vietnam with a low-cost mentality." House prices in Vietnam are not cheap. The average price of real estate in Hanoi has exceeded 10,000, and the price of Ho Chi Minh is also very high. In addition, the average salary of bilingual Vietnamese employees is at least 8000 yuan. Therefore, the rent and labor costs are not as cheap as we think. " He suggests that Vietnamese entrepreneurs who want to go abroad must first look at the risks and then look at the profits.

In addition, compliance is still a big problem for Chinese overseas enterprises. For example, Vietnam also has a similar version policy with China, which requires overseas games to cooperate with local companies when they are released in Vietnam. Vietnam decree No. 72 stipulates that if you want to get on the game to the Vietnamese market, the company must have a license to issue a qualification license, and the Vietnamese need to own 51% of the shares to apply for the license. Finally, you need to apply for a version number for the game before you can go online in Vietnam.

In 2022, Vietnam seemed to be "pushed to the altar" overnight, with unlimited opportunities. But as overseas companies take root here, Vietnam is saying goodbye to the era of extensive growth in the past, whether it is the thriving online celebrity industry or the cross-border e-commerce and social entertainment tracks chosen by more and more entrepreneurs. Players who practice their internal skills in localization and fine operation will be able to catch up with the next era by going to sea with the east wind of Vietnam.

Reference:

[1] "before burning up 5 million, he stood firm in the cargo circle with a live broadcast in Vietnam," IT Times

[2] "China's live e-commerce campaign against Vietnam, three teams, no one to lie down and earn", open pineapple finance and economics

This article comes from the official account of Wechat: Xiaguang Society (ID:Globalinsights), author: Wang Dalu, Editor: Kuiichi

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