Work regardless of income
In recent years, along with the explosive development of social networks and video sharing platforms, an underground market has formed when many organizations and individuals rushed to review disguised films.
Instead of just commenting and analyzing, the channels have turned reviews into a way to summarize the entire film, even using live scenes and trailers, then added explanations to tell the plot.
With no cost of copyright or investment in original content production, these channels can release hundreds of videos in a short time.
These summary videos and disguised reviews always have huge views, bringing in large revenues from advertising, sponsorship or online sales.
In addition, this activity is also known by experts as Reup phim, which refers to the act of re-uploading (re-uploading) available movies, clips, or videos of others onto a platform ( YouTube, TikTok, Facebook...) without the copyright or permission of the owner. The main purpose of film reups is to make money from views, advertisements or channel sales without having to spend money on copyright or production investment.
However, the higher the profit, the greater the risk as platforms such as YouTube, Facebook, TikTok are tightening copyright. Vietnamese law has also increased sanctions for illegal copying and distribution of films. In particular, international manufacturers have begun to take stronger the crack in the acquisition.
A market that seems easy to get money out of hand but in fact contains the risk of "collision" at any time.
A former employee of a film review clip team in Hanoi, Le Anh Tung (a communications student in the capital) recalled his job as recreating the entire content of a movie shown in theaters by cutting and editing into 8-15-minute videos, combined with personal comments.
"In the 2021-2022 period, the average salary of an employee like me is 10 - 12 million VND/month, if I work hard, I can completely reach 30 - 40 million VND/month. In general, although they know about copyright infringement, many people still do it because their income is too attractive. This is not a concern of being arrested by the police, just a concern of being beaten up by YouTube with a copyright stick, Tung admitted.
In fact, despite knowing the risk of having their channel down at any time, many individuals still ignore it because this form easily creates content, quickly catches trends, attracts views and opens up many sources of revenue. Even when the channel is deleted, they are willing to create a new channel, continue to turn around to make money.
Enterprises behind the "growing" market
Posing as investors looking to learn, the Lao Dong reporter group approached a number of companies operating in this field.
At lane 67, An Lac Phung Khoang street (Ha Dong, Hanoi), a man named Binh, claiming to be the production manager of KAB MEDIA 360 Company, revealed:
"We used to make many films. The basic process is to hire dozens of employees to cut and paste videos, mass produce, sometimes up to thousands of videos per day, then buy channels that have been turned on to make money and push. There was a time when the revenue was very good, but now it is more difficult to do business because the risk of being copyrighted is higher, there is a lot of effort but in the end it is a stick".
Binh said that to survive with this profession in the present time, it will be necessary to accept the possibility of losing the channel at any time.
Continuing in the reporter group's recording process, at the headquarters of a business named Minh Nhi Agency (headquartered at 58 Luu Huu Phuoc, Tu Liem Ward, Hanoi), this Company is described as a professional Marketing unit, providing Facebook advertising services, Google Ads, SEO, image design, Fanpage care, helping businesses break through revenue and build brands.
However, those are just cyberspace publications, and the way this business operates has many problems.
The owner of Minh Nhi Agency, Minh, revealed that the company is trying its hand at reviewing movies on TikTok.
In a room of less than 20 square meters, a few young staff members sat next to the computers, tirelessly cutting and editing videos sourced from the social networking platform Douyin. The video was edited and recorded with an English translation tool, then posted on TikTok.
Douyin is not currently copyrighted as strongly as YouTube. If we only take short film videos that the actors made by themselves, the possibility of complaints or locking the channel will be very low, an employee shared with us.
Minh, the owner of this company, admitted: "If we were to produce clean videos, the company doesn't know what kind of work we would have to do. Mainly, we still have to reup and steal content".
During the discussion, the owner of Minh Nhi Agency Company did not hesitate to admit that all of the above activities were aimed at exploiting illegal content, then building a channel to make money from game advertisements, online gambling apps and foreign cas cassava,casinoes, or sales linkages. If the video catches the trend, it can reach millions of views overnight.
Despite being tightened by platforms and the law increasingly sanctioning, the market for digital content copyright theft is still operating silently. And many individuals and organizations are still ready to create new channels after each "canal collapse", despite sustainability.
Snoring became the keyword to accurately describe this profession when workers only had to put in little effort to copy, cut and paste with quick profits and despite the always-in-the- case risks.
Theft of copyrights and content reps not only causes damage to producers, but also creates social consequences when audiences gradually get used to the habit of watching for free and disrespecting creative efforts.
Enterprises suggest transferring money to personal accounts to evade taxes
Continuing the recording process, a group of reporters from Lao Dong newspaper (playing the role of digital content investor) were introduced by a contact and scheduled to come to the office with Vietnam Radio Advertising Joint Stock Company at building V6-A02 The Terra An Hung, located on Nguyen Thanh Binh Street, Hanoi City. This enterprise is described as ready to cooperate if it receives a reasonable offer.
Here, a female employee received us. After discussing the common work between the two sides, which is to get the animated film video files from a certain source, the technical team of this unit will edit, create and read the comments to make a complete film summary video. Each month, the goal is to produce at least 15 videos and each summary video will be 45 minutes long.
When discussing the payment method, this employee did not hesitate to suggest: "Customers can transfer money to the personal account of the company representative, instead of the business account to reduce tax and fee".
This method helps businesses and customers avoid tax obligations, turning copyright infringing business activities into transactions outside the books, which is very difficult to control.
In cyberspace, the name "Phuc Anh MRT" emerged as an "AI expert", with tens of thousands of followers and claiming to be a lecturer teaching AI video. This person's TikTok account has 1.1 million likes.
Through some introducers, we were asked to meet Phuc Anh MRT at a private house in Phu Xuyen commune. This is both a place to live and a "werk" used to produce hundreds of digital content clips.
However, when present at the meeting place, the scenery was far different from what he had imagined. The house looks like many other normal households, without a specialized equipment system or a strong team of personnel to produce videos.
Phuc Anh MRT only uses a bedroom with a computer room, with a few basic technological equipment. However, from that space, this person can create enough digital video content genres as required.
About two years ago, Phuc Anh MRT ran a YouTube team in the direction of reup, retrieving videos from Douyin, building them into channels and selling them to individuals or businesses in need.
However, according to this person, the current trend has gradually changed. Video applications using artificial intelligence (AI) are gradually replacing old ways of doing things, forcing digital content creators to adapt if they don't want to be left behind.
Many people think that YouTube will limit making money from AI content. But in fact, YouTube itself had previously announced to tighten junk content, but until now this type of video is still popular, even with many viewers. Therefore, it is difficult to completely prevent it, Phuc Anh MRT commented.
According to the revelation, only by participating in AI-powered teaching groups and tourism groups (each group has about 300,000 members), operating according to the channel construction model and then handing it over to others for maintenance, Phuc Anh MRT can achieve an income of 70 - 100 million VND per month.
This is just one channel, and this amount has been deducted as a percentage divided among the operations team. I almost don't have to do anything," Phuc Anh MRT said, pointing to the computer screen to show off a digital content channel he built.
In addition to revenue from YouTube and TikTok channels, Phuc Anh MRT is currently opening many online courses on AI, with fees ranging from 1.99 million VND to 7 million VND per student depending on the time.
When asked about paying taxes on large incomes from digital content activities, Phuc Anh MRT frankly admitted that this is a fairly new field, difficult to control revenue, so there is almost no need to pay income tax.
"I have worked for many years but have never paid taxes. If the authorities have to collect it later, then calculate it later, Phuc Anh MRT said and did not hesitate to share a simple way to tax evasion.
According to this person, if the tax authority requires an inspection, they will be ready to invite him home. "My family is just like other normal families, raising a few duck chickens, there is nothing to collect," Phuc Anh MRT instructed.
In fact, Phuc Anh MRT also admitted that he had received invitations from tax authorities a few times. However, every time like that, this man gave an excuse that he did not have clear business activities.
Stories from Radio Vietnam or Phuc Anh MRT show a dark side in the digital content industry when tax evasion becomes easier.
From small rooms, with a personal computer, hundreds of videos are produced and posted online, attracting millions of views and huge profits.
However, that source of money flows through transactions outside the books, making it difficult to control, and even leaving no trace for the tax authorities.
Behind the seemingly harmless clips is an entire sophisticated operating system, generating huge revenues but not being reported. While the management mechanism has not kept up with the development speed of technology, "virtual jobs" continue to exist and make real profits without being attached to tax responsibility.
