Lam is known as a KOC (Key Opinion Customer). In 2020, this 25-year-old man in Ho Chi Minh City decided to quit his office job to pursue a career in cosmetics review because his monthly salary of 7 million "was not enough to live in the city".

As a beauty "addict", he spends about two to three million VND each month to buy products to try and make videos. "I film every day, using many types of cosmetics that cause skin irritation, acne, and ulcers, but I only get a few likes from friends," Lam said.

After half a year, his savings were gone, so Lam asked brands to sponsor trial products, in exchange for free advertising. For example, a one-minute sunscreen commercial took 15-20 days to test, filming from morning to night, and the audience had to be informed of the effectiveness. "When the channel reached 100,000 followers, I started accepting ads," Lam said.

Since 2022, Lam has started livestreaming for brands. At first, he was not used to talking continuously for several hours, even up to 24 hours, so many times he almost fainted on livestream. "I had to learn how to tell jokes, encourage the audience to close the deal, and always be cheerful even when being scolded," Lam said.

Up to now, he has an income that many people dream of, tens of millions of VND per hour of livestreaming. "The highest revenue from my live session was 200 million VND in two hours, there were 24-hour sessions that reached several billion VND," Lam said.

Huge income, flexible working hours and no requirement for qualifications or expertise make KOC jobs like Tran Lam's attractive to young people.

Vu Dieu Thuy, founder of Kolin Academy, a training facility specializing in KOC and KOL (influencer) professions, said that since the beginning of 2024, every month, it has received several hundred students to learn livestreaming and content creation on digital platforms, double that of last year. More than 80% of students are in the 18-29 age group, mainly in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. Each course lasts 4-10 sessions and costs from several million to several hundred million VND.

Ms. Thuy said the hardest part of training beginners with no experience is helping them discover their strengths and advantages to turn into talents, and from there produce suitable content online. "Students who are already famous will often take livestream courses to convert their personal brand into money and learn how to sell products," she said.

Currently, on social networks there are hundreds of groups recruiting KOLs, KOCs, and Influencers with tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of members participating.

Bich Ngoc, 28 years old, in Hanoi, has more than 6 years of experience in the field. She said that in the past year, since livestreaming to sell products on digital platforms became a trend, the demand for brands and labels to recruit KOLs and KOCs for promotion has doubled or tripled. "A month can require a maximum of a few dozen to a few hundred people to promote events," Ngoc said.

As the person who connects KOLs and KOCs with brands, Le Du, 25 years old, creative director of a media company in Hanoi, said that KOCs who are not yet famous often easily accept posting videos without any support fee, just need to experience the services and products for free. Meanwhile, KOCs, KOLs, and Influencers who already have a large number of followers (hundreds of thousands, millions) can receive a salary of tens of millions to hundreds of millions for a video posted on social networks.

Bich Ha, 23 years old, in Hanoi, is a student with a passion for filming food videos. After three years of seriously creating food content, she has more than 300,000 followers on her TikTok channel.

Ha said that to have videos with millions of views, in addition to knowing how to arrange food beautifully, she also had to practice her mouth shape while eating, her voice had to be low, high, and accented to increase the expressiveness of her emotions. Not to mention, to "follow the trend", sometimes Ha had to stay up all night to experience late-night eateries or wake up early to line up to film videos when there were fewer people. The 23-year-old girl is proud to earn tens of millions of VND per month, and has a monthly allowance for her family.

Dr. Le Hoanh Su, Ho Chi Minh City University of Economics and Law, member of the Vietnam E-commerce Association, said that in the digital age, users need to access information quickly, hotly, concisely and then prefer online shopping, opening up opportunities for the KOL and KOC profession to develop.

According to experts, in the past, to become famous and have a high income, it took a long process to build a systematic image, but now young people can easily become famous thanks to their appearance, knowing how to grasp trends, and approaching viewers. Even farmers, individuals, families, with special inspirational stories can become famous, become influencers and earn income from digital platforms.

However, Mr. Su also warned that many people who chase fame or income by accepting widespread advertising without understanding the product clearly, causing public outrage, affecting their own reputation and losing their career. "If you want to develop and survive in the profession for a long time, you must know how to create sustainable content value that has a positive impact on the community," the expert said.

According to psychologist Tran Huong Thao (HCMC), the downside of some early successes, high incomes, and fame thanks to this profession can make many young people have the illusion that making money online is easy. In society, some Gen Z today feel inferior due to peer pressure, suffer from FOMO (fear of missing out syndrome) and can lead to anxiety and depression when witnessing some KOCs and KOLs with high incomes.

Ms. Thao said that FOMO syndrome often occurs with KOLs and KOCs themselves. They are busy chasing sales revenue, likes, and followers, and then feel like failures when they are resting while others are still selling and working day and night. "Young people should know how to balance their lives, take time for themselves, and create valuable, in-depth content," expert Thao advised.

Working in parallel with an office job and a KOC with more than 200,000 followers, Hoang Anh, 25 years old, in Hanoi, earns nearly one hundred million VND by reviewing phones, camera equipment, advertising beautiful photo-taking software or suggesting virtual living corners in hotels and cafes. But the price he has to pay is no time to rest, often exhausted from being overloaded.

"Maybe I will quit my job to focus on creating more valuable digital content for the community," Hoang Anh said.

Thanh Nga - Vnexpress.net