More Vietnamese say goodbye to dead-end jobs to make big money as TikTok live streamers
- Many workers have found an audience and a decent income on TikTok where they hawk food products and offer lessons in handiwork to thousands of followers
- ‘Social media has changed my life completely,’ says a farmer, who earns 10 times as much as he did before live streaming
Communist Vietnam’s supply of cheap labour has attracted some of the world’s top companies, but climbing salary expectations have enticed many young people to leap into the exploding business of social commerce – whether to boost their incomes or to extricate themselves from dead-end jobs.
Anh, 23, said she earned just US$400 per month in her “boring” factory job, barely enough to cover her rent and food, before she was laid off in 2021 thanks to falling orders from the West.
She found another factory job, but soon “turned to full-time live streaming so I could earn more for my family,” Anh said, the thick rice noodles she sells online laid out behind her, drying in the sun.
On her TikTok channel, which has over 350,000 followers and 15 million likes, orders fly in for the US$4 noodle packs, made by her uncle.