1. Tiktok

As the number 1 short video platform in the international market, dominating in China with the name Douyin and having the strongest growth in the United States, forcing industry giants such as Youtube and Facebook to quickly find a "firefighting" solution, Tiktok deserves to be at the top of this list.

In addition to the forms of making money through Tiktok that are already familiar in Vietnam such as selling online on Tiktok Shop, receiving donations from followers or doing affiliate marketing, Tiktok also pays content creators based on views. Currently, Tiktok is paying a profit share of 2-4 cents (equivalent to 0.02-0.04 USD) for every 1000 video views. Thus, it can be understood that for each video reaching 1,000,000 views, the content creator / editor will receive from 20 - 40 USD (equivalent to ~500,000 VND - ~1,000,000 VND at the current exchange rate). This is not a low sharing level, however, the conditions for participating in Tiktok's partner program only apply to developed countries such as the UK, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, the US... and are not yet available in Vietnam. This is quite unfortunate for video creators / editors living and working in Vietnam, forcing them to look for other forms of making money that are less advantageous on this platform.

2. Facebook / Instagram

Born late and somewhat patched together with the hope of "salvaging" market share, the Reels product is applied by parent company Meta on both of its strongest platforms, Facebook and Instagram. Although not an independent product and only integrated on existing platforms, Reels has a huge advantage thanks to the huge customer base of up to billions of regular users of Facebook and Instagram, most of whom are young, tech-savvy users and completely suitable for both main factors of the short video industry: production and consumption. The Facebook / Instagram ecosystem helps Reels increase its competitiveness and is currently one of the names with impressive growth in the digital content market.

However, a relatively large barrier for those who are new to cooperating with the world's number 1 social networking platform is the rather strict cooperation policy that requires content creators to have at least 10,000 followers, at least 30,000 views with a minimum duration of 60 seconds and achieve at least 15,000 interactions from real users within 60 days to be approved. Basically, the Facebook or Instagram Reels platform brings good profits, but is more suitable for professionals with a lot of experience in the content production and advertising industry than individual / semi-professional / amateur users.

3. Youtube

Falling into the position of a follower in the very field where it has succeeded and monopolized the market for 2 decades is the most bitter failure that Youtube has had to go through. Although it still maintains its position as the world's largest social networking - video platform, the short video market share is out of reach for Youtube. Unlike Facebook or Instagram, Google's ecosystem does not bring much competitive advantage due to its fragmented products and services, spread across many different needs of users that are completely unrelated to sharing short videos like Google Map, Gmail or Google Drive...

The only advantage of Youtube with the Youtube Short product (which the hasty strategy has shown right from the name) is the huge number of users with traditional video consumption habits that once created the Video on Demand trend - the revolution that helped Youtube replace the Television industry. Although it reaches a large number of people who need to watch videos, the habits of the two groups of users who consume long-form and short-form content are quite different. Aware of its difficulties in competing with its rivals, the Youtube Partner Program (YPP) has set out more “easy” requirements than Facebook: the channel must have at least 1,000 subscribers and at least 10,000,000 views in the last 90 days. Revenue shared from Youtube is also made public at 45%, excluding factors related to music copyright. This is considered a relatively good profit margin compared to competitors in the same segment, creating conditions to promote the growth of content creation partners and may decrease when the platform reaches a certain level of growth.

4. Hotspot Matrix

Completely different from the above platforms where short video content creators/editors need to build their own strategies and content plans to attract viewers, Hotspot Matrix - Tiktok's "fellow countryman" platform receives orders from large enterprises and then distributes them to video creators/editors and pays fees according to the set commitment. The advantage of Hotspot Matrix in the current period and at least until 2030 is the hot growth of the short video industry, causing the number of orders to exceed the production capacity of the domestic Chinese market, forcing processing and manufacturing units to expand investment to countries with a skilled and lower-cost labor force.

Unlike Fiverr - a platform that connects freelancers with individual and business customers in need, Hotspot Matrix provides more part-time / full-time services, so the workload is higher, but also brings a better and more stable source of income.

5. Fiverr

Fiverr – an online job service platform from Israel is a place to connect freelancers with abilities and qualifications across many different fields. Unlike traditional video editing jobs, short video editing jobs are often requested by customers in quantities of 20-50 videos at the listed cost.

Due to the nature of Fiverr's users being freelancers, work and income at Fiverr depend on product requirements, which change frequently in terms of professionalism due to the nature of different customers. Therefore, work at Fiverr provides comfort and flexibility in working hours, but does not provide stability for video creators/editors.