YouTube Partner is YouTube’s partnership with video creators or owners to show ads on their videos. Signing up to become a YouTube Partner can give people who are able to create videos a relatively good source of income. However, unlike 4 or 5 years ago, YouTube now requires channel owners to have at least 1,000 followers and 4,000 watch hours to be eligible to join as a YouTube Partner. This means that channel owners must build engaging content if they want to attract followers, before thinking about getting money from YouTube.
YouTube channels specializing in tourism and culinary content in the Northwest region such as Hoa Ban Food, Sapa TV, Nhip Song Tay Bac , Ve Mien Tay Bac, Hoa Ban Tay Bac, Trinh Tuong TV, Gai Ban, Trai Ban, Rubathan, Giang A Phao, and Nguyen Tat Thang have recently got a lot of attention and follow-up.
Although it is difficult for them to reach the position of famous YouTubers who lead the list with millions of followers and billions of hits in Vietnam such as FAP TV, Pops Kids, Pops Music, the contributions of the YouTube channels specializing in tourism and culinary content in the Northwest region are not insignificant in promoting the tourism, cuisine and culture of the Northern region, especially the Northwest region.
In the list of top 250 YouTubers according to the rankings of vn.noxinfluencer.com, Hoa Ban Food Channel ranked well with 699 videos, 2.69 million followers and more than 1.12 billion hits.
The original purpose of the above-mentioned YouTubers was to promote tourist attractions, and the people and activities of ethnic minorities in the locality where they live. Some took advantage of advertising to sell local products such as wild honey, smoked buffalo meat hung up in kitchen, bamboo shoots and bamboo tubers, and seeds. However, the common point is that all of them are very hard working and wish to learn and improve in content building and rendering.
Thanks to that, with many unique topics, they quickly attracted a large number of followers, achieving the Silver Play Button (100,000 followers) thereby helping increase the number of visits. Then from the comments and suggestions of the viewers, they moved on to edit and improve the content, also improving the image quality.
The videos made by YouTubers are no longer short clips based on inspiration, shot with smartphones, but have specific content, high quality images, good sound from devices such as cameras, GoPro and flycams drone. All are to meet and satisfy the enjoyment needs of viewers who are more and more interested in tourist attractions, local traditional culture or simply highland cuisine.
Northwest cuisine and markets are always topics exploited by YouTubers. This can cause some content to be duplicated and become boring. But importantly, they know how to exploit different angles to convey their message, including the combination of charity work and community support. Everything that needs to be said has been done by YouTubers, thereby helping viewers better understand the majestic Northwest region, its unique cultural traditions and the lives of the people here.
Sa Pa town (Lao Cai) is a place where YouTubers make many videos.
It is not easy for YouTubers in the Northwest region to be able to roam the rugged roads every day, go to the deep mountains, especially in the rainy season, and complete at least one video to post on their accounts. It is not easy if they see this as a profession to earn a living, cover their daily living expenses and maintain their passion.
It is worth mentioning that whether these YouTubers have good economic conditions or just rely on money from YouTube Channels, they do not live only for themselves. Because first of all, they are the children of the Northwest region, who grew up in poverty and understand how hard the lives of ethnic minorities are. Therefore, when they have the opportunity to travel a lot, they sympathize with the lives and difficulties the people experience and are ready to support when needed.
Like YouTuber Nguyen Duc Tue, the Northwest region, specifically Yen Bai – his hometown, has majestic beauty and many mysteries to attract tourists. But there are also a lot of people in difficult situations. Therefore, his Rubathan Channel has shared beautiful images of the Northwest, while also reflecting in detail the difficult lives there in the hope of having the community’s help so that the people of his hometown have a better life.
Meanwhile, YouTuber Hoang Hai’s Sapa TV Channel left an impression with many meaningful actions such as roofing for dozens of people after some hail in Phong Tho district (Lai Chau) in April 2020, helping the people of Quang Binh province during the flood in October 2020 or making pots of braised fish with galangal sauce, beef with wine sauce, chicken porridge for the poor at villages in Lao Cai.
A series of voluntary activities such as building houses, roads, bridges, and giving gifts have been recently carried out in Yen Bai by YouTuber Vi Van Tu. Most notably, he mobilised the community and benefactors to help 26 households with more than 50 people in Cong Dua village, Lang Linh hamlet, Tuc Dan commune, Tram Tau district to complete a 2-km-long concrete road to his village.
The YouTubers of the mountains and forests are like tour guides hard at work introducing visitors to the customs and people of the Northwest region where they live. Nothing is more authentic than the videos they upload every day. The support for their YouTube Channels through every click, like, subscribe, share will be like a donation of thousands of dong to the fund they are implementing to reduce difficulties in the lives of ethnic minorities.
