Price chaos of "illegal" YouTube Premium accounts in Vietnam

It has been more than a week since YouTube opened the official subscription channel for its paid service (YouTube Premium) for Vietnamese users. YouTube's move has sparked a fever among Vietnamese users for this new type of digital content service.

Currently, Vietnamese users can still watch YouTube for free. However, if they have a YouTube Premium account, they will not be bothered by countless ads of the type “my family has 3 generations…”. In addition, users can also turn on YouTube in the background. In other words, they can turn off the screen but still listen to the content being played.

The new craze has caused forums and social networks to continuously appear posts about YouTube Premium. Along with that are advertisements about cheap YouTube Premium accounts.

Before YouTube launched its paid service in Vietnam, users often had to buy YouTube Premium accounts on the "black market" for 30,000 - 50,000 VND/month. However, since the service officially appeared, the price of YouTube Premium on the "black market" has cooled down immediately.

Reporters noted that as soon as YouTube opened its paid service, the price of a YouTube Premium account on the black market dropped to only 20,000 - 30,000 VND/month.

Now, more than a week after that, paid YouTube accounts are being sold at various prices. Most recently, the price of this service has even dropped to just… 10,000 VND/month.

Currently, the “genuine” YouTube Premium service package is being sold by YouTube for 79,000 VND/month. This price will be 30,000 VND/month if buyers group together to buy a family account package.

It can be seen that compared to the “genuine” price, YouTube Premium accounts on the “black market” are many times cheaper. That is also the reason why many people choose the service of buying and selling pirated accounts.

A person who specializes in selling online accounts said that to get a low price, the seller uses IPs from countries with cheap YouTube Premium prices. However, in the cheapest countries, the cost for each YouTube Premium account is at least 11,000 VND.

“Therefore, the price of 10,000 VND/month that many people are currently selling is really confusing. If sold at this price, the seller will hardly make a profit. As for the buyer, they will easily become victims of scammers,” this person said.

The chaotic price of YouTube Premium accounts has also discouraged some sellers and made them want to leave the market. According to Mr. VNA, a YouTube Premium seller in Hanoi: "If the price of YouTube in Vietnam drops to an extremely cheap level, I will leave this market completely."

“My account selling service is not limited to Vietnam but can also be provided to many other countries. Some users in the US, Australia, Singapore,... still have the need to buy paid YouTube accounts at a cheaper price than the local market,” said Mr. VNA.

With the current price chaos, users should consider buying YouTube Premium accounts on the “black market”. Sellers can buy 1 account and sell it to many different people, or pay only one month but charge a total fee of 6-12 months. In these cases, buyers will almost certainly lose money because it is difficult to request an “account warranty” or get their money back.

Some sellers also require buyers to provide the email password associated with their YouTube account to make their YouTube Premium account “official”. Buyers should be extremely wary of these cases.

Users should not give their personal email passwords or OTP codes to others for any purpose. This is to limit the loss of not only emails but also accounts associated with emails, and to ensure the safety of personal data, avoiding themselves and those around them from becoming victims of scammers.

According to Vietnamnet