As microdramas operate increasingly as cross-border digital products, the question is no longer simply how much viewers pay to watch a film, but what exactly they are buying, whom they are transacting with, and who is responsible when disputes arise over consumer rights.
A maze of payment packages
To examine how the payment model works in practice, a reporter watched several microdramas on dedicated streaming applications.
On DramaWave, viewers watching The Female Captain Begs for Surrender are offered two options after Episode 10: watch an advertisement to unlock the next episode or pay to continue.
The advertisement lasted more than 30 seconds and promoted a mobile game. Once it ended, viewers were directed to install the game. Yet watching the advertisement unlocked only one additional episode. To continue, viewers had to buy coins or subscribe to a VIP package.
DramaWave offers several coin packages, including VND25,000 for 100 coins plus 100 bonus coins; VND76,000 for 300 coins plus 150 bonus coins; VND183,000 for 700 coins; and VND264,000 for 1,000 coins plus 1,000 bonus coins.
Its VIP subscriptions include VND130,000 for the first week, followed by VND156,000 a week; VND311,000 a month; and VND1.6 million a year, with various additional benefits.
The reporter purchased the VND25,000 package. On Google Play, the transaction displayed the price, conditional discounts, and payment options including MoMo, ShopeePay, credit or debit cards, and redemption codes.
After Google account authentication, the actual amount charged was VND27,778, including fees and taxes. The electronic invoice issued by Google clearly identified the seller, order number, transaction time, purchased item, and payment method.
The purchased and bonus coins were enough to watch the series through Episode 19. At Episode 20, the same payment process began again.
After the first purchase, the available packages changed, with options including VND50,000 for 200 coins plus 100 bonus coins and VND183,000 for 700 coins plus 140 bonus coins. The application also offered promotional incentives, such as 50 free coins for enabling notifications and other time-limited discounts.
A similar experience was found on ReelShort with The Great and Omnipotent Genie. The first 11 episodes were free, while payment was required from Episode 12 onward.
Packages included VND26,000 for 500 coins; VND131,000 for 500 coins plus 50 bonus coins; VND263,000 for 1,000 coins plus 150 bonus coins; and VND1.3 million for 5,000 coins plus 5,000 bonus coins, alongside weekly, monthly, and annual VIP subscriptions.
A trial purchase of the VND26,000 package resulted in an actual charge of VND28,889, including fees and taxes, and provided enough coins to watch through Episode 37.
The significance of these experiences lies not in which application charges more or less, but in how a film is transformed into multiple payment points.
Real money is converted into virtual coins, and those coins are then converted into access to additional content.
Viewers can pay for individual unlocks or subscribe for access to content for a specified period. In other words, users are purchasing access to content under terms determined by the platform rather than simply purchasing a film at a fixed price.
According to information obtained by the reporter, DramaWave was launched in September 2024. Its provider and publisher on Google Play and the App Store is SKYWORK AI PTE. LTD., a Singapore-registered entity that is part of the Kunlun Wanwei (Kunlun Tech) technology group in China.
ReelShort was launched in August 2022 by Crazy Maple Studio, Inc., a California-registered company whose shareholder is Chinese digital content group COL Group. New Leaf Publishing, Inc. is listed as the application's publisher.
Vietnam's Cinema Department is working with the Authority of Broadcasting and Electronic Information to require intermediary platforms to remove films that violate regulations from specified links, seek the removal of related applications from the App Store and Google Play, and block access to websites distributing films that have not been licensed or classified.
For films showing signs of copyright infringement, authorities must verify rights to the films and to individual components used in them, including images, audio, scripts and voices, before taking action under the law, said Mr. Dang Tran Cuong, Director of the Vietnam Cinema Department.
Where does the money go?
Dr. Le Duy Tan, Lecturer at the Faculty of Information Technology at Ho Chi Minh City International University under Vietnam National University-Ho Chi Minh City and Co-Founder of AIoT Lab VN, said money paid by users generally does not go directly and entirely to filmmakers.
When a transaction is made through the App Store or Google Play, part of the payment is retained by the platform as a service fee, generally ranging from 15 percent to 30 percent. The remainder goes to the company operating the application, which then has to cover payments to film producers, advertising, licensing, AI technology, servers, and other partners.
Users, however, often have little visibility into how the remaining revenue is divided between the application operator and content producers.
"The most important thing for users is transparency over how much each episode actually costs, whether a package automatically renews, which entity collects the money, and under what conditions refunds are available," Dr. Le Duy Tan said.
A particular financial risk arises from the conversion of real money into virtual currency. Once money has been converted into coins, users may find it harder to keep track of how much they have actually spent.
Behind a single tap to "unlock" an episode may be a chain involving a service provider, digital platform, application developer, payment intermediary, bank or e-wallet provider, and content producer.
This is fundamentally different from buying a cinema ticket, where the transaction is tied to a specific film and a clearly stated price.
In the microdrama model, access to content is broken into multiple stages: free viewing, advertising, coin purchases, individual episode unlocks, and subscriptions. Each point of contact can become a separate transaction, raising questions about which entity the user is actually dealing with and how clearly the terms of that transaction are disclosed.
A complex legal and regulatory challenge
Mr. Le Quang Tu Do, Director of the Authority of Broadcasting and Electronic Information under the Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism, said AI-generated short films appearing in Vietnam are primarily imported from China.
Most are distributed through social media, dedicated OTT applications, and business models that charge viewers by the episode. Many are pirated because no entity has been licensed to distribute them in Vietnam, he said.
The authority is working with the Cinema Department to block and remove such applications from app stores.
Once a film is distributed and monetized through multiple entities, the legal issues extend beyond the content itself to the underlying transactions and the responsibilities of each party.
Lawyer Hoang Ha of the Ho Chi Minh City Bar Association said Vietnamese regulations governing the sector are spread across several legal frameworks, including those covering cinema, e-commerce, taxation, payments, and cross-border information services.
The biggest challenge, he said, is identifying the entity that bears legal responsibility.
Article 23 of Decree 147/2024/ND-CP requires foreign enterprises providing cross-border information services to comply with Vietnamese law. Meanwhile, the 2025 E-Commerce Law requires foreign platforms to register and appoint an authorized legal entity in Vietnam. However, the boundaries for classifying fee-based short-film applications remain unclear in some cases, he said.
"We should complete mechanisms for data sharing among platforms, banks, payment intermediaries and tax authorities, while clearly identifying a legal focal point in Vietnam responsible for cross-border digital content services that collect payments," he said.
"When it is impossible to determine who is behind a service or where the money goes, enforcement will always lag behind the speed of digital-platform business."
From the regulatory side, Mr. Le Quang Tu Do said monitoring and handling violations online is a continuous process because technology changes rapidly.
The Authority of Broadcasting and Electronic Information is pursuing four measures: legal enforcement to remove harmful content; financial controls to cut off illicit revenue, including coordination with the State Bank of Vietnam; public awareness campaigns promoting reliable information; and inter-agency cooperation among regulators and police.
Authorities are also working with businesses early on to ensure industrial-scale short-film production complies with regulations.
