Facebook finally paid its Vietnamese users when it had no other choice.

Facebook is gradually losing its position as its cultural influence diminishes and it lacks quality, original content.

Since the beginning of the year, a small number of users in Vietnam have been invited by the platform to participate in Facebook's limited revenue-sharing program. Creators can earn additional income based on engagement levels. This is the first step in the largest social network having to change its approach to content in the face of intense competition from rivals.

Previously, Facebook earned hundreds of billions of dollars in revenue annually, but did not distribute it to users who generated interaction. With competition from TikTok, this social network is increasingly falling behind, becoming an "old-fashioned" environment, no longer creating new trends.

The platform also lacks high-quality content to compete with YouTube. Even in Vietnam, Facebook still maintains the largest user base, but is gradually falling behind in terms of user time. With the average age of users increasing, Meta's platform is also losing its younger user base to competitors.

Losing young users.

A report on the Vietnamese social media market by We Are Social and Meltwater shows that Facebook remains the platform with the largest number of users at 79 million. TikTok is close behind with a small gap. Conversely, short -video social networks far surpass it in terms of popularity and daily/weekly usage time.

Specifically, data indicates that TikTok's user base is younger than Facebook's, concentrated in the 18-34 age range. Meanwhile, Meta's social network maintains a large number of accounts in the 35-year-old age group. Instagram and Threads lead in demographics among Alpha and Gen Z groups; however, the number of users on these two social networks is only a fraction of Facebook and TikTok in Vietnam.

Demographic chart of TikTok and Facebook users in Vietnam. Image: Wearesocial.

Meanwhile, Social Listening reports from YouNet Media also clearly show TikTok as a trendsetter, with Facebook only contributing to spreading it as a secondary distribution channel.

In its plan for selecting creators to pay in Vietnam, Facebook prioritizes original content. Fan pages, even those generating high engagement, that merely repost content with little originality will not receive revenue sharing from the platform. On the other hand, Meta targets both text and image content, which are its strengths, instead of focusing all its funding on videos similar to TikTok.

On YouTube's side, the app also has a high average age and is no longer a "trendsetter." In return, its generous revenue-sharing policy encourages creators to develop long, high-quality video formats. Music videos, movies, and TV shows are also primarily distributed on this platform. Advertisers and Premium subscriptions have become a stable source of revenue for both channel owners and YouTube.

In terms of revenue sharing, Meta's programs are estimated to launch around $3 billion in 2025 to incentivize and attract creators. This is only a fraction of YouTube's figure, which is around $22 billion over the same period.

Facebook is outdated and has lost its influence.

Emails between Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook executive Tom Alison from 2022, revealed in an antitrust trial in April 2025, show that the social network realized it no longer had the same cultural influence as before.

"Facebook's engagement levels remain stable in many places, but its cultural influence appears to be declining rapidly. I worry this could be a harbinger of future problems," Zuckerberg wrote.

Facebook is no longer a trend-setting platform. Photo: NYT.

Just months before these emails were sent, Facebook launched Reels, their short-video product similar to TikTok. They started "burning money" with huge rewards based on engagement in the new model. However, it only yielded benefits in the beginning. Facebook failed to create a distinct identity as trends still originated from TikTok rather than the social network itself.

Since 2021, the NYT has noted that Facebook is beginning to enter a process of aging. For Gen Z, this social network is like a place for the elderly. “TikTok is completely dominating Instagram, both in terms of user base and cultural influence, and advertisers generally want to be present where young people are,” wrote NYT technology reporter Kevin Roose.

Facebook's mistake

“I believe that Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg making a mistake by not maintaining a news section and stopping paying professional content creators. These platforms possess significant resources and can spend billions of dollars annually to maintain a vibrant media ecosystem.”

They just need to keep paying and even increase the amount paid for professional content and news. Facebook could have dominated the world ,” Jonah Peretti, former CEO of BuzzFeed, shared his perspective on The Verge podcast. The company was present in the early days of social media, consistently creating viral content and being paid by big-tech companies to produce it. However, this policy soon ended.

Facebook's invoices share revenue with users in Vietnam.

Similarly, tech journalist Simon Owens also argues that Meta's "stinginess" in not sharing advertising revenue is a strategic mistake. Compared to YouTube, a platform that is more transparent and generous in paying creators, Facebook has always received a more negative perception from the public.

According to a Morning Consult report in November 2025 in the US, Google's video sharing platform was more popular, with a 34% share across most demographic groups. YouTube held a lead of 11% over Facebook, which ranked second. "It's a long-standing social network, over 20 years old. Its generous monetization policies maintain high-quality content, building a stable audience," Morning Consult stated.

Source: https://znews.vn/den-duong-cung-facebook-moi-tra-tien-cho-nguoi-dung-viet-post1653607.html