YouTube Premium, the Google pay service to watch YouTube videos without ads, has become available in Vietnam, starting at a price of VND49,000 ($2.09) a month.
Google’s initial offering of YouTube Premium services has been available only to select customers from Wednesday, before the mass rollout begins next week.
The monthly subscription fee for individuals is VND79,000, and VND149,000 for families, which can include up to 5 accounts. Students can subscribe monthly for VND49,000.
Users can pay directly by connecting their Google account with an international payment card, similar to how they buy Google Drive storage. iOS users can also make payments via iTunes.
YouTube Premium is a premium account package with more benefits than the free version, including no ads, picture-in-picture mode, background playback, video downloads, and uninterrupted YouTube Music services.
Previously, Vietnamese users have reported being bombarded with ads, even illegal ones, like those for fake medicines and herbs, on their free accounts. Some users have bought Premium overseas or from third parties for VND30,000-35,000 per month. The latter option will add them to a family group with five other users to use a family Premium account.
However, this method is only helpful for eliminating ads, but other features are not available.
There are also risks from sharing names, addresses and profile pictures with other people in the group, and users may get scammed when buying from third parties