Many online shopping sites in Vietnam have recently begun hiring attractive women to advertise their products via live videos on social media.

Online sales and marketing, which can yield great profits, have increased the demand for presenters speaking in live-streamed events, and spread a range of recruitment criteria.

Some businesses require that prospective candidates are aged 16 to 25, and good looking.

Employees can enjoy flexible working hours, but are supposed to provide 30 hours of live-streaming a month, and appear live before the camera at least 15 days on social medial channels.

The salary offered is about VND15 million (US$660) per month.

Some, however, pitch the recruitment standard higher: only women with a well-proportioned body, a flair for communication, a charming smile, white complexion and the height of over 1.6 meters can be admitted.

These workers are expected to adopt various postures when introducing products.

Ngo Thi Bich Viet, owner of a fashion shop in Thu Duc District, Ho Chi Minh City, said she switched from advertising conventionally to selling goods with the help of so-called live-streaming models a year ago, a move that has bolstered her business since.

“Hiring models for live-streaming is commonplace now. I spend about VND8 million [US$352] on that every month,” she added.

In the livestream-based branding world, the popularity of a presenter can tip the balance in favor of that person.

Nguyen Le Quynh Nhung, 25, in Lam Dong Province, rises to prominence thanks to her enormous number of followers on Facebook.

Nguyen Thao Sang, a senior of a university in Ho Chi Minh City, presents a product real-time. Photo: Tuoi Tre

To hire her for live-streaming marketing on her personal page, shops have to satisfy a strict condition.

“Many people offered to employ me to sell their products, but I refused them all because their goods weren’t up to my expectation. My criterion is that products for live-streamed sales must have good quality, free from any chase for profit,” Nhung said.

The real-time marketing job involves a number of activities.

Nguyen Thao Sang, a senior of a university in Ho Chi Minh City, hired by a clothes shop in Binh Chanh District, Ho Chi Minh City, said she sometimes feels tired as she has to talk continuously and tries on samples of clothes multiple times during a live-streamed branding occasion, which lasts one and a half or even three hours.

She receives VND150,000-200,000 (US$6.6-8.8) for each session, and a commission of around US$0.2 for each item sold.

With an elfin face and warm voice, Nguyen Nu Kieu Nhi, 23, born in Binh Thuan Province, south-central Vietnam, has juggled four jobs as a live-streaming product presenter in Ho Chi Minh City.

She also works for her own clothes shop about five times a day, each time lasting 1.5 to 2 hours.

The key to success in the field, she said, is merely speaking fluently.

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