The appeal of "Anh Trai Say Hi" and "Anh Trai Vuon Thousand Thorns"
"Anh Trai Vuot Ngan Chong Gai" and "Anh Trai Say Hi" are two music reality TV shows that are taking Vietnam by storm. Each show has its own style, with "Anh Trai Vuot Ngan Chong Gai" featuring experienced male artists in many fields such as music, acting and sports, while "Anh Trai Say Hi" brings a youthful atmosphere with young artists, even those participating in reality TV for the first time. With a diverse and rich approach, both have quickly attracted a large number of fans of all ages.
"Brother Overcoming Thousands of Difficulties" is for male artists with experience in many fields such as music, acting and sports.
"Anh Trai Say Hi" brings a youthful atmosphere because of young artists, even participating in reality TV for the first time.
The concerts held in Ho Chi Minh City of the two programs have demonstrated this tremendous attraction. The first concert of Anh Trai Vuot Ngan Chong Gai on October 19 gathered 32 artists and guests, all of which were carefully invested in from sound, lighting to choreography and staging. Anh Trai Say Hi, not far behind, held two concerts on September 28 and October 19, attracting more than 78,000 live audiences.
Two popular shows today attract a large audience.
When the programs announced to hold more concerts in Hanoi, the audience still poured in without any decrease. The third concert of Anh Trai Say Hi will be held at My Dinh National Stadium on December 7, followed by the second concert of Anh Trai Vuot Ngan Chong Gai on December 14 at Vinhomes Ocean Park 3.
Media expert Nguyen Ngoc Long commented that, in addition to the influence of social networks, the quality of the programs and the participation of famous artists are the factors that create strong attraction for both programs. "It is understandable that tickets are sold out when both of these programs have been widely popularized on social networking platforms such as YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, Threads... Each artist also has their own media channel to interact with fans, making them willing to spend money to come and enjoy it in person," Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Long shared.
Artists interact with fans
The large-scale investment of the two programs has also raised the level of entertainment events in Vietnam, arousing pride in "made in Vietnam" programs with international quality. Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Long also emphasized: "Previously, young people who wanted to see concerts of international stars had to spend money to go to Thailand, Korea or Singapore, which was very expensive. Now, having high-quality programs organized in Vietnam shows that the country's performance industry has reached a new level, attracting the interest and strong support of young people."
Fierce ticket hunting war
Not only stopping at media attraction, the two programs also brought about an extremely fierce ticket hunting war. The ticket sale for Anh Trai Say Hi's concert on November 7 witnessed 50,000 people flocking to Ticketbox to compete for each ticket, with prices ranging from 500,000 VND to 10 million VND. After only 45 minutes of opening the registration gate, all ticket categories were sold out, forcing the organizers to open another official sale at 12 noon the same day. In less than an hour, all tickets were sold out.
On November 12, when Anh Trai Vuot Ngan Chong Gai opened ticket sales for their concert in Hanoi, the Ticketbox website crashed immediately due to the high traffic. Although the access system returned to normal after 10 minutes, the number of people queuing was still over 160,000 people. In 40 minutes, all tickets priced from 800,000 VND to 8 million VND were sold out.
Many people even go to internet cafes to access the ticket booking site.
Many fans, despite the difficulties, rented an internet cafe to ensure higher access speed in order to win the precious ticket. Some people shared that "The internet cafe was full of girls, had to pray and hunt for concert tickets at the same time". However, despite careful preparation, many people still failed because they had to face fierce competition from automatic bots - tools that speculators use to win a large number of tickets as soon as they go on sale.
According to Imperva, 83.4% of traffic to event ticketing sites globally comes from automated bots. These bots are designed to bypass security and buy up tickets at a rate that far exceeds the capabilities of human buyers. This puts a lot of pressure on genuine fans, forcing them to wait in long lines without being able to buy tickets.
According to TechWire, with each ticket sale, bots often use a "3-phase" strategy:
- In the early stages, bots constantly scan ticket sales websites and social media platforms to determine when sales are open and what events are coming up. They can also create a series of fake accounts to maximize the chance of buying tickets.
- Then, to ensure they can buy large numbers of tickets without being detected, the bots use proxy networks to evade barriers, bypass security checks like CAPTCHAs, generate requests from multiple IP addresses, and buy as soon as they have the opportunity.
- Finally, there is automated payments. Bots pay using multiple methods, accounts, and credit cards to avoid detection.
Because they generate high volumes of transactions, these automated bots can easily overload the ticketing system, causing instability and technical errors. As a result, genuine audiences have to wait for long periods of time and sometimes cannot buy tickets.
Even though they are willing to pay for the concert, fans still cannot "hunt" for tickets.
Black market tickets push prices high, fans face many difficulties
The problem of black market tickets has put fans in a dilemma. When official tickets are sold out, those who want to attend Anh Trai Say Hi and Anh Trai Vuot Ngan Chong Gai's concerts are forced to look for black market tickets, but in many cases the prices are greatly increased, even 8 times higher. Speculators take advantage of the scarcity of tickets to profit from fans, making it difficult for fans who really want to attend the show.
With prices ranging from several hundred to several million VND higher than the original price, many fans had to accept buying tickets from black market ticket brokers in order not to miss the event. Mr. Duong Minh Hai, a fan of the show, said: "It's really frustrating when tickets are already difficult to buy, and the prices have increased many times. We've already lined up and still got scammed."
Ticket scalping groups are rampant on social networks.
In addition, the phenomenon of fraud on online ticketing platforms is also increasing. Ms. Nguyen An shared, "I'm afraid of scams when buying online, I don't know if anyone will sell tickets on the day of the concert." This puts fans at risk when buying tickets on the black market.
The situation of reselling tickets at sky-high prices causes difficulties for genuine audiences.
Many fans of the two shows are currently calling on each other to boycott black market tickets and not buy them from scalpers. Some artists such as Quan AP also advise fans not to buy tickets through unofficial channels to avoid the risk of "losing money and getting sick". Many opinions say that the organizers and ticketing platforms such as Ticketbox should have stricter control measures, from requiring the registration of the owner's information for each ticket to opening more official ticket sales to reduce speculation, protect the interests of the audience and make it easier for fans to own tickets.
