As more and more Vietnamese buy smart phones, tablets, and electronic book (e-books) readers, the market for digital content is becoming bigger, but copyright remains an issue.

One of the first publishers to get involved in the e-book market was First News who signing a US$23,000 contract with Samsung Vina.

The publisher sold copyrights to 50 out of 170 books in its series called Hat Giong Tam Hon (Seeds of soul) featuring inspirational and motivational stories. Their contents will become downloadable from the Samsung apps store and will show up on Samsung devices such as smart phones and televisions.

Previously, Lac Viet, an IT company known for making computer dictionaries, developed a software called Lac Viet reader which can be downloaded for free from the Samsung apps store.

Lac Viet is cooperating with the Vietnam Writers Association to digitize more than 5,000 copyrighted books for its Lac Viet online bookstore.

Ha Than, the company’s manager, said e-books are a new investment and a right step in this digital age. He was hopeful of the business model since phone makers like Samsung and LG have signed agreements for e-books with Lac Viet.

Besides, some local publishers also preparing to create e-books of their best-selling titles.
Than said during a time of economic difficulty, the introduction of e-books makes great economic sense since businesses do not need to worry about the increasing cost of paper, ink, and printing, and reduce the loss. They can also save the cost incurred on printing unsold books, he said.

But copyright is the most ticklish issue in developing the e-book industry, he said, explaining that besides dealing with pirated books, businesses also have to worry about agreements with authors, publishers, and others.

Since revenues accrue for a long time from online books, copyright disputes often crop up after a period of time, one of the many reasons why many publishers hesitate to get into the business.

Luu Duy Hoai, marketing head at maydocsach.com, a site which sells 200-300 e-book readers a month, said e-books are a promising market but involve many difficulties, especially with regard to getting copyrights.

“International businesses like Amazon have access to many copyrighted e-books. So their revenues come mostly from e-book stores rather than reading devices. Profit from digital publications is huge but most Vietnamese businesses are yet to exploit its potentials.”