With talented narrators, background music and sound effects, audiobooks are attracting more and more readers and listeners. (Photo: VietnamPlus)

Bao Tram: Welcome Mr. Le Hoang Thach to VOV5’s Digital Life.

Hoang Thach:  Hello everyone! My name is Le Hoang Thach, CEO of Voiz FM, a platform of audiobooks and podcast. Thanks Ms. Tram for inviting me today and I hope today we’ll have a fruitful discussion with lots of information to audience.

Bao Tram: It has been said that Vietnam takes tech steps forward, reading steps backward. What do you think of that statement? Do you think technology is greatly changing the reading habits of Vietnamese people?

Hoang Thach: I think it’s such a wrong perception that reading culture in Vietnam is declining, but it’s growing more slowly than it should. In 2013 there was a report stating that, on average, a Vietnamese finished less than 1 book per year, 0.7 to be exact, excluding text books. That number in 2020 was 1.4, doubling versus 7 years ago, but still far behind other countries.

There are many reasons for this unpleasant statistics, such as busy pace of life, book distribution, or there are people living too far away from bookstores buy, and so so. And I do think that technology could be the key solution for that issue in Vietnam.

Bao Tram: What is the main factor changing Vietnam’s reading culture?

Hoang Thach: In my opinion, it’s FOMO – fear of missing out - is the key driver of the changing landscape of reading culture in Vietnam. Nowadays people, especially youngsters, are facing a fast-changing world where everyone has to try their best to be updated to the world. The demand of getting more and more knowledge and infomation is skyrocketing, boosting the reading habit, especially amongst young people.

Bao Tram: The publishing industry aims to increase reading through technology. Can technology and digital transformation fulfill that mission?

Hoang Thach: To be honest, I don't think there’s a downward trend of getting knowledge , but it’s true that we are living a much busier life, making less time to spend reading. But the demand of being wiser is still there, people still want to read books but they can’t find time for that. And I think technology can make it more convenient for people to read. Technology can be applied to getting reading more accessible or the distribution of books more convenient for people to get the things they want. So I think that nowadays technology can boost the readership a lot versus 7 or ten years ago.

Bao Tram: What’s the state of digital publishing in the world and in Vietnam?

Hoang Thach: Actually, digital publishing has been growing fast in developed countries such as Germany, the US, and the UK for the last 10 years. At significant book fairs such as Frankfurt book fair, there has been specific space for e-publishing for years. You can see in the US, many titles are available only in digital formats, no printing format. But in Vietnam, it’s still a bit early. Because of the pandemic, people cannot go out to buy books, so they will be forced to use the digital content. Actually it’s good news for digital publishers.

Vietnam is still in very early stage. E-books have been explored by publishers from 2010 to 2013, something like that, but it still can not get the growth or the business results that they were expected. The audiobook was booming right at the time of the pandemic so the growth rate is promising. For example, Voiz FM grew six times during the pandemic in 2021 versus the previous year of 2020.

Bao Tram: What’s e-publishing’s main benefit to readers?

Hoang Thach: It’s time optimization. You can save a lot of time with digital publishing. For example,

-         Smart algorithms can recommend the contents that you want to read more precisely based on your behaviors which will save time for you to choose the content before,

-         New formats like audiobooks make it easier to read. You can leverage the idle time everywhere, every time, such as driving or jogging to absorb the knowledge. You don’t need to have the specific time slot for that,

-         Last but not least is that digital distribution allows you to get the contents you want without any barriers. Unlike before if you want a book, you have to go to a bookstore to choose and then bring it home. Now you can do it right in your bedroom.

Bao Tram: Will e-publishing replace traditional publishing?

Hoang Thach: At the moment I don’t think it’s possible for digital publishing to replace the traditional publishing because, as I mentioned before, people use printed books and digital books at different time slots. But I do thing traditional  publishing would be better with the support of e-publishing, as traditional publishing can leverage the data intelligence from e-publishing to create better contents to be fit in a much more better with the user’s demand as well as being promoted to more reader thanks to the borderless distribution of digital platforms.

Le Hoang Thach (center) and Voiz FM team (Photo courtesy of Hoang Thach)

Bao Tram: Thank you for taking the time to talk to VOV5’s Digital Life! That was Le Hoang Thach, co-founder and CEO of Voiz FM, a leader in Vietnam's audiobook and podcast network. 

Hoang Thach: Well once again thanks Ms. Tram for having me today and giving me an opportunity to share our story about audiobooks and podcast. I really hope after today you’ll know more about audiobooks and willing to adopt to a new behavior of reading in a digitalized world. Goodbye.