(VOVWORLD) - There had been three licensed audiobook channels in Vietnam as of last July, according to the Ministry of Information and Communications. They are Voiz FM, Fonos, and Mydio. Of the three, Voiz FM has made an impressive breakthrough in the audiobook market in Vietnam, especially when Vietnam was badly hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. In this week’s Business edition, we’ll tell you all about the 4-year-old startup.
 (Photo credit: Voiz FM) |
Voiz FM, an audiobook application of technology startup WeWe, was founded by Tran Ngoc Thai, Le Hoang Thach, and Lam Huy Vu in 2019.
All three were born in 90s and once held high-salary positions in giant companies like Unile and Masan or other startups.
Thach said all of them agreed that audiobook was the only format that allowed multitasking.
“You can listen to an audiobook while walking, exercising, or cooking. In a developing country like Vietnam, where rapid changes pressure young people to keep improving themselves constantly, the audiobook provides a useful and simple solution. Realizing there was a real need, WeWe and Voiz FM have used technology to help young people who don’t have much time for reading,” said Thach.
Voiz FM started developing audiobooks and has taken copyright very seriously. In contrast to platforms that make “easy money” from online piracy, Voiz FM has taken a long-term approach and has attained copyrights for 100% of its published content.
In just six months it acquired the exclusive publishing rights for more than 1,000 best-selling titles, partnering with top-tier publishers in Vietnam like First News, Kim Dong, and Tre Publishers.
But Thach admits that like any startup business, they have encountered many difficulties and “The biggest headache is widespread copyright infringement, which has seriously challenged content makers and audiobook businesses like us.”
“Voiz FM is a technology business, so we need lots of technology solutions and systems, particularly top security products. Security measures are vital to protecting the copyright of audiobooks,” said Thach.
He said since July 2020, Voiz FM has dealt with more than 50,000 cases of content infringement on YouTube and Spotify.
Thanks to 100% growth in 4 months of social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic, WeWe was able to raise an undisclosed amount of seed funding from 500 Startups Vietnam, a venture capital fund with a mission to find and support the world’s most talented startups.
Last September the app reached the milestone of one million downloads on Android and iOS.
Thach, who is in charge of the company’s technology, said WeWe attached great importance to auditory input in people’s intellectual development.
“We are improving our algorithms to support users’ experience and, at the same time, developing our own AI voice tool. Once it’s working optimally, it will be a breakthrough in producing audiobook and podcast programs because it will allow Voiz FM to shorten production time, save production costs, and meet the special requirements of users,” said Thach.
“For example, there are people who prefer a male voice to a female voice or prefer the accent of southerners to that of presenters from the north. Our AI voice tool will offer users a variety of options.”
Voiz FM has run a pilot test of its AI voice tool with 800 participants, 80% of whom say they could not figure out which voice was not human.
 Le Hoang Thach, one of three founders of Voiz Fm. |
During the quarantine period from July to October last year, Voiz FM opened the app for people to listen to hundreds of books for free as a way to support the community’s fight against the pandemic.
In addition to audio books, Voiz FM is also expanding to podcasts on a variety of topics, from news and history to marriage and children’s stories.
Voiz FM is building a Vietnamese platform to help content creators deliver to the community aurally. The Voiz FM app is now available through the App Store and Google Play.