Get 78K VND back on Shopee links: Monback took a top spot among twenty clones by getting on TV

Monback is a cashback app built by a small Hanoi team. Paste a Shopee or TikTok Shop product link, order through its affiliate link, and it splits the commission with you. Once you've saved 50K VND (about $2), you can withdraw to your bank card. It has 26K installs on Google Play, climbed nearly 6,000 over the last 9 days, and has been bouncing between #11 and #15 on the Vietnam Shopping Top Free chart (Google Play, 10-29 to 11-06). The product is the same as its rivals. The one extra thing it does is buy trust: it registered a company, got state-media coverage, and appeared on VTV3. This piece covers how it grew, how it makes money, and why I wouldn't build another one in Vietnam.

Oct 28, 11 a.m. 10

On Oct 28 11:10, 2026, a Monback segment aired on the Vietnamese national broadcaster VTV3's news program. That day, Monback's official YouTube channel posted the clip under the title "🔥 VTV3 covers the cashback app Monback". As of 11-06, the video had 272 views and the channel had 22 subscribers.

At the same time, the App Store Vietnam storefront was flooded with 5-star reviews. The most recent 50 all landed on October 27 and 28, 49 of them 5-star, mostly just a few words: "Tốt" (good), "Có hoàn tiền thật" (cash back is real). One review's title was simply a string of an invite code, with the body "Đc nha" (got it), and the title's second half reading "đc 10k" (got 10k). Another said "Mới dùng app vì được giới thiệu" (only started using the app because someone referred me). The rating count jumped from 10-28 to 663 and then to 10-30 806, and has stayed at 806 since (App Store Vietnam). Inference: around the TV broadcast, the team ran a round of invite-code acquisition paired with rating prompts.

On Google Play, two updates shipped around the VTV3 airing: 10-31 gained +2,065 and 11-03 gained +2,453. The timing lines up, but I can't say the causation is clear.

What it is

A link-conversion tool plus a wallet. The site describes three steps: paste any product link and get a cashback link in 5 seconds; open the link and order on Shopee as usual; once the order is confirmed, the cashback lands in your Monback wallet. The selling points are "real money, not virtual points", "no bank card needed", and "stacks with platform coupons" (monback.app, 11-06).

Where the money comes from: Shopee and TikTok Shop's affiliate programs are open to individuals, so anyone can turn a product link into a commissioned one. Monback takes the commission, passes part of it back to the buyer, and keeps the rest. The Play store listing is tagged "contains ads", with no in-app purchases. The site says "up to 50%" cashback, but that refers to 50% of order value, which only holds for a few high-commission products. In a sponsored press piece in August, the company said the highest cashback categories are apparel, cosmetics, health and home goods (hanoimoi.vn, 08-05). In a Shopee Vietnam user group, one commenter said it pays "very little, less than chiahoahong, which pays 50% commission". So the margin per order is thin, and it has to win on volume.

Retention comes with the model: once there's a balance in the wallet below the 50K withdrawal threshold, users come back to convert their next purchase through it.

The most common complaint is slowness. Several of the 50 5-star reviews mention, in passing, "cashback is a bit slow", "takes forever to arrive", and "didn't get the order recorded, too lazy to go back and file a claim". This isn't a Monback-only problem: platforms only pay out commission after the order is confirmed received and the return window has passed, so cashback apps have to wait too.

How it took off

Early days. The iOS version went live on the App Store in 2026-03-09, and the Play version appeared between late February and March. Most of the clones that surfaced in Vietnam this year launched after May. In an August press piece, the company said it had over 20K users and about 150K orders (hanoimoi.vn, 08-05).

Ongoing Facebook short videos. The official Facebook page, Instagram Reels and Threads keep posting the same kind of video: "paste a link in 5 seconds, get 78K back on Shopee", "buy a 600K dress, get 63K back", "you spend 2M a month on Shopee?". Specific amounts plus a "one extra step before you pay" secret are standard performance-ad writing. How much it spends on this is not visible from outside (unverified).

Buy trust. In Vietnam, the biggest hurdle for a cashback app comes down to one question: "Is this a scam?" Monback's answer is to look as legit as possible: Jun 22 registered a joint-stock company in Hanoi, and the footer of the website is full of business license numbers and addresses; in August, the same article ran the same day on hanoimoi.vn, baotuyenquang.com.vn, and vietnam.vn; in September, a feature on Hanoi TV channel H1; in Oct 28, a segment on VTV3. The Facebook page bio states outright: "Reported by VTV3 and Hanoi TV, use with confidence." There's no direct evidence that these placements were paid; in Vietnam, this kind of "TV coverage" is most likely paid (inference).

Invite codes. Enter an invite code, and if you place your first order within 3 days of signing up, you get an extra 10K VND (official Threads). The comment above that used an invite code as its title is a trace this mechanic left behind.

TikTok isn't one of its channels: the official account gets a few hundred to 3,600 views per post.

Who it's competing with

Vietnam's "link cashback" clones have multiplied to twenty-odd over the past 2026 year, and they run nearly identical playbooks:

Sources: Google Play install counts and App Store Vietnam ratings, 11-06.

On the product side, Monback does nothing differently from anyone else. It got into the top spots through an early launch and trust marketing, but that alone doesn't create a moat: Heo Đất launched two months ago and its weekly growth already exceeds Monback's. On the Vietnam iOS shopping category chart, Monback slid from #35 at the end of October to #11-06 by 63 (App Store Vietnam).

A side note: one claim says the developer behind Monback also runs Heo Đất, Cây Khế, Hoàn Đồng and the rest of that reskinned-app string. That doesn't hold up. The iOS developer account behind Monback has only Monback listed, and the others each have their own developers. The company actually running a portfolio in Vietnam is the one behind STK.

How many people have seen it

The small circles in Vietnam: paid press pieces, TV clips, and the occasional user in the Shopee group asking "which gives the best cashback, Monback, ShopBack or Mekoupon?" (Facebook group, 09-14). Revenue isn't public, nobody has mentioned it on X in 90 days, and there's no English-language coverage. Few people outside the country know it exists, but plenty of local copycats already do, and this business never had any secrets.

If it were you

Verdict: there's something to learn, but don't build the twenty-first clone in Vietnam. Technically, one person can build this in a week. The hard parts are trust and volume. Vietnam's slot is already held by Riokupon, STK's portfolio and Heo Đất, which is spending aggressively, with ShopBack and MoMo above them, and the margin per order is thin.

Who it suits: small teams that can run Facebook / TikTok performance ads, speak the language of a Shopee or TikTok Shop market, and have some budget to buy local trust.

Who it doesn't suit: people who can only write code and are counting on organic app-store traffic; anyone who wants to launch in Vietnam; anyone who can't live with "the platform sets the commission rules and can change them anytime".

How to do it: if you want to follow, switch markets. First count how many link-cashback apps already exist in the other countries Shopee and TikTok Shop cover (the Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Brazil) and who's buying ads there. (Inference: I haven't checked how crowded those markets are; check before you move.) Build the product the way Monback did: link conversion, a wallet, withdrawals above a threshold, and invite codes that give a small bonus. State the cashback rate clearly and don't write "up to 50%", the kind of claim that disappoints users the moment they try it. Turn "how long until the order pays out" into a progress view for each order. That's where most of the complaints are.

How to get users: Copy the formula from the ads: "This ¥X item, paste the link and get ¥Y back," with a specific amount, in vertical short video. Build trust first: register the company, post the business license on your website, then spend a little on local media and put "as featured by X" in every ad and your profile bio. Keep invite-code rewards below the commission from a single order.

Deadline: to launch and start a small-budget test before mid-January 2027, ahead of the Lunar New Year (2027-02-06) shopping season in Vietnam and Southeast Asia. 11.11 and 12.12 are too late this year.

Where the analysis could be wrong: ① Shopee or TikTok Shop explicitly bans cashback apps that convert links on the user's behalf, or sharply cuts individual affiliate commissions (Shopee already tightened rules in August 2026, banning third-party link wrapping and bot-account link distribution; these apps haven't been named yet). ② Monback drops out of the Vietnam Shopping Top Free chart's top 30 while Heo Đất breaks into the top 10, which would suggest trust marketing alone can't hold a position and the game is paid acquisition. ③ Conversely, if Monback's install growth doesn't slow after 11.11 and 12.12 and it returns to the top 10, the Vietnamese pool is bigger than it looks and latecomers still have room.

A final line for everyone building products: in a category everyone suspects is a scam, you don't need a better product to pull ahead. The one that looks most legitimate gets ranked first. A business license, a state-media article and a TV clip are cheap in Vietnam, and they work just as well in any other category where trust is the bottleneck.

Data and sources

• Install counts and rankings: Google Play Vietnam, 10-29 to 11-06.
• Ratings and reviews: App Store Vietnam (id6759166815), ratings 10-28 to 11-06, reviews from the latest 50 (10-27, 10-28).
• Product description and company info: monback.app, monback.app/faq (read 11-06).
• User numbers and order volume: hanoimoi.vn 2026-08-05 (company self-reported); the same article is on baotuyenquang.com.vn and vietnam.vn.
• VTV3 clip: Monback Official YouTube, 2026-10-28; the Hanoi TV H1 feature is on the official blog.
• Ad creative and invite codes: Monback's official Facebook, Instagram and Threads.
• User discussion: Facebook "SHOPEE GROUP - Cộng đồng Shopee Việt Nam", 2026-09-14.
• Shopee affiliate rule tightening: voz.vn, 2026-08-28.
• Competitor scale: Google Play install counts and App Store Vietnam ratings, 11-06.
• Anything marked "inference" or "unverified" is an inference or something I couldn't confirm.