An old Vietnamese tool for reading Chinese web novels hits the store for the first time: vBook gets 2,000 installs in a week, mostly from its existing users

vBook is a Vietnamese reader whose main feature is "converting" Chinese web novels into Vietnamese as you read, with an offline AI Vietnamese voice reading them aloud. It hit Google Play in late October, got over 2,000 installs in its first week, and climbed into Vietnam's free Books chart. It looks like a brand-new product, but it has been in use in Vietnam's web-novel circles for several years, distributed as an APK. Most of this surge is existing users moving from sideloading to the store. The playbook is worth learning from; the product itself isn't worth copying.

"Where do I get Vbooks?"

On May 2022 4, someone posted on Voz, Vietnam's biggest forum: "I've searched forever and can't find where to download Vbooks." Below it, someone dropped a bit.ly APK link, and another complained: "Opening bit.ly/vbookapp directly in the browser never works. Clicking through from Facebook is the only thing that does it, no idea why." Someone else asked if there was a similar app on iOS, and the answer was to make do with other apps.

That's what vBook looked like a few years back: the author is Vietnamese developer Vu Duc Long (called Darkrai9x on GitHub and "Long Vũ" on the forums). The Android version was APK-only, and the iOS version needed a beta invite. Download links circulated in Facebook groups and on forums.

By 2026 autumn, things changed. The iOS version hit the App Store in Sep 16, and the Android version hit Google Play in Oct 21. vBook's Facebook page (5.6K followers) pinned a post: "vBook is now on Google Play and the App Store! Before, Android users had to sideload an external APK, and iOS needed a beta. Now you can download it straight from the stores."

What it is

Start with "convert". A large group of Vietnamese readers follows Chinese web novels and can't wait for human translation, so they use tools like QuickTranslator (QT) with a dictionary the community has built up over years (Sino-Vietnamese readings, VietPhrase, name lists, pronoun lists) to machine-translate the Chinese source word by word into Vietnamese. It reads awkwardly, but it's fast. Vietnamese has a lot of Sino-Vietnamese vocabulary, so the approach works.

vBook moved this whole setup into a reader app. Here's what the Play store page (11-06) says:

• Opens any file: EPUB, PDF, TXT, MOBI, AZW3, FB2, DOCX, CBZ and more. TXT files get their encoding auto-detected (GBK, Big5) and are split into chapters by headings.
• Translate Chinese to Vietnamese while you read, no internet needed: it uses the same dictionaries convert readers already know. You can build a name list per book, edit it while reading, and see changes instantly. Chinese comics can be OCR'd and translated on the phone.
• Vietnamese AI read-aloud: it runs VieNeu, an open-source Vietnamese speech model, fully offline. You can also clone a voice from a short recording to narrate a book.
• Book source plugins: community-maintained JS plugins that connect to many web novel sites. The plugin library on GitHub has been maintained since December 2020, with 112 stars and 85 forks, and 11-06 it's still being updated.

The last line of the store page matters: "vBook does not bundle any book content. You read files you own or have the right to use."

Pricing: reading, convert and basic AI read-aloud are free. Premium is an auto-renewing subscription that unlocks heavier features: batch translation of whole books in the background, exporting chapters ahead of time as audiobooks, exporting EPUB/KEPUB or sending to Kindle, and a LAN web library. On Play, the in-app purchases are priced at $0.99–3.99 each.

Where the 2,000 weekly installs come from

The numbers are public install counts from Google Play. Over 7 days it added 1,773 installs, but growth is slowing: by third-party estimates, daily adds fell from about 390 at the end of October to about 78 in early November. On iOS, as of 11-06 the Vietnam store showed 70 ratings at 4.94 stars, and the version went from 1.1.3 to 1.1.8 in just 10 days, ranking between #19 and #36 in the Vietnamese Books free chart.

The evidence I could find on where these installs come from points to one place:

1. Old users moving over (confirmed). The announcement itself says "before, you had to download the APK". A 5.6K-follower Facebook page, plus years of sideload users, fits the scale of two thousand weekly installs.
2. Forums, Facebook groups, YouTube tutorials (confirmed). E-ink reader groups have guides on "installing vBook on a Boox", and YouTube has videos on importing convert dictionaries, with hundreds to a few thousand views. All organic.
3. The Vietnamese Books chart has a low bar (confirmed). 269 installs was enough to rank #10. The #20 app in the same chart, Dịch Quán Truyện, has only 1,959 installs. Charting brings exposure, but it also shows that breaking into the chart doesn't mean much.
4. Content sites keep shutting down (inferred, the timing just lines up). MTC (Mê Truyện Chữ), Vietnam's biggest convert web novel platform, announced its app was shutting down in February 2026. In May, Vietnam's government ran a nationwide anti-piracy crackdown. Apps that came with their own books got shut down one after another, while tools that come without books and let you import your own became the safer choice.
5. Ads and creators: none found. Searching "vbook" on TikTok turned up no relevant videos, and nobody is discussing it on X.

Why it got into the store

It couldn't get in a few years ago, because bundling content means piracy. This version strips out all the content: the vBook in the store is just a local-file-plus-plugin reader, and the source plugins are maintained by the community on GitHub, not inside the app. Review sees a general-purpose reading tool, and users install plugins themselves to get the same experience as before.

The product itself was also rebuilt. In April 2026, a user on voz dug up LeechText, a scraping tool the author had written 2017 years earlier, and turned it into a PC version compatible with vBook's JS plugins. In the post he called the author "idol Long Vũ". According to the discussion in the thread at the time, some said the old Android version no longer worked, and others said the beta had already hooked up Gemini for AI translation. The official site vbookapp.com now lists iOS, Android, Windows, macOS and Linux, plus a reading community.

Who it's competing with

In the Vietnamese scene, content sites keep shutting down and new ones keep popping up. vBook is the only one I've seen built as a "tool + community plugins + local translation + Vietnamese read-aloud" product. I haven't seen anyone directly copy it.

Can you follow it?

There are three things to learn from it.

First, take an older sideload-era product, strip the content, then go through the store. If you have a tool that spreads through APKs and groups, a store listing can win back your backlog of users on launch day, and it also brings ratings and chart exposure.

Second, small category charts in smaller languages are cheap. A few hundred installs was enough to reach the top ten in Vietnamese Books. On a chart like that, the existing users of one community are enough to push you up.

Third, make the basics free and sell the heavy needs as a subscription. Batch-translating whole books, exporting audiobooks and sending to Kindle are features only heavy readers need.

But if you want to build a "Thai vBook" or "Indonesian vBook" by following this playbook, a few things are very hard:

• vBook's foundation is something one community built up over many years. VietPhrase, the name lists and convert's reading habits grew out of Vietnamese having so much Sino-Vietnamese vocabulary. Thai and Indonesian have no equivalent, so you'd have to rely directly on large-model translation, which is a different product, and you'd have to prove again that people want it.
• Its users were built up over several years by the author. Two thousand weekly installs came from long-time users. A new entrant has none of those.
• The money hasn't been proven. Neither store version has entered the Top Grossing chart, and from the outside you can't tell how many people have bought the subscription.
• It's one layer away from piracy. The store version is clean, but making it work depends on plugins that connect to various web novel sites. If policy tightens another round, or someone files a complaint, it could be pulled.

If it were you

One-line verdict: this is a story about an old product switching distribution channels, not a new need appearing. The playbook is worth copying, but I wouldn't recommend copying the product.

Who it suits: someone already inside a smaller-language web novel community, with a reading or translation tool that spreads through sideloads or groups. What you'd do is what vBook did: strip the content, write a store listing that clearly says the product includes no content, publish it, and post in the group "you can now download it straight from the store".

Who it doesn't suit: someone who wants to build a "vBook for language X" from scratch to make money. You'd have to build the user base from zero, the money isn't proven, and all the copyright risk is on you.

How to try it (if you really want to): first pick a language with lots of Chinese web novel readers and no mature convert tool (Thai, Indonesian and Burmese are worth a look, but how big the demand is hasn't been measured, so that's an inference). Only support local import of TXT/EPUB, add on-device large-model translation and offline TTS for that language, and stay away from source plugins. Keep reading free, and sell "batch translate whole books" and "export audiobooks" as a subscription.

How to get users: post tutorials in that language's web novel forums, Facebook groups and Telegram groups. E-ink reader groups were vBook's early base. Start by pushing into the local small-book charts.

When to move: no rush. The window here isn't set by time, it's set by the community, so moving a bit earlier or later doesn't change much.

What would show this read is wrong: ① if vBook had entered the Vietnamese Books Top Grossing chart before January 2027, or published subscriber numbers, that would show this readership will really pay, and the opportunity is bigger than described here; ② if a second or third "convert-style reader tool" got listed in Vietnam and actually installed, that would show demand is bigger than this core of old users; ③ the reverse: if vBook gets pulled from the store, it means "stripping the content" doesn't hold up as a wrapper, and this route is blocked.

Sources

• Google Play store page (com.vbook.android, Vietnamese version, 11-06); Google Play public install counts and Vietnamese Books free chart (10-29 to 11-06); daily-add estimates from AppstoreSpy.
• App Store (id6808265499, Vietnam store, 11-06): 70 ratings, 4.94 stars, version 1.1.8.
• vBook Facebook page and listing announcement; official site vbookapp.com.
• GitHub: Darkrai9x/vbook-extensions (created 2020-12, 112 stars); haipham22/LeechText.
• voz forum: "Các bác biết tải Vbooks ở đâu không?" (2022-05-04); "[App] Hồi sinh app vBook phiên bản PC" (2026-04-19).
• MTC shutdown: Tiệm Truyện Chữ Facebook post (2026-02-06); Vietnam cracks down on piracy: Hoa Học Trò / Tiền Phong (2026-05-07).
• VieNeu-TTS: GitHub pnnbao97/VieNeu-TTS.