More domestic publishing houses are replacing printed works with e-books.

Ybook Co owned by the Tre (Youth) Publishing House has launched www.ybook.vn offering 1,000 book titles. The company will add 1,000 more e-book titles to its store each month. Ybook now boasts more than 25,000 Vietnamese e-book titles, the biggest in the country.

Before Tre, the HCMC General Publishing House in October launched a website that sells e-books at sachweb.vn. The site offers 1,000 titles at prices ranging from VND5,000 - 10,000 (or just 50 US cents).

About 2,000 copyrighted book titles from Alpha Books, Nha Nam, Phuong Dong and others have been sold on Alezaa.com.

The Phuong Nam Cultural Corporation opened its first e-book store in the Vincom Shopping Mall in District 1 last April.

Sstate-owned Book Distribution Corporation Fahasa and FPT are working on projects to join the market.

The Tri Viet (First News) Publishing House plans to cooperate with an e-book distributor to build up an online e-book house. First News will sell its e-books at prices equal to 30-40 percent of the prices of printed books.

However, illegal e-books and copyright infringement in Vietnam are two problems facing many book companies.

The Kim Dong Publishing House, based in Hanoi, has recognized the big profits that e-book technology can bring.

However, it has not entered the market because of issues related to copyright protection, according to the Tuoi Tre newspaper.

Prices offered by Ybook for copyrighted e-books are between VND1,990 - 9,900, and from the HCMC General Publishing House, from VND5,000 - 10,000. These are still high for many readers.

Many book readers say they can download all kinds of e-books, both copyrighted and illegal ones, for free from the internet.

Paying online, by registering an account on a publisher's website, is a new and unfamiliar process for most Vietnamese customers.

"With an increasing number of hi-tech devices, Vietnam needs to develop e-books, as in other countries, to attract readers," said Nguyen Minh Nhat, director of the Tre Publishing House.

"Book companies themselves must know how to protect their books from copyright infringement," Nhat added.