Welcome to What’s Trending in Thailand
We’ve found a noticeable absence of reliable Thai tech news, so we’re doing something about it. Each Tuesday, Aware will bring you Thai Tech Trends; analyzing local, regional and global trends and discussing how they might impact Thai organisations.
This week some stats about Thailand’s IT market growth caught our eye. Analysts are forecasting that the Thai IT market will grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 7.91% over the period 2013-2018. Although Thailand is one of the strongest contributors to the IT market in Southeast Asia, neighboring countries like Vietnam and Indonesia are aggressively expanding their technology footprint making the growth harder and harder to achieve.
What global trends can help Thailand push forward and achieve this goal?
In 2013, less than 7% (4.5million people) of the total population were subscribed to fixed broadband connections. With continued promotion of safe and secure cyber systems, and the National Broadband Policy and Smart Thailand 2020 Master Plan partnering to increase broadband penetration to 95% by 2020, we’re seeing encouraging signs to improve IT in Thailand.
But is broadband penetration the right focus? As of Q3 2013, NBTC estimates the total number of mobile subscribers in Thailand at 90 million (131.8% penetration), 14 million of these subscribers are using smartphones. With 4G coming soon, the country’s obsession with social media and the rise of mCommerce, we ask the question ‘should the focus shift to helping Thai organisations become mobile ready?’
Globally, people are spending more time accessing the internet and working from their phone and/or tablet than their PC. Just from my personal experience, I only use my PC when i really have to; my iPad is fast becoming my go-to device. We’re big believers in the power of mobile at Aware, and want Thai organisations to be leading the way in South East Asia. By following the trends of many leading enterprise businesses in the US and Europe and adopting mobile first strategies, we believe Thailand will be able to achieve the predicted growth.
References:
http://www.techinasia.com/thailand-internet-report/
http://www.whatech.com/market-research-reports/press-release/it/28519-it-market-in-thailand-to-grow-at-7-91-cagr-by-2018
