depa Unveils the Result of the Survey of Thai Digital Market’s Values in 3 Industries. It finds that the Hardware and Smart Device Market Valued Nearly 300 Billion Baht with High Yield Flux via E-Payment.It Suggests That Solving the Shortage of Personnel Should Be a National Agenda That Thailand Needs To Cope With Urgently.
Dr Kasititorn Pooparadai, Senior Executive Vice President of the Digital Economy Promotion Agency (depa), mentioned about “The survey of hardware and smart device industry, software industry and software service and digital service industry in Thailand for the year 2017” that the trend and direction drawn from this survey can be used as information for decision making, planning and dealing with changes resulting from digital disruptive technologies properly. The survey found that the hardware and smart device market in 2017, with a total value of 294,542 million baht, and the hardware industry continued to grow in the year 2018-2019, about 3-5 percent because the hardware is a heart for business operations and lifestyle in a new era. This year is the first year that the smart device industry is being explored, which is a new trend the government sector, business sector and the general public are interested in trying it out. There is a possibility that the year 2019 will lead to the actual use of this tool in business sector that needs to adjust itself to accept dynamic changes in modern business that is connected to the world with technology that becomes an important part to support those changes. However, there is merely a small number of developers and manufacturers of smart devices or IOT equipment because they cannot compete with the completely integrated development of IT operators from China. As a result, they have to turn to import equipment and develop a software controlling those devices and / or act as SI.
Software and software service market value in 2017 was worth 78,818 million baht for software consumption and software services, growing from 1.6 percent in 2016. It is estimated that in 2018 and 2019, the software consumption and software service market will grow by 15.19 and 17.5 percent, respectively. Overall software industry and software service grew from the previous year since IT operators involved in the software have benefited from 4 factors including: 1). business transformation into various digital sectors from the government’s policy of Thailand 4.0, 2). entrepreneurs’ adjustment to create opportunities from new technologies such as Cloud, Big Data, AI, Blockchain, IoT, 3). the attempts to create software or platforms that are their own assets, and 4). new startups and new operators are still small but good trend.
Revenue of digital service operators in the country in 2017 had a value of 36,326 million baht. Electronic payment services’ (e-Payment) total revenue was at 11,356,335,631 baht. Content services (e-Content) and entertainment media services (e-Entertainment) are the group that has the highest users from the indicator by the number of visitors to the website. E-Content has 1,896 million visits per month and e-Entertainment Website traffic per month was 558 million views.
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Thanachart Numnonda, Director of IMC Institute, articulated the recommendations to the government about personnel development that solving the shortage of personnel should be implemented at the policy level or as national agenda by instilling a child to study computer programs since early childhood, with computer program being taught at secondary and vocational levels. In higher education level, the course on new technology should be adjusted when the trend is changing and specialised knowledge should be cultivated for students before graduating, ready to work for the development of non-formal education system. Knowledge about new technologies should be provided to entrepreneurs. Government should have a policy to provide support for the development of new innovations and new technologies, find marketing channels, and set guidelines to grow in order to open opportunities for expansion into a wider market.
The survey of the market value of 3 industries in Thai digital market including the 2018-2019 forecast which emphasises that all types of industries are facing such challenges from technological changes in the digital transitional age (Digital Transformation). The key issue that has led the industry to grow is the flow of digital use in all industries, service sector and growing tendency of digital usage in all sectors including Social Platform, Cashless Society, Blockchain, Chat Bot, Programmatic and video clips including 3D, Augmented Reality, and Virtual Reality that will play more important role in public relations, advertising and product demonstrations. Public and private sectors must have a lot of adjustments as well as personnel who need to accelerate the development of skills to keep up with technologies since the digital world provides opportunities for foreign entrepreneurs to do business in Thailand freely and has an advantage over Thai businesses in terms of technology, skilled personnel, funding and regulations that support the business in the digital age. The results of this survey will certainly be the basis for further development of the survey content.
For more information and research findings please visit www.depa.or.th/depapulse
