Information & Communication Technologies Thailand Market Study APRIL 2018 © Copyright EU Gateway | Business Avenues The information and views set out in this study are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the official opinion of the European Union. Neither the European Union institutions and bodies nor any person acting on their behalf may be held responsible for the use which may be made of the information contained therein. The contents of this publication are the sole responsibility of EU Gateway | Business Avenues and can in no way be taken to reflect the views of the European Union. The purpose of this report is to give European companies selected for participation in the EU Gateway | Business Avenues Programme an introductory understanding of the target markets countries and support them in defining their strategy towards those markets. For more information, visit www.eu-gateway.eu. EU Business Avenues in South East Asia Central Management Unit Thailand Market Study April 2018 Submitted to the European Commission on 6 April 2018 Information & Communication Technologies – Thailand Market Study - Page 3 of 207 Table of Contents_Toc511739543 LIST OF FIGURES ...................................................................................................................................................... 5 LIST OF TABLES ........................................................................................................................................................ 6 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ........................................................................................................................................ 8 1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ......................................................................................................................................... 9 2. WHAT ARE THE CHARACTERISTICS OF THAILAND? .................................................................................... 13 3. MARKET OVERVIEW AND EU ENTRY OPPORTUNITIES ................................................................................ 20 3.1 THAILAND’S INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES (ICT) SECTOR ...................................... 20 3.2 INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY EQUIPMENT ................................................................................................. 62 3.2.1 Market Overview ............................................................................................................................. 62 3.2.2 EU Entry Opportunities ................................................................................................................... 76 3.3 IT SERVICES .......................................................................................................................................... 79 3.3.1 Market Overview ............................................................................................................................. 79 3.3.2 EU Entry Opportunities ................................................................................................................... 87 3.4 IT SOFTWARE......................................................................................................................................... 90 3.4.1 Market Overview ............................................................................................................................. 90 3.4.2 EU Entry Opportunities ................................................................................................................. 105 3.5 TELECOMMUNICATIONS EQUIPMENT ...................................................................................................... 111 3.5.1 Market Overview ........................................................................................................................... 111 3.5.2 EU Entry Opportunities ................................................................................................................. 123 3.6 TELECOMMUNICATION SERVICES ........................................................................................................... 127 3.6.1 Market Overview ........................................................................................................................... 127 3.6.2 EU Entry Opportunities ................................................................................................................. 140 4. REGULATIONS ................................................................................................................................................... 144 4.1 IMPORT PROCEDURES ........................................................................................................................... 144 4.2 GOVERNMENT TENDERS ....................................................................................................................... 148 4.3 THAILAND’S DIGITAL ECONOMY REGULATORY FRAMEWORK .................................................................. 149 5. ANNEX ................................................................................................................................................................ 154 5.1 LIST OF USEFUL CONTACTS .................................................................................................................. 154 5.2 STARTING A BUSINESS IN THAILAND ...................................................................................................... 156 5.3 USEFUL STATISTICS ............................................................................................................................. 166 6. REFERENCES .................................................................................................................................................... 193 Information & Communication Technologies – Thailand Market Study - Page 4 of 207 List of Figures Figure 1: Map of Thailand ....................................................................................................................... 13 Figure 2: EU-Thailand Trade in Goods and Services, 2013-2016 ........................................................... 17 Figure 3: Thailand 4.0 Visualisation ........................................................................................................ 20 Figure 4: Thailand’s Network Readiness Ranking .................................................................................. 22 Figure 5: Household ICT users, 2012-2016 ............................................................................................ 23 Figure 6: Household ICT users by region, 2012-2016............................................................................. 24 Figure 7: Percentage of businesses using computers & the internet ....................................................... 24 Figure 8: Computer & internet usage among Thai businesses by size and type ..................................... 25 Figure 9: Top 3 reasons for using internet among Thai businesses ........................................................ 26 Figure 10: IT graduates in Thailand (% by category), 2016..................................................................... 26 Figure 11: Four strategies in developing a digital government ................................................................ 33 Figure 12: IoT in Thailand: Top 5 Industries for IoT market .................................................................... 36 Figure 13:Thai IoT Market: Preferred devices to be connected to internet ............................................. 37 Figure 14: Thailand’s fintech ecosystem ................................................................................................. 43 Figure 15: Market share by m2 of data centre space ............................................................................... 46 Figure 16: Hardware market forecasts, 2015-2021 ................................................................................. 62 Figure 17: APAC household PC penetration, 2016 ................................................................................. 68 Figure 18: PC volume forecast, 2015-2021 ............................................................................................ 73 Figure 19: Secure internet servers per 1 million of population, 2006-2015 .............................................. 74 Figure 20: IT services market, 2015-2021 .............................................................................................. 79 Figure 21: Software market, 2015-2021 (in THB) ................................................................................... 90 Figure 22: Top 3 largest spenders on computer software ....................................................................... 92 Figure 23: Market share of software production and software services, 2016 ......................................... 93 Figure 24: Digital content revenue (US$ billion), 2014-2017 ................................................................... 99 Figure 25: Thailand’s forecasted game market value, 2017 .................................................................. 101 Figure 26: Manao Software office in Chiang Mai .................................................................................. 109 Figure 27: Top 5 smartphone brands in Thailand, 2017 ........................................................................ 115 Figure 28: MikroTik Wireless Solutions product offering (visualisation) ................................................. 126 Figure 29: Thailand’s