Introduction to Thailand Mobile, Web and Startups

1. Introduction to Thailand
Mobile, Web and Startups"
Mobile Monday Beijing!
14th May 2012!
!
Ville Kulmala – Monday Monday Thailand!
Twitter/Weibo: @villekulmala!

2. Who am I?!
"
Ville Kulmala (Finland) – Managing Director – Mobile Spark!
!
- Over 12 years technology and business consulting
experience for global companies such as Nokia, Accenture,
ING, ABN AMRO, Heineken, KPN, Areva, Logica and Fortis.!
!
- Mobile Spark is a mobile marketing agency, with offices in
The Netherlands, Finland and Hong Kong. !
!
- Chairman for +1000 members strong Mobile Monday
Thailand – www.momobkk.com!
!
!

3. Mobile Monday Bangkok!
Thai Mobile Community !
!
Operators, Manufacturers, Developers, !
Designers, Vendors, Startups, !
Ad Agencies, etc. Thai and International.!
!
Translations provided at events!
!
Events held every 2-3 months, 150-250 !
Participants. Next one expected 300.!
!
Next event 28th of May in Bangkok!
!
If you’re around, be welcome to join in!!
!

4. Mobile Monday Bangkok!

5. Thailand – Stats & Opportunity!

6. Why Thailand?!
!
!

7. Thailand - Key Stats !
Mobile
web
should
Kill
entry
barriers
for
rural
popula5on
Already
fully
mobile
Ref: we are social(2012)!

8. Thailand – Online Gaming Huge!!
Reality Check!
Hardly anyone pays.!
Ref: we are social (2012)!

9. Thailand
Case study: Foursquare Wine Connections!
Already
back
in
2010
Thailand
one
of
the
most
ac5ve
on
foursquare

10. Thailand
Case study: Foursquare Wine Connections!
In
2010..

11. Thailand
Case study: Rocket Internet!
Crea5on
of
clone
e-­‐commerce
web
sites
from
popular
American
sites
such
as
Amazon,
Zappos
and
Pinterest.
-­‐ Hired
200
people
since
arrival
on
early
2012
-­‐ Simple
yet
high
quality
clone
websites

12. Thailand – Usage of Blogs!
Thai
blog
web
page
consump5on
by
far
the
largest
in
SE
Asia.
Ref: Effective Measure (2012)!

13. Stats – Thailand Blogs!
Orange colour indicates that market share is higher than
the market average in SE Asia.!
!
- Blog readers mostly high income Thai’s with high
education!
- Relatively the most wealthy web population in SE
Asia "
Ref: Effective Measure (2012)!

14. Thailand Mobile App Sales!
In
2011,
Thailand
was
ranked
26th
globally
in
terms
of
iOS
revenue.
WW
iOS
revenue
=
288%
growth
in
2011
Thailand
iOS
revenue
=
553%
growth
in
2011
WW
iOS
downloads
=
81%
growth
in
2011
Thailand
iOS
downloads
=
165%
growth
in
2011
Reality
check,
it
is
s5ll
26th
in
the
world.
Ref: App Annie (January 2012)!
!

15. Stats – Instagram!
Instagram Thailand uploads !
!
More than 11 million photos uploaded.!

16. Thai Business Environment
Pros & Cons!

17. Thailand
Technology Business Environment!
Pros!
!
-­‐ Startup
web/mobile
eco
system
s:ll
largely
un-­‐tapped
market
–
finally
showing
some
evidence
of
real
growth
-­‐ Cheap
workforce
-­‐
pleasant
environment
to
live
-­‐ Mobile
opportunity
large,
one
of
the
wealthiest
Southeast
Asian
economies
-­‐ Good
place
to
access
the
region
(northern
southeast
asia,
malaysia,
cambodia,
burma,
laos,
vietnam)
-­‐
good
connec5ons
for
travel.
!
!

18. Thailand
Technology Business Environment!
Cons!
!
-­‐ Foreigners
cannot
own
more
than
49%
of
the
Thai
company
equity.
Possibili'es
exists
to
manage
the
ownership
and
BOI
can
be
done.
Eventually
s'll
not
really
easy
or
transparent
process.
-­‐ Educa:on
is
issue
in
technology
-­‐
difficult
to
find
right
tech
employees
–
language
too
-­‐ Cultural
barriers
to
tap
in
to
ecommerce
opportuni5es
not
always
easy
to
understand
-­‐ Poli:cally
unstable
environment

19. Thank you!"
Ville Kulmala – Chairman Mobile Monday Thailand"
"
www.momobkk.com"
"
Twitter/Weibo: @villekulmala"
www.mobile-spark.com"