Are you thinking of a startup business in Thailand? Not sure where to start from? We have got you covered. This article speaks about the trends and scopes of penetration for startup businesses in Thailand. This can work as your business planning guide if you are willing to enter the Thai ecosystem.
Thailand has traditionally been seen as a desirable location for establishing a business. It is due to its strategic location in Southeast Asia, as well as its role as a gateway to other places. Importantly, Thailand’s startup and tech industries are thriving. Big organisations have been interested in startups for a few years and have developed accelerators to help enterprises grow in a variety of sectors, including e-commerce, medical technology, and financial technology.
Investors and entrepreneurs are flocking to Thailand to take advantage of the Kingdom’s strategic location in the region, as it offers ease of doing business, well-connected transportation links, a vibrant community of startups and digital businesses, as well as the infrastructure needed to grow a business.
Although there has been a great disruption in international mobility, especially cross-border transits, Thailand received 80% growth in Foreign Direct Investments. From this, you can understand the preference of foreign investors in Thailand. Now let us go through the trends ongoing in Thailand in 2021 so that you can select the area of penetration for your startup.
Remote Working Solutions
The first tendency is unsurprising, especially after the emergence of COVID-19. Remote working is on the rise like never before, and no one seems to have found the “ideal” solution for making it as easy, comfortable, and efficient as possible.
As everyone noticed the vast market potential, a slew of remote working start-ups popped up in 2020. However, the difficulty with start-ups that appear out of nowhere is that they usually haven’t had the chance to put a lot of thought into the process. As a result, it is projected that more advanced remote working solutions will develop in 2021.
Above this scenario, the Royal Thai Government has prioritized Digital Economy a lot. It has brought about changes in the Meeting Laws and IP regulations to facilitate remote working. Therefore, creative ideas in making remote working easier, flexible, employee-employer friendly and efficient can be a great thought for the Thai market.
Automated and Robotic Delivery
I’m sure you’re noticing a pattern here, but let’s face it, nothing else has had as great of an impact on the global scale as COVID-19. Robotic delivery has always been at the forefront of technical breakthroughs, but due to apparent reasons, it has gotten much more attention recently.
However, delivery does not simply refer to parcels. Drone delivery is probably still a long way off, especially in Thailand. Other ideas, on the other hand, appear to be gaining traction and investment interest. A brief Google can reveal that Thailand has a lot to offer and will most likely see tremendous expansion in the future.
The government gives considerable incentives to technology visionaries who will help Thailand automate, whether by investing, cultivating new talent, or doing R&D, to encourage corporations to invest in Thailand. ABB (Switzerland), KUKA Robotics (Germany), and Nachi Technology (Japan) are among the robotics heavyweights that have already established their operations in Thailand.
“One of the most effective strategic actions we did was to establish ABB in Thailand as a centre that helps adjacent countries,” said Chaiyot Piyawant, Country Managing Director of ABB Thailand, Myanmar, Cambodia, and Laos.
Therefore, there is a requirement and the Royal Thai Government is also promoting investments in the Robotics and Automation industry of Thailand. This can be a great field of exploration for your startup business in Thailand.
Virtual or Tele-HealthCare
Isn’t it obvious? Yes, of course. As indicated above in the section on remote working, real-impact start-ups are likely to emerge in the next months now that the research phase is complete. We’ve seen a lot of “short fixes” come and go, and now it feels like the right moment for more solutions to stick around and leave their mark.
The audience’s speed of implementation, as well as any privacy problems, will certainly be issues.
The Royal Thai Government is highly promoting the Bio-Circular-Green Economy or BCG Model. In the model, medical and healthcare are some of the industries of strategic importance. Thereby, this makes foreign investors in this sector eligible for great tax and non-tax benefits.
There have already been a number of successful start-ups in Thailand concentrating on mental health and fitness. But can others match this success while branching out into other areas of health care? There appears to be potential.
5G, Smart Cities and Transportation
We will hopefully be able to make use of 5G’s benefits to a greater extent once we all learn that it does not induce COVID-19. One of the most significant effects of 5G will almost certainly be on everything ‘smart.’ In specifically, smart cities. Consider how much easier and more comfortable life maybe if cities became smarter in the future.
In Thailand, there have been numerous pilot programmes. Phuket, for example, has been advocating for a smart city approach for some time. It has demonstrated various mobility solutions in recent years.
With 5G becoming more widely available, this should see a boost in development and spread to additional provinces. Ban Chang will be Thailand’s “first” smart city, using a 5G network. The technology provides real-time traffic, public safety, digital signs, and sensitive environmental conditions applications.
Industrial robots, factory automation, remote telemedicine, aviation, logistics, and agriculture all benefit from 5G use cases. Ban Chang is the ideal location to take advantage of them. Industry insiders have dubbed the project Asia’s “Silicon Beach.”
“We are ecstatic to be a part of Thailand’s first 5G smart city,” said Taweewat Chantaraseno, Managing Director, Cisco Systems, Thailand and Indochina.
As the Kingdom of Thailand has started focusing on smart cities, there can be many elements of such projects. This can help you formulate your plan for a startup business in Thailand.
e-Learning or Online Education
There are over 7,2 million online education providers, but none of them offers a “perfect” one-stop-shop.
That could indicate that:
a) there is no such thing as a one-stop-shop since schooling is too difficult/complex, or,
b) there is still a lot of promise.
Whatever you believe, a or b, it illustrates that there is still room for improvement in a sector to experience another growth during the pandemic. Higher education, in particular, currently lacks solutions that have the necessary impact and significant change by 2021.
In response to the COVID-19 education crisis, the government welcomed private sector support. The motive is to help jumpstart the country’s online education sector in support of the Public-Private Partnership.
Additionally, the Office of Private Education Commission (OPEC) has created an online learning portal for primary and secondary school students. There was a lack of basic resources as well as computers and the internet for online distance learning. Therefore, different education institutes have implemented different approaches for online classes.
Government-run schools in Bangkok and other provinces faced shortages in basic resources such as pencils and paper. Additionally, deficits in computers and the internet for online distance learning was also there.
This gives you a lot of scope and avenues to explore for your startup business in Thailand.
Now that was from the industry point of view to make you aware of the current Thai economy landscape. But you always need proper legal counsel and support to craft your idea to reality. Mail us at [email protected] for the best legal guidance and support for your startup business in Thailand.
