At the end of year 2017, the company reported total sale of Bt136.55 billion.

He added that two factors has impacted its total revenue in the first quarter, including product price adjustment to reflect falling lower tuna raw material prices as well as the baht’s appreciation against the US dollar.

The company has maintained its net profit margin of five per cent from 4.29 per cent last year, gross profit margin 15 per cent from 13.29 per cent last year. The company will reduce its operational cost by up to 10 per cent this year, he said.

Meanwhile, it has set aside an investment budget of up to Bt5 billion for this year, excluding the expense in merger and acquisition activities.

449 listed firms or 82.45 per cent of the total in the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) posted a combined net profit of Bt286 billion for the first quarter, up 0.30 per cent from the same period last year, according to a SET statement yesterday.

Their total revenue amounted to Bt2.83 trillion in the first quarter, up 5.61 per cent from the same period of last year. They also recorded debt-to-equity ratio 1.15 time compared with 1.17 time for the same period last year.

Kawin Tangudtaisak, content business director of Line Thailand, said that Line Today focuses on the curation and creation of reliable content, which is a key consideration for advertisers in determining where to allocation their spending.

“We see a big gap in the provision of news content for teenagers and other young people,” said Kawin. “Therefore, Line Today is debuting the provision of news content in a way that fits with teenagers’ behaviour in content consumption.

“The biggest group of users of Line Today are those aged between 25 and 34.”Line Today has 32 million users and the company aims to increase this number to 42 million users at an unspecified time in the future.

The goal of Line Today this year is to increase the numbers of users and engagement (page-views per users) in order to eventually to increase advertising revenue.

“This year the focus is to increase numbers of users and page views, and then ad revenue. Line Today has arrived to help media industry to transform the content business from traditional media platforms to online media platform in a smooth manner,” said Kawin.

He said the overall ad spending in Thailand has not increased, and that it has shifted from print media (decreasing 20 per cent each year) to other platforms. Now, online advertising has enjoyed 30 per cent growth, and this segment accounts for only 10 per cent of total advertising spending in the media industry in Thailand. Line Today is designed to increase online ad spending options for publishers.

Line Today has a click-to-rate (CTR) figure at around 8 to 10 per cent; in contrast, online ads’ CTR is only 1 per cent.

Range of ad formats

Charath Petthongchai, head of Line Today, said that the service’s advertising formats include native, banner, and advertorial forms.

Line Today generates sharing revenue (from advertising) and traffic back to the original platform and publishers can also generate revenue by themselves as well.

Line Today is service that aims to replicate the success of Line News in Japan. The Line Today service is now available in three countries and territories, with the others being Taiwan and Indonesia.

“The main content now is news and we will increase the number of videos available, which is different from Line TV’s video content since video on Line Today is shot-form video content of between 5 and 10 minutes,” said Charath.

Line Today is now focusing on increasing user engagement, with 38 views per user per months or a reading of once a day. It now aims to get readings of twice a day.

Line Today has 120 content partners across 10 main content categories.

The main content of Line TV is news and lifestyle material. This comprises content under creation/co-creation and curation, with a rate of 5 per cent and 95 per cent, respectively.

There are around 600 to 700 items of content available within each day n Line Today.

M2030 brings consumers and companies together in a mission to end malaria in the Greater Mekong Sub-region and in Indonesia by 2030, a press release said.

In support of this cause, Shopee will spearhead a series of campaigns and activations in the coming months. Other M2030 partners include the Tahir Foundation,3 DT Families Foundation,4 Yoma and the Dentsu Aegis Network.

Malaria is the world’s oldest and deadliest disease, taking nearly half a million lives every year, of which are mostly children under the age of five and pregnant women.

Chris Feng, Chief Executive Officer of Shopee, said that it is happy to be coming onboard as one of M2030’s pioneer brand partners in support of their mission to eliminate malaria in the Asia Pacific region by 2030.

“This issue strikes close to home, and as a company that is committed to using technology to improve the lives of consumers across the region, we are determined to play our part to help drive awareness and raise funds to support the elimination of malaria. We hope that all Shopee users can join us in supporting this cause.”

M2030 made its official launch announcement at an international Malaria Summit on April 18 in London, jointly hosted by the RBM Partnership to End Malaria5 and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

The Summit brought together major public, private and multi-sector entities announcing their commitments and plans to accelerate the fight against malaria. The summit saw around 700 participants in attendance, including Zhou Junjie, Chief Commercial Officer of Shopee, and keynote addresses from Bill Gates; Hon Penny Mordaunt, UK Secretary of State for International Development; Hon. Julie Bishop, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Australia and other global leaders from the public and private sectors.

During the launch conference, M2030 shared its commitment to work closely with its partners to drive awareness across the region and raise USD 5 million by 2020.

“Malaria used to impact millions of lives in Asia-Pacific. However, through smart investments and effective tools, we have halved the number of malaria cases and deaths over the past 15 years,” said Patrik Silborn, co-founder of M2030 and Senior Director Resource Mobilization at APLMA in the statement.

“Now, for the first time ever, we’re bringing together businesses and consumers in Asia to defeat malaria in the region.”

“We’re delighted to have Shopee come onboard as one of our pioneer brand partners for this cause,” he added. “With Shopee’s extensive reach of over 115 million users across the region, we are confident that together we can make a positive difference.”

Thai Union sees five major trends affecting business amid changing market environments, Chansiri said.

They are: currency fluctuations; emerging disruptive technologies; a global growth-engine slowdown; geopolitical risk; and global free trade at risk.

“Change is certain – however, it also presents opportunities,” he told the forum. “More importantly, we need to build our ability to deal with these uncertainties.”

Tunyawat said consumers were more concerned today about food safety and purity, and manufacturers needed to focus on addressing consumer needs with transparency in ingredients, processes and supply chain.

Moreover, food byproducts are an excellent source of ingredients for nutraceuticals, and possess many components that are excellent for human health, he added.

At the two-day event, Thai Union presented its Yellowfin Tuna Slices to visitors, one of the new innovative products developed by the group’s Global Innovation Incubator.

Yellowfin Tuna Slices recently won the “2018 Seafood Excellence Award” in the Best New Foodservice Product category at the “Seafood Expo North America”, held in Boston in March, and was a finalist for the “Seafood Excellence Global Awards” at the “Seafood Expo Global”, held in Brussels in April.

The local subsidiary will implement its US parent’s 3P’s strategy of Products, Platform and Strategy to enhance distributors’ performance and prepare for the opportunity of business expansion, expecting the newly launched product to generate no less than 20 per cent of revenue this year.

Pakapun Leevutinun, president of Nu Skin Southeast Asia Region, said on Tuesday that the overall business of US-based Nu Skin Enterprises continued to grow consistently.

During the first quarter, the company generated global revenue of US$616.2 million (Bt19.75 billion) at a growth rate of 24 per cent, year on year.

There are currently 63,500 distributors worldwide and this number has increased by 16 per cent in a year, while Nu Skin customers across the world total about 1.08 million, up 11 per cent.

The company expects to see a revenue growth rate of 15-18 per cent by the end of the second quarter, Papakun said.

For the full year, the global revenue of Nu Skin should reach a growth rate of 10-12 per cent, with the main growth factor being the company’s strength in technology and innovation that is in line with current beauty-market trends and consumer behavior, she added.

“To achieve the expected growth, all affiliated Nu Skin companies have followed the parent company’s policy to push the organisation towards using the 3P’s strategy. In terms of the Products, Nu Skin will continue to place great emphasis on ageLOC products, while the beauty-gadget offers will serve as powerful tools to generate higher revenue. Recently, Nu Skin has enjoyed its success in launching ageLOC LumiSpa in the United States, Europe, Middle East and Africa, while the product is also well received in North Asia, mainland China and Southeast Asia.

“For the Platform, we have planned to establish an advanced online business platform called Me Commerce to facilitate Nu Skin distributors as they expand their customer base and sell more products through digital distribution channels.

“Considering the Program, Nu Skin plans to implement a more timely dividend-payment plan, corresponding with its business platform to capture attention from and to establish credibility among new-generation investors with a high demand for extra income. The plan will be officially launched in July,” the president explained.

Vipada Tangpakorn, general manager of Nu Skin Enterprise (Thailand), said the local unit had adopted the policy of its parent company and would focus on marketing its beauty gadgets.

Nu Skin was one of the first businesses to foresee the business growth opportunity for beauty gadgets as it invented an anti-ageing technology, known as ageLOC, and has continued to develop its unique anti-ageing products, confirming that this market has been growing by leaps and bounds, she said.

Moreover, today’s customer behavior not only requires beauty products commonly found in stores, but also useful functions and advanced technology that can directly address skin problems in a single step, the GM added.

“To build up the strength of Nu Skin as a leader in the beauty-gadget market, the company has recently launched ageLOC LumiSpa – a cleansing and skin renewal innovation under the concept of ‘1 Step. 2 Minutes. 7 Skin Benefits’,” she said.

The ageLOC LumiSpa set includes the ageLOC LumiSpa device, which is water-resistant to a depth of one metre for 30 minutes with a charging base.

The device can be used with ageLOC LumiSpa Activating Cleanser for normal/combo skin, oily skin, dry skin or sensitive skin.

The special offer for the set is priced at Bt6,970.

The programme includes world-renowned street art and special promotions for spending via mobile phones, aimed at increasing Chinese tourists’ spending by 20 per cent to benefit merchants using the K Plus Shop application.

KBank President Pipit Aneaknithi said tourism is a major driver of the Thai economy and Chinese tourists constitute the largest visitor group to Thailand. According to Kasikorn Research Centre, the number of Chinese tourists will range between 10.4-10.6 million, rising 6-8 per cent year over year, and tourism receipts from this group will reach Bt580 billion, or a growth of 11 per cent, given their high purchasing power.

To cash in on the large number of Chinese tourists visiting Thailand each year, KBank has joined hands with the SRT to make Chatuchak Weekend Market more popular, especially through a facelift for the landscape. This will help increase the incomes of more than 10,000 small and medium enterprises who open their shops in the weekend market, which is among the most preferred shopping venues for Chinese visitors.

More than 90 per cent of Chinese holidaymakers opt to make payments via mobile banking apps while travelling abroad due to its convenience and the attractive promotions offered. These are major supportive factors for their high spending. On the downside, however, the number of merchants accepting payment via mobile banking application is limited. K Plus Shop application, initiated by KBank, can accept payments of both AliPay and WeChat Pay, the most popular apps among Chinese tourists.

Currently, KBank boasts the country’s highest volume of bill payments made with Alipay and WeChat Pay via EDC QR and K Plus Shop. Their transaction volume has now topped Bt11 billion, growing 20 per cent per month on average, thanks to the growing number of Chinese tourist arrivals to Thailand.

In addition, application for Alipay and WeChat Pay is easier than before because KBank is the only bank in Thailand that offers more convenience for merchants to apply for Alipay and WeChat Pay on K Plus Shop by themselves. With Alipay and WeChatPay, KBank is able to offer more payment channels for Chinese tourists. The volume of bill payments made with Alipay and WeChat Pay via K Plus Shop at Chatuchak Weekend Market is among the highest in the country.

Assistant Professor Siripong Preutthipan, director of the Land Development Project Administration Department, SRT, said the Chatuchak Weekend Market is an important shopping venue popular with almost all foreign tourists. During the weekend, more than 400,000 tourists, mostly Chinese, come here for shopping.

In cooperation with KBank, Thailand’s well-known graffiti artists Alex Face, Rukkit and Stupidnoobmacc will create street art paintings in contemporary Thai style at Gate 2 and Gate 3, creating exotic and inviting points of entry for the weekend market. As Chinese holidaymakers like to take pictures and share their moments on social media, these eye-catching artworks will likely prompt them to snap photos and share them online, making Chatuchak Weekend Market better known among international travellers.

 It will show more than 100 of its top-selling products at THAIFEX-World of Food Asia, an exposition expected to draw 2,500 traders from 40 countries to Challenger Hall 5 at Impact Arena from May 29 to June 2.

“In recent years the frozen ready meals market has become an important part of the urban lifestyle, especially in North America and Western Europe, due to quality, convenience and variety,” said vice president Kodchacorn Attarangsan.

“Oishi sees the importance and opportunity in the wide-opening new market and has planned to support further expansion of the market with focuses on new products, expansion of channels to reach a wider audience and exports around Asia and to the European Union.

“The company has prepared for all legislative requirements for food safety and standards to offer reliability and gain acceptance from overseas consumers and has been approved for food standards such as GMP, HACCP and BRC,” he said.

“We also studied consumer behaviour and retail channels to ensure the quality of production and delivery meet consumer demand in each country. We are well prepared with frozen ready meal products and began shipping Oishi Gyoza to Myanmar and Cambodia in 2016.

“Recently, we expanded the Gyoza market into France, Germany, Iceland, England and Holland with great success.

“The group is also collaborating with an export partner in developing products with better cultural insights and preferences for consumers in different countries, along with an investment in machinery to launch the new production line of frozen grilled gyoza to increase our competitiveness and support the international market demand.”

The Oishi booth at THAIFEX 2018 will have ready meal products in four categories – chilled food for convenience stores, frozen food for supermarkets, food services and exporting products – among them gyoza, sandwiches, crab sticks, ramen, salmon, saba, soups and sauces and baked goods.