Thai residents experienced a 36-per-cent increase in the number of telemarketing calls over the past year, the sharpest rise in the markets in Asia and South America where Whoscall is active, the company said. Some users reported that they used to receive one or two telemarketing calls a week, but now it is almost every day.
Thailand experienced the biggest rise in ‘nuisance calls’, followed by Brazil at 21 per cent, and South Korea a distant third at 9 per cent.
Whoscall calculates these numbers through the contributions of its users in Thailand and analyses of its global databases.
The app helps users identify incoming calls so they can decide whether to answer. They may also choose to block the number.
“Increased pressure on sales, tightening margins and tougher competition across all industries this past year may be the reason for businesses employing a more aggressive telesales strategy as they bid to maintain revenues. Whatever the reason, it highlights the need for smartphone users to screen calls to help them manage their time,” said Yuting Liu, country manager of Whoscall Thailand.
“As people’s lives become busier, time wasted on unnecessary calls … and the steady influx of telemarketing calls can become a nuisance. Although we may all need to buy services like insurance, there really is a time and place for everything, and it’s important that we are able to manage these calls instantly to better manage our time.”
Since its launch in Thailand, the company says it has helped identify hundreds of millions of calls. The data has been essential in helping Whoscall scientists better understand user behaviour and telemarketing patterns, which helps provide better services for scam and fraud prevention.
Whoscall currently serves more than 5 million users in Thailand and more than 50 million worldwide.

To survive in the intense competition, industry leaders agree that pay-TV operators should integrate their business with new media platforms such as over-the-top service, Internet broadband and satellite-based free-to-air TV channels as well as repackaging.
Sompan Charumillinda, executive vice chairman of TrueVisions Group and chairman of the board at the Cable and Satellite Broadcasting Association of Asia (CASBAA), told a forum yesterday that most Thais were still watching TV programmes, including free-to-air content, through satellite receivers.
However, changes in the media ecosystem and related regulations had forced some cable/satellite-based TV broadcasters and pay-TV operators into a difficult situation.
“After the launch of digital terrestrial TV in 2014, there were about 400 remaining cable and satellite TV licensees, down from more than 1,000 in the previous three to four years,” Sompan said at the “Thailand in View” forum held by the CASBAA in Bangkok.
Vivek Couto, executive director of Media Partners Asia, forecast that the Thai pay-TV business would see a 5-per-cent increase in advertising revenue in 2021 compared with this year. When combining subscription revenue with advertising earnings, a compound annual growth rate of 2.5 per cent was expected over the next five years.
He said that during the same period, pay-TV penetration would increase slightly from 30 per cent to 31 per cent, while average revenue per user (ARPU) would rise from about US$12 (Bt415) to $15.
Birathon Kasemsri Na Ayudhaya, chief content and media officer at True Corporation, said TrueVisions Group was testing new ways to draw new subscribers. The broadcast of English Premier League soccer matches was an example. The company offers a Bt29 monthly package for mobile users to enjoy live matches via their smartphones.
TrueVisions, which is the |country’s largest pay-TV operator, has also offered low-tier packages to mass consumers and used an up-selling strategy to entice |existing customers to upgrade to higher-end packages, Birathon said.
“TrueVisions aims to bundle its pay-TV service with other platforms such as mobile, fixed broadband and over-the-top service,” he said.

Impressive feedback
Vorasit Lee, chief executive officer of PSI Holdings, the country’s largest provider of satellite-TV equipment, acknowledged that supplying receivers and related products would not be enough to maintain the company’s growth. In May, PSI introduced over-the-top boxes, which enable customers to extend the broadcasting service provided by PSI to the new cutting-edge boxes.
The feedback was quite impressive in the first month.
On behalf of the largest cable-TV operator in Bangkok, Wichit Aur-Areevorakul, CEO of Chareon Charoen Cable TV, said the transition from analog to digital technology was costly for small local TV operators. He saw this as an opportunity to share his digital cable network with those operators in return for providing broadband Internet to their customers.
“We now have a total of 500,000 customers by this means, up from 300,000 subscribers a couple of years ago. The company aims to have more than 600,000 by next year,” he said.
Viriya Thamruengthong, president of the Thailand Cable TV Association, said that to help its members in the same way, the association had set a policy to share necessary costs in terms of infrastructure development and acquiring foreign content.

The Thai unit of Vietnamese low-cost carrier VietJet yesterday launched three routes in Thailand – Bangkok-Chiang Mai, Bangkok-Phuket and Phuket-Chiang Rai.
The services will commence in the middle of this month.
Another international route – Bangkok to Haiphong, Vietnam – is planned to begin operating in November.
The airline already flies to Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi directly from Bangkok.
VietJet vice president Nguyen Thi Thuy Binh said yesterday that the Thai arm planned to expand its network by linking Thailand with other countries such as Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines, southern China and Japan.
“Three years ago, Thailand became VietJet’s first international destination.
There are now more than 300 Thai expats working in a variety of positions at VietJet, which is also a driving force for us to further expand our flight network in Thailand,” she said.
As an introductory promotion, the airline is offering a million tickets priced from zero baht until Sunday for all flights in Thailand, all domestic routes in Vietnam and all international routes between Thailand and Vietnam for travel until the end of this year.
On the existing Thailand-Vietnam routes, Thais represent 15 per cent of all passengers. This is expected to climb to 40-50 per cent in the near future.
Tourism Minister Kobkarn Wattanavrangkul said VietJet’s decision to invest in the future of Thai air travel with a dedicated domestic presence was a big market movement. It brings additional capacity to the low-cost flight market in Thailand and provides Thais and global tourists the benefit of greater affordable ticket choices and enhanced convenience.
“We have a commitment to improving relations between Thailand and Vietnam, and so this recent development gives a welcome boost to those efforts in line with the mission of the ‘Two Countries, One Destination’ programme, which has been running since last year,” she said.

The move followed a relaxation of requirements for bidders, big and small, for the government’s multibillion-baht infrastructure projects – big and small firms alike.
“The new requirements … allow the company to have an opportunity to take part into the bidding for large infrastructure projects worth more than Bt10 billion,” said Pasan Swasdiburi, senior vice president of the new business and strategic planning department.
NWR is one of more than 10 contractors that have bought the bidding documents for three electric train projects – the Yellow, Pink and Orange lines. The projects’ combined investment value is Bt180 billion.

Bidding for Yellow, Pink lines
The bidding documents for the Yellow and Pink lines were set to be submitted by November 17 and the Orange Line by October 31.
In the past, there were only four contractors that were qualified to participate in the bidding for the government’s mega-investment projects.
“We’re trying to focus on contracting any larger scale jobs … Our new jobs will be electric train projects,” Pasan said.
He added that if the company had a source of funds and good partners, it could get big jobs |even though it was not a big contractor.
He said that the company was |in talks with foreign partners, forming a team to bid for the |train projects. He declined to |name the foreign firms.
Pasan said if the bidding rules were more open, the environment would be more competitive. He said the company currently had a backlog of jobs worth about Bt13 billion and potential jobs worth about Bt40 billion.
“If we get the new jobs [the train projects], this will be supplementary income,” he said.

Varied expertise
Apart from constructing the buildings, NWR also has expertise in the construction of seaports, airports, power plants and roads and bridges, including the installation of transmission lines.
Pasan said the company was trying to balance its jobs between small to large-scale government and private sector projects. Currently, 60 per cent of its jobs are with the government sector and 40 per cent with the private sector.
Of that total, about 90 per cent are construction jobs.
NWR develops house and condominium projects via both its subsidiary and joint ventures and it produces pre-cast concrete systems for the construction industry in its factories in Chon Buri and Yangon.
The company’s income from construction business accounts for 80 per cent of the total.
About 95 per cent is domestic income.
“Our vision is to become one of the top five contractors among listed companies in the next three to five years,” Pasan said, adding the country was currently in eighth or ninth place in the sector.
The top five contractors have |75 per cent of the market currently.
Pasan said NWR expected its sales this year to exceed the target of Bt7 billion.