IN ITS drive to become the leading online TV player in Thailand, Line TV will this year target people upcountry, most of whom are now mainly watching traditional offline TV.

Kawin Tangudtaisak, the content business director for Line Thailand, said most people in Thailand are still watching broadcast TV even though online-streaming TV is gradually growing, especially among the 20 million-strong urban population. Those urbanites are the core base audience of Line TV, while another 40 million Thais are viewed as a largely untapped opportunity.

“We are studying other new business models, even freemium, as many partners would like to use the freemium model with us. But we are still studying the options. We believe an advertising model would offer the best service for users,” said Kawin.

The sector is seeing added competition, each with different strengths, he said. For example Netflix came in with a subscription model while Line TV adheres to the advertising model, offering free content.

Line TV has strong partnerships with many content producers and benefits from having the core Line platform to drive marketing for Line TV.

“Our penetration is around 50 per cent of total broadcasting TV audiences,” said Kawin.

The Thai market is big enough to allow a variety of content. Line TV has deployed a “recommendation engine” to personalise content to match user preferences. Kawin said having more players in the market is a good thing as it creates an ecosystem.

“The market is big enough [to encourage] a variety of content from many platform, so we do not see everyone as competitors,” said Kawin.

It focuses on retention and play views, rather than the time spent, reflecting that it is a long-form platform and has a strong user base that ensures strong engagement. The user base grew by at least 50 per cent per year for the last four years, while play views grew at 90-100 per cent through that time.

“Content numbers are not our focus – we focus on quality and on optimising content. The volume of available content has not increased, but play views for each is heavily growing,” said Kawin.

Revenues for Line TV are mostly from pre-roll ads and sponsorships. It recently launched double pre-roll ads and is exploring post-roll ads.

“We will not annoy users in the middle with mid-roll ads,” said Kawin. The content also includes sponsorships and tie-ins.

Despite having its own large platform for marketing, the Line app, Line TV also has a marketing budget for both online and offline channels in order to drive awareness beyond engaged online audiences.

“The online channel is mostly for engagement and marketing performance, while offline is to drive awareness and to drive original content,” said Kawin.

Original content currently makes up less than 10 per cent of total content on Line TV. Still, it plays a role as an as innovation lab for Line TV and its partners to trial and test new content before launch on the broadcast TV platform.

People can watch Line TV on Apple TV, and it will soon be on Android TV and Chromecast. It will also be integrated into Line Today this year.

“We do not know what people’s viewing pattern will be in the future, said Kawin, but we believe it will be more online. Our goal is to keep up to it,” said Kawin.

For this year, he added, Line TV’s aim is to become the online TV player leader in Thailand, and that requires that it sign up people upcountry, most of whom are still watching offline TV.

Its partnerships with giant variety content producers such as Workpoint Entertainment is a key part of Line TV’s movement in this direction.

For the first time that Line TV and Workpoint have worked together to create original content, they came up with “Infinite Challenge Thailand”, which will first go on-air through Line TV and then have its second run an hour later on the Workpoint broadcast TV channel.

The hook-up with Workpoint aims to expand Line TV’s user-base upcountry. This is the first original content collaboration with Workpoint, a company very strong in variety content and popular among upcountry audiences.

“Original content does not mean only trying out new kinds of content ranging from drama to variety,

but also means trying out new ways of presenting the content,” said Kawin.

Instead of being shown as re-run after first being broadcast on a traditional TV platform, Infinite Challenge Thailand will first air on Line TV, and only then appear on broadcast TV an hour later.

Variety content offers huge potential growth for Line TV, as this year’s high play-views have demonstrated.

The move offers a chance to expand beyond core drama-loving audiences to those who enjoy variety, including attracting more male users.

Collaboration

The collaboration with Workpoint creates a new kind of on-air model that expands both user bases and advertising opportunities, he emphasised.

“Since our core content is drama, which is mostly watched by females, this year we are trying to expand to variety and animation content to attract more male users.

“This means more users upcountry, and that creates an opportunity to attract additional advertising brands to the platform,” said Kawin.

He confirmed that Line TV is exploring new kinds of content – such as entertainment, variety and foreign series – in order to engage new user groups.

“Now, over 80 per cent of content on Line TV is drama, while entertainment, variety and music is together around 20 per cent,” he

said. “Most drama audience members are women, and so now around 65-70 per cent of our users are female.

This move is also to extend our audience to include more men through entertainment and variety content. We aim this year to increase our male audiences to reach 40 per cent,” said Kawin.

Meanwhile, Chalakorn Panyashom, chief operation officer of Workpoint Entertainment Plc, said that even “Infinite Challenge Thailand” is not truly long-form content – but it is the kind of content that can retain users.

Workpoint’s variety content can boast several million play-views and most of its variety audience are regular customers. Its collaboration with Line TV aims to expand the platform’s content to reach a lot more users, said Chalakorn. It would eventually attract brands to advertise as the content expanded from offline to online.

“Infinite Challenge Thailand” has 15 episodes its total, and four episodes have already aired.

It is on air every Friday, on Line TV first at 8pm and at Workpoint TV channel at 9pm.

The companies refuse to disclose the budget for original content creation.

They have both invested in the series and are sharing revenues, but will not disclose further details.

The digital economy accounted for 19 per cent of Thailand’s GDP in 2018 and is expected to contribute Bt282 billion by 2021.

This is significant, as Thailand’s three million small-to-medium businesses are expected to generate 43 per cent of the country’s GDP in 2019.

The Facebook-Kenan move is aimed at training more than 1,000 SMEs across the country in 2019 from diverse communities, including historically marginalised groups.

The programme is focused on upskilling the enterprises, in line with the company’s commitment to help catalyse digital transformation, support inclusion and accelerate Thailand as a digital economy.

Participants will receive both in-person training and online resources using Facebook’s self-study platform, which will cover key topics such as creating Facebook and Instagram business pages, using creative content tools and growing audiences through insights.

The community partners involved in the project will serve diverse communities such as people with disabilities, the LGBTQ community, people in remote areas, and others.

Training sessions will be conducted nationwide from June to November, including in Bangkok, Chiang Mai, the Northeast, and the South.

Beth Ann Lim, head of community affairs for Asia-Pacific at Facebook, said Thais are enthusiastic, entrepreneurial and self-driven.

“Through this programme, we hope to bridge the skill gap by educating, equipping and empowering Thai SMEs across the country and from diverse communities to fully realise their digital aspirations and feel equipped to participate in Thailand’s digital transformation. We are delighted to be partnering with Kenan Foundation Asia and our government and community partners to expand digital skills in Thailand,” said Lim.

On the digital journey

According to the “Future of Business” report, Thai businesses and communities are already embracing the journey to digital, with 78 per cent saying they use digital tools like Facebook to showcase products and services to customers.

The study also found 94 per cent of small businesses surveyed understand that promoting products and services digitally, including on social media, is vitally important to their business.

Kenan plays the role of implementing NGO partner to lead this project. Piyabutr Cholvijarn, president and vice chairman of Kenan Foundation Asia, said that Boost with Facebook will enhance the competitiveness of small businesses and contribute to the realisation of Thailand 4.0 and the formation of a more inclusive society.

Strengthening small businesses to better succeed in the global economy is a core pillar of Kenan’s programming to help micro and small businesses along with empowering them to achieve their dreams.

Meanwhile, Ajarin Pattanapanchai, permanent secretary of Ministry of Digital Economy and Society, said the government must act as a facilitator for success, creating an ecosystem that nurtures the growth of our digital economy.

The private sector, particularly SMEs and startups, play a key role in driving this development, he said. The realisation of the government’s vision – that a digital economy will enable economic and social reform that brings steady growth in all dimensions – would not be possible without the contribution of the business sector to this initiative.

Tana Pothikamjorn, executive vice president and head of digital platform at SCB, said that to advance the bank on the path of what he called a full open bank, it was important to create a practical ecosystem.

SCB is confident that API access will propel SCB to full open bank status. Under the arrangement, system developers will be able to use the https:\developer.scb portal.

At present, providing technology services is conducted by seeking business partnerships to tap different customer groups. Providing access to an open API will enable developers, businesses, and companies to adopt SCB’s API to further develop their businesses and better align them with their business targets.

Tana said SCB’s open API will be able to cover new target groups more extensively, while enabling its partners to customise their products to more easily respond to customer demands with better products.

The open API, a channel to link applications to allow the exchange of data between different software platforms, will be a critical part in creating a digital economy ecosystem.

Leading firms in many countries have provided API access to share resources for independent developers for experimentation and learning that will lead to the research and development of financial products and services offering the best experience for customers.

To allow application developers to expand their application ideas, SCB is the first Thai bank to open its API to external developers by linking with its developer portal web for loan origination, payment, QR payment, sharing customer profiles and authentication, said Tana, adding that other services would be coming soon.

“Allowing API linkage for system developers will enable SCB to launch new products covering more industries, letting target customers access services more easily and quickly and let the bank reach broader target groups faster. This will help raise service standards through learning from their requirements and their real behaviour,” Tana said.

“Developers can access SCB’s API via the developer web portal, which will allow them to read documents and methods for linking their applications with SCB’s. The portal also provides SCB with simulator apps to allow application developers to conduct tests covering all scenarios instantly in a sandbox environment.”

The bank is holding an “Open Banking API Hackathon event by SCB”, offering opportunities for new generation application developers to freely link with the bank’s API.

Kaweewut Temphuwapat, head of SCB10X, said: “SCB10X understands the problems of users. We believe that many developers can provide solutions for daily financial problems and Thai developers are no less capable than those in other countries. It is the bank’s keen interest to create a venue for developers to help solve problems to better improve the quality of life. On the other hand, developers can prove themselves and demonstrate their capabilities.

“Therefore, the bank is allowing developers to make use of its open banking API to develop products. This is why we want developers to compete at the Open Banking Hackathon by SCB event to create solutions, which will be held from June 21-23 at the Nap Lab Chula.

“The event allows developers in any field or web/mobile application to compete.

“What SCB would like to see from the Open Banking Hackathon event is the dissemination of information to create mechanism for the future

of our country’s financial ecosystem using open banking API.”

The decision, in the midst of a US trade war with China, means that Huawei users will start losing access to Google’s proprietary services such as Gmail and Maps, and be shut out of future upgrades to Android on their phones.

The move by the California internet giant on the software front was compounded by news that US chipmakers have stopped supplying Huawei, hitting the hardware of its phones.

Many customers affected

Huawei sold nearly 203 million phones last year, up from 150 million in 2017, according to data tracking firm Gartner, overtaking Apple to threaten Samsung atop the global charts.

For the first quarter of 2019, before its recent run-in with President Donald Trump’s administration, Huawei sold 59 million handhelds, IDC calculated.

Those users risk losing access to important upgrades to Android released by Google in future, although for now Huawei said it would continue to provide security updates.

The Chinese company will only be able to access software patches and distribute them from Android’s open source project, not proprietary information retained by Google, meaning that apps on Huawei phones could become unusable.

No easy fix for Huawei

To get around the Google ban, Huawei would ultimately have to build its own operating system, as Apple has for its iPhones. That cannot be done in a hurry.

Microsoft offers a salutary example. Between 2010 and 2017, the US company tried to entice users to buy phones built on its own Windows mobile operating system. But the phones never took off and the company pulled the plug on the OS.

Huawei does have a big advantage over Microsoft, given the bigger scale of its mobile market penetration.

Software developers might feel compelled to offer a Huawei-specific version of their apps. Or the Chinese manufacturer could start a new branch of the Android family based on the open source version available now.

But that will all take time.

Risks for Google too

The widespread mobile usage of Maps, Gmail and Google’s other services has helped the US company build a market-leading position with Android alongside its crushing dominance in desktop browsing.

But in cutting off Huawei, Google risks being deprived of the revenue-generating data of all those phone owners around the world.

And other Chinese smartphone makers, such as Xiaomi, Oppo and OnePlus, will be watching closely.

Should Huawei build its own system, it’s conceivable that those companies might join it, in a bid to end their own vulnerability to future actions by the US government or companies.

Siwaporn Pengpol, head of the company’s video and broadcasting management unit, said it also offers a free TV broadcasting service.

The company’s mission is to establish AIS Play as the marketplace platform for the creation of a video-broadcasting ecosystem.

“We have created a platform for encouraging the the development of this ecosystem, and have not come in to be a rival to others,” said Siwaporn.

“Now, we play a role as a marketplace by providing support subscription and billing systems for partners. We have seven over-the-top-business partners.”

AIS Play service is available on set-top-box, AIS Play Box, and mobile application AIS Play App. AIS Play Box has around 50 per cent of the 900,000 AIS Fibre customers, while the AIS Play App has been around 9 million times, with 4 million active users.

Siwaporn said users spend around four to five hours a day watching content via AIS Play Box. And they spend an average of 15 minutes a day watching content via the AIS Play App.

Under the AIS Play service, the company offers free and paid models for video-on-demand and broadcasting content.

In the future, the company will provide an ad-video-on-demand model.

“We also have a plan to use artificial intelligence to handle content management system, such as for offering personalised services,” said Siwaporn.

The strength of its service, she said, owes to the wide range of content and packages.

It has over 100 TV channels, for free and paid offerings, as well as over 1,000 titles of on-demand content.

“The variety of content is our strength but on the other hand, it is also challenge because users cannot easily find the content they want,” said Siwaporn

“At this point, we plan to improve our content management system with AI.”

She said the company would also seek synergies for the AIS Play service with AIS’s other businesses. For example, it could offer product bundles with AIS Play and AIS Fibre, and with the AIS mobile service as well.

“The main challenge is to attract people to spend more time and stick with us as long as they can in a day,” said Siwaporn.

She said that the video and broadcasting business is a part of AIS’s digital services, including games, payment, cloud, and corporate solutions.

The company also plays a role in supporting the company’s mobile service business.

In the near future, the company will expand the AIS Play service on the website in order to attract users to those services based on the PC and smart TV.

“Our direction is to reach the mass market through all channels – set-top-box, mobile devices covering phones and tablets, PCs and smart TV.

“We will still retain the existing customers of AIS’s services, while acquiring new customers, and seeking the monetisation of potential revenue,” said Siwaporn.

“Such monetisation is one of our key areas of focus, but it is too early to commit to the goal. But this year, we will break even.”

Telecommunications play an important role in modern economies, and developments in telecommunications networks have reflected the adoption of digital technologies throughout those economies.

A new Telenor Group-commissioned report outlines the impact of telecommunications on Thailand and Asia.

According to the study, called “The Mobile Effect: How Connectivity Enables Growth”, telecommunications is at the core of modern economies. Sectors that are intensive users of telecommunications generally contribute a greater proportion of gross value added (GVA) to those economies, and connectivity contributes to and enables social goods.

“Our study quantified these impacts across the Asian countries where Telenor is active – Bangladesh, Pakistan, Myanmar, Malaysia and Thailand,” said James Allan, the director of Frontier Economics, which conducted the study.

The report found that sectors driven by telecommunications contributed almost three-quarters of the economic growth in markets across Telenor’s Asia footprint.

Telecommunications provided direct benefits, social benefits and indirect benefits.

The sector’s direct contribution to the economy typically increases with that economy’s maturity. The contribution of telcos to Thailand’s growth is close to that of Malaysia and the OECD, at an average of 1.5 per cent.

Also, telecommunications is an enabler of economic growth. The economic contribution of telecom-intensive sectors in Telenor’s Asia footprint is between 65 and 75 per cent of GVA. In countries with substantial economic growth, the total GVA from telecommunications intensive sectors grew between 6 and 12 per cent per year from 2005 to 2015.

For example, in both Thailand and Pakistan the GVA contribution of telecommunications intensive sectors almost doubled from around US$350-$400 billion (Bt11.1–Bt12.6 trillion) in 2005 to almost $700 billion (Bt22.2 trillion) in 2015.

The GVA of telecommunications intensive sectors has also grown rapidly on a per-capita basis, increasing at approximately 4 to 11 per cent per annum from 2005 to 2015. In this case, Malaysia and Thailand were the two standout countries, where per capita GVA is between 2 and 5 times higher than in other countries. This is likely due to the more developed nature of the two economies, which translates into higher levels of economic growth and productive efficiency.

Telecommunications technology and the internet, in particular, have changed the ways in which people live, work and interact with others and their environment. Access to telecommunications services has created substantial economic benefits for users and society.

Telecom services can also help promote social benefits, including in healthcare, social inclusion, financial inclusion and agricultural productivity.

Telecommunications have enabled the use of digital communication technologies to deliver medical care, health education, public health services and health insurance at a distance.

Telecommunications have facilitated enhanced social participation, especially for people with various disabilities. Mobile technologies play a significant role in improving social inclusion. In Pakistan, for example, mobile apps encouraging social inclusion for the disabled include the “Tell Me” voice-guided app that helps visually impaired people navigate their surroundings, and the “Roll Out” app, which shares restaurants and hotels that cater to mentally and physically challenged people.

Telecommunications have enhanced access to basic financial services, particularly facilitating the collection of financial documents, the acceptance and disbursal of cash, the monitoring of loans, receipting and sending of remittances.

The most substantial impact has been seen in Bangladesh and Thailand where from 2014 to 2017, the percentage of people who made or received digital payments grew from 7 per cent to 34 per cent and from 33 per cent to 62 per cent respectively, and the percentage of people who held a mobile wallet grew from 3 per cent to 21 per cent and from 1 per cent to 8 per cent respectively.

That use of digital payments and mobile wallet accounts by people living in rural areas is comparable to the overall population in each country. Mobile financial services are helping to reduce the financial inclusion divide between urban and rural populations.

Moreover, telecommunications help to improve productivity, profitability, food security and employment in the agricultural sector.

The usage of telecommunications in agriculture helps in achieving such goals as spreading agricultural best practices, disaster management and early warning, enhanced market access, food safety and traceability, financial inclusion and implementing regulations.

Hakon Bruaset Kjol, the Telenor Group’s senior vice president of partner and external relations for Asia, said that due to its presence in Asia for more than 20 years, Telenor has connected 166 million people and brought $4.3 billion in economic value to its Asian markets in 2017. Meeting these connectivity demands requires significant investment, especially in networks, from the telecommunications players across Asia.

From 2014 to 2017, Telenor invested $6.2 billion in its five Asian markets, making the company one of the top three foreign investors.

In Thailand, Telenor has played an important role in using mobile technology to equip farmers with the tools they need to face challenges such as climate change, plant disease and soil moisture, Kjol noted.

In October 2018, Telenor’s DTAC arm launched its new “Farm Man Yum” service, a precision farming app that analyses various data sets from involved farms to resolve issues in a timely manner.

The service was designed to meet the needs of farmers who were reliant on precise weather forecasts to manage and plan their cultivation, increase yields and cut costs. The service incorporates personalised weather forecasts, which show area-specific data on an hourly basis including temperature, the likelihood of rainfall and the amount of rainfall.

It can also provide a seven-day forecast with the highest plot-specific precision available in Thailand. With the help of satellite imagery, the feature helps farmers to views aerial shots of their plots to locate irregularities and unhealthy plants. Finally, a Personal Assistant Service helps farmers understand and efficiently plan cultivation in each crop year with easy-to-understand infographics based on academic data from Kasetsart University’s Faculty of Agriculture lecturers.

Alexandra Reich, the chief executive officer of DTAC, said that innovation and investment by mobile network operators have contributed considerably to the social and economic growth of Asia and Thailand.

The mobile ecosystem, led by operators, will continue to address the barriers that prevent underserved people from gaining access to the mobile internet, especially women and low income people, as well as rural and youth communities. In the 5G era, mobile technology development will continue to have a profound and transformative impact on the world, said Reich.

Mobile connectivity has had a profound impact on society, chalking up many benefits in health, productivity and education.

Data-hungry consumers

“From the perspective of the telecom industry, what an incredible market to be in!” said Reich. “Thais consume a lot of data, more than many European countries in fact.

“I haven’t been here for a full year yet, and I’m still very much in the honeymoon period. I just love Thai people, their sense of family, their respect, their appreciation for the good life.” Thailand ranks in the Top 10 countries for usage on several social media platforms, including Youtube. Thais are also very demanding and knowledgeable about their mobile connectivity, she said.

“A lot of people here actually know what ‘spectrum’ is. I can tell you that in Europe, very few people care about or understand some of the things Thai consumers know very well,” said Reich.

Not only are Thais heavy and demanding users, they are also creative users, she said. When Instagram and Facebook launched in Thailand, entrepreneurial Thais immediately took these platforms and transformed them into e-commerce platforms. Shopping on Instagram was a thing in Thailand long before Instagram added shopping to its features. In fact, Thailand is where key new features in Facebook are often first tested out before being rolled out to other markets.

The DTAC NET Arsa programme has trained one million low-income earners on how to use social media accounts to generate new sources of income from their products. And its Farmer Info app has reached 120,000 smallholders, putting high-resolution images of their farms and hyper-local weather forecasts in the palm of their hand.

Mobile network operators have been a driving force behind the innovation and investment needed for these opportunities.

The company has contributed considerably to the social and economic growth of Asia and Thailand, said Reich.

“Today, we are once again at the centre of a technological leap forward. Thailand can greatly benefit from 5G’s mobile technologies. But 5G will not be built like previous mobile technologies. Our role as a telco will be to coordinate the various industry players needed to build viable use cases for 5G, which have yet to materialise as of now,” said Reich.

It is therefore an important time to take a full measure of why connectivity matters and what it can do for society, she said.