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Thailand: Value of digital content to hit B49.6bn
Thailand’s digital content industry is expected to reach 49.6 billion baht in market value this year, up 26% year-on-year, buoyed crucially by strong growth in the gaming segment, according to the Digital Economy Promotion Agency (Depa).
The figure is projected to surge to 72.7 billion baht in 2023.
The forecast was revealed at Depa’s news conference on the prospects of Thailand’s digital content industry.
The results were drawn from a market survey in collaboration with the Digital Content Association of Thailand, the Thai Animation and Computer Graphic Association, the Thai Game Software Industry Association, Bangkok ACM SIGGRAPH and Atwise Consulting.
Depa president and chief executive Nuttapon Nimmanphatcharin said the digital content market will continue to grow at least in the next three years, driven by the flourishing gaming industry in the wake of the pandemic.
The animation industry is expected to recover following the reopening of cinemas.
The survey looked into three digital content categories — games, animation and characters.
The game sector saw double-digit growth between 2018 and 2020 with a surge of 13.7%, 15.9% and 34.8%, respectively. The game sector registered 34.3 billion baht in value in 2020.
Mobile games constituted 61.34% of the industry’s value, or around 21.4 billion baht.
Of the 34.3 billion baht in the game content’s value last year, 33.5 billion baht worth of content was imported while 429 million baht was produced for use in the country. Some 408 million baht worth of content was made for export.
The animation industry’s value stood at 3 billion baht in 2020, a drop of 12.5% from 2019. In this segment, 1.6 billion baht’s worth of content was made for export, 1.2 billion baht was produced for use in the country and 183 million baht was imported.
Consumers are shifting away from traditional free TV and pay TV towards watching animation via online streaming platforms such as Netflix and Disney+.
The character industry was worth 1.9 billion baht in 2020, a decline of 8.67% from 2019. Of this sum, 1.3 billion baht worth of content was imported, 603 million baht was produced for use in the country and 37 million baht for export.
According to Mr Nuttapon, Depa plans to drive the growth of digital content through six key missions.
The agency aims to support new knowledge among the workforce in the sector, provide necessary training, arrange business matching, conduct management training for digital startups, collaborate with social media platforms to create quality content as well as create opportunities for the younger generations as influencers.
Source: https://www.bangkokpost.com/business/2216675/value-of-digital-content-to-hit-b49-6bn