Thailand
Thailand: Online asset trading boom anticipated
Trade of assets, such as cryptocurrencies, stocks and mutual funds, will become the most popular online activity in Thailand after Covid-19 eases as users pay more attention to online platforms to seek revenue or career changes, according to a survey by the Electronic Transactions Development Agency (ETDA).
This finding was drawn from ETDA’s “Thailand Internet User Behavior 2021” survey, the ninth edition. It gauged 44,545 respondents online from April to June, said ETDA executive director Chaichana Mitrpant.
It is also the first year that Gen Z (people under 21) spent the most time online at 12 hours and five minutes on average per day, overtaking Gen Y (21-40) who spent 11 hours and 52 minutes online on average.
Before this survey, Gen Y had held the pole position for six consecutive years.
Specifically for Gen Z, they spent most of the time studying online with an average of 5 hours and 23 minutes, followed by entertainment and communication.
The third is Gen X (41-56) at 9 hours and 12 minutes on average and the fourth is baby boomers (57-75) with 6 hours and 21 minutes on average.
Overall, respondents spent an average of 10 hours and 36 minutes per day on the internet.
The favourite online activity in 2021 is communication at 77%, followed by entertainment at 62.4%, information searches at 60%, news updates at 54.2%, shopping at 47.7%, email at 45%, banking at 41.7% and food delivery at 34.1%.
In 2020, entertainment was in the leading position, followed by data searches and communication.
According to Mr Chaichana, the survey also looked into the change of people’s behaviour due to the pandemic. Trade of assets, such as cryptocurrencies, stocks and mutual funds, is forecast to land at the top of 10 popular online activities after Covid-19 eases.
The current pandemic situation is leading to new working ways and additional sources of income, he said, noting people need more investment to ensure their future savings and seek more job opportunities.
Regarding remote working, 71% of respondents said they were satisfied with this new way of working in the new normal.
However, they also had various concerns about the prospect of remote work with 38.6% of them saying they were worried about job security, while 37.5% were concerned about more costs when working from home.
Some 29.2% said they had difficulty working from home due to the lack of necessary working equipment and 27% worried about a change of work environment. Some 25.5% said they had stress and interference when working from home.
For online learning, 58.8% of respondents said they were satisfied with this new way of learning.
However, 36.2% were concerned about an increase in expenses due to online learning and 30.8% said they were frustrated with the lack of certain learning materials.
In terms of popularity of e-marketplaces, Shopee was ranked first among consumers, followed by Lazada, Facebook, Line and Instagram. For sellers, the most popular platform was Facebook, followed by Shopee, Line, Lazada and Instagram.
Source: https://www.bangkokpost.com/business/2233387/online-asset-trading-boom-anticipated