Thailand’s roaring digital economy set to hit THB1.28 trillion this year
Thailand’s booming digital economy is projected to grow 17 per cent year on year and reach a massive US$35 billion (1.28 trillion baht) in 2022 driven by e-commerce, according to the e-Conomy SEA Report 2022.
The seventh edition of the Southeast Asia report was jointly released by Google, global investment company Temasek and American management consulting firm Bain & Company.
Thailand’s digital economy is expected to reach $53 billion in 2025 with a 15% compound annual growth rate and is projected to double to approximately $100 billion to $165 billion in 2030.
“For Thailand, e-commerce remains the primary driver of digital economy growth in 2022,” said Google Thailand director Jackie Wang. “Thailand’s e-commerce market is also the second largest in Southeast Asia after Indonesia.”
Considering each sector, Thai e-commerce is expected to grow 8% year on year to $22 billion this year and is projected to reach $32 billion in 2025.
Meanwhile, transport and food delivery is projected to hit $3 billion this year, up 12% year on year, and grow 20% to $5 billion in 2025.
However, the growth of online media (video-on-demand, music-on-demand, gaming) tapers at 10% to reach $5 billion this year after a peak period triggered by the Covid-19 pandemic. The online media sector is projected to grow 12% to $7 billion in gross merchandise value (GMV) in 2025.
Travel, too, is seeing a strong recovery as mobility exceeds pre-pandemic levels. The sector grew a huge 139% from 2021 to reach $5 billion in GMV in 2022, and is projected to reach $9 billion in 2025, with a 22% compound annual growth rate.
Meanwhile, the country’s Digital Financial Services (DFS) saw double-digit growth in 2022 across all sectors – payments, remittance, lending, investment, and insurance. All this is thanks to enduring offline to online behaviour shifts post-pandemic.
DFS accounted for the highest share of total investor funding in Thailand, with more than $150 million raised in the first half of this year alone.
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