Thailand a major market for Facebook
Facebook is committed to Thailand as one of its most important markets in the world with big business opportunities.
The social network’s mission is to give people the power to share and make the world more open and connected, Pavan Varma, global business manager, told the Marketing Day forum held recently by the Marketing Association of Thailand.
Facebook sees about 1.35 billion active users all over the world every month, with 1.12 billion of them on mobile. About 864 million are active daily.
About 426 million users are in Asia, while 206 million are in the US and Canada, 296 million in Europe and 423 million in the rest of the world.
Asia is now the largest and fastest-growing region.
Thailand is home to 27 million monthly users, of whom 70 per cent return daily. Facebook is also widely used across all demographics surveyed.
The major trends shaping marketing in Thailand include fundamentally changing consumer behaviour and expectations due to mobile use. Mobile changes everything from broadcast to on-demand, from scheduled to discovery, from consumption to sharing, from static to interactive, and from segmented to personalised.
Thailand is also mobile-heavy, with 19 million people using Facebook monthly via their mobile devices.
“Thai consumers spend more time on Facebook than they do watching television, even during prime time. They use Facebook throughout the day, with usage rising in the early and late evening,” he said.
Advertising on Facebook should be additive to people’s experience. Marketing campaigns should reach the right people across devices. About 940,000 of users in Thailand are expatriates, and 6 million are feature-phone users. About 3.6 million are parents.
“Individual markets should use robust targeting to reach the right people to make their campaign successful,” he said.
Local marketers should develop a good measurement technique to revolve around business objectives, whether to build awareness or drive in-store sales, increase online sales, promote an application or launch a new product.
They should focus on real business outcomes and measurement, he added.
