Sipa projects solid growth in Thai digital content market 

 
Suwimol Taewasillachaikul, vice president of the Software Industry Promotion Agency (Sipa), yesterday said the agency’s survey of the industry had found that gaming software would be valued at an estimated Bt9.7 billion, with animation making up the remainder, at Bt3.95 billion.
These figures represent year-on-year expansion of 9.56 per cent and 2.8 per cent, respectively.
The gaming-software market is also projected to grow to around Bt10.8 billion next year, while further development of smart devices and government policy – and the digital-economy scheme, in particular – will be the main factors driving the digital-content industry as a whole, she said.
That said, while more local enterprises are currently developing digital-content software and will put their products on the market in the near future, there is a lack of promotion of local digital content in TV programmes, she added. 

BoI privileges sought 

However, Sipa has sought ways, in cooperation with the Board of Investment, to provide promotional privileges to local software developers, as well as to encourage international software registration and the establishment of businesses in the Kingdom, she explained.
Meanwhile, more than 50 per cent of last year’s Thai digital-content software market of around Bt12.4 billion was imported content, the study found.
Jirawan Boonperm, chairperson of Sipa’s executive board, said the overall software market in the country was continuing to grow, while the agency was also providing support and promoting the usage of local software for business use. Sipa is also working with international business partners to promote local software on the global stage, which would create additional income for the country, she said. 
The digital-economy |schem e and the expansion of Internet broadband and online access the country are driving the software market and industry as a whole, Jirawan added.