CP Group’s Ascend and NTT DOCOMO Team Up to Scale E-Commerce Marketing in Thailand

 

 

NTT Docomo Global acquires a stake in CP Group's Amaze platform, bringing Japan's proven loyalty expertise to reshape Thailand's digital commerce ecosystem. 

 

 

One of Japan's most powerful technology companies has placed a strategic bet on Thailand's digital future. NTT Docomo Global and CP Group's Ascend Commerce have announced a landmark capital and business alliance centred on Amaze, the Thai loyalty and e-commerce super app, with ambitions to build what both companies are calling the most comprehensive points ecosystem in the region.

 

The partnership, formalised through a Share Subscription Agreement in December 2025 and completed in March 2026, sees NTT Docomo Global acquire a 20 per cent equity stake in Ascend Commerce.

 

The two companies unveiled the collaboration at a press conference in Bangkok on Friday, where senior executives from both sides were joined by Thailand's Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Digital Economy and Society, signalling the deal's significance well beyond the boardroom.

 

 

 

 

 

From four million to twenty million

Since launching just over a year ago, Amaze has attracted approximately four million members — a figure that Ascend Commerce's chief executive, Tarin Thaniyavarn, now intends to grow dramatically.

 

Speaking after the press conference, he set an ambitious near-term target of 15 to 20 million downloads, with the restaurant sector earmarked as the first major frontier for expansion in the second half of the year.
 

The Amaze platform combines an e-commerce marketplace, "Amaze Mall", with a unified points ecosystem, "Amaze Points", that can be earned and spent across the vast CP Group network. 

 

 

 

 

That network encompasses roughly 15,000 7-Eleven convenience stores, approximately 2,500 Lotus's supermarkets, and True, the telecommunications operator with around 52 million subscribers — together giving Amaze access to what Tarin described as approximately 40 million unique users across the group's service ecosystem.

 

 

 

 

Japan's loyalty playbook, applied in Thailand

The strategic logic of the deal lies in NTT Docomo's track record in Japan, where its d Point Club counts more than 100 million members and has long demonstrated how a loyalty platform can function as a form of everyday currency.

 

The ambition for Amaze is to replicate that model in Thailand, making points as versatile and ubiquitous as cash.

 

Suphachai Chearavanont, senior vice chairman of Charoen Pokphand Group, described the alliance as something larger than a bilateral corporate arrangement. 

 

"This collaboration reflects the strong confidence and close relationship between Thailand and Japan," he said. "It will combine the strengths of both companies to enhance data exchange, advance analytics and AI development, and further expand e-commerce to better meet consumer needs." 
 

 

He added that the tie-up would open pathways for Japanese products to reach Thai consumers while simultaneously helping Thai goods find footing in the Japanese market.

 

 

 

Hiroki Kuriyama, chief executive of NTT Docomo Global, echoed that sentiment, framing Thailand as a market with "substantial potential" and positioning the Amaze collaboration as a model for how the DOCOMO Group intends to deploy its domestic expertise internationally.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A new marketing weapon for small businesses

Beyond the headline figures, the partnership introduces a suite of data-driven marketing tools with particular relevance for small and independent businesses. 

 

On Friday, the two companies launched "Amaze Survey", the first product under the collaboration, developed jointly with Japan's INTAGE Group. 

 

Unlike conventional market research tools that canvass random respondents, Amaze Survey targets surveys specifically at verified Amaze members, rewarding participants with Amaze Points in exchange for their insights — a mechanism that incentivises engagement whilst delivering higher-quality data for corporate clients.

 

 

 

Further CRM tools are in the pipeline, designed to allow restaurants and retailers to send targeted promotions to specific customer segments — for instance, reaching 10,000 users within a defined geographic area — at a cost structure that Tarin described as significantly more affordable than the 30 per cent-plus fees typically charged by major food delivery platforms. 

 

Critically, all activity will be conducted using anonymised, non-identifiable consumer data, in full compliance with Thailand's Personal Data Protection Act.

 

For small, independent restaurants that currently manage their own loyalty programmes through platforms such as Line OA, the solution offers a step-change in reach: access to Amaze's entire national member base, without the need for heavy infrastructure investment.

 

 

 

 

"Amazing Japan" and a cross-border points future

Looking further ahead, both companies have outlined plans to launch "Amazing Japan", a dedicated section within Amaze Mall, from May 2026, spotlighting Japanese brands including Mitsukoshi Depachika, Aiwa, Iris Ohyama, Sharp, and Lion. 

 

The initiative is intended to communicate the provenance and quality of Japanese products to Thai consumers in a curated, trust-building format.

 

Longer term, the companies are exploring cross-border point connectivity — a vision in which points earned at a 7-Eleven in Bangkok could eventually be spent at convenience stores and restaurants in Japan through the NTT Docomo network. 

 

Consumer engagement campaigns are already under way to drive adoption, including triple-points rewards on purchases at 7-Eleven and Lotus's, and a welcome benefit of points worth 200 baht for every 500 baht spent by first-time Amaze users.

 

 

 

For Thailand's digital economy — which, according to Patchara Anuntasilpa, permanent secretary of the Ministry of Digital Economy and Society, grew to represent 5 per cent of GDP in 2025 and ranks in the global top five for digital infrastructure readiness — the deal represents another piece of a fast-assembling picture. 

 

The government, he noted, has set its sights on positioning Thailand as a regional data centre hub, with a homegrown large language model also in development to underpin future AI expansion.

 

Whether Amaze can translate its CP Group backbone and newfound Japanese partnership into the dominant loyalty platform of Southeast Asia remains to be seen. But with 40 million potential users within arm's reach and one of the world's most sophisticated loyalty operators now holding a seat at the table, the foundations are unmistakably in place.