Thailand ready for fully digital future, survey finds

The online survey covered 1,051 respondents and was conducted by Suan Dusit University’s Suan Dusit Poll from May 13 to 18. The results were announced on Sunday by Suan Dusit researcher Pornphan Buathong.

Pornphan said 89.30 per cent of the respondents believe Thais are now ready for digital life, though 10.70 per cent disagree.

When asked what digital technology they normally use, 79.96 per cent said they use technology for communication and sending messages via social media, 78.44 per cent use digital banking services, while 75.19 per cent said they use it for watching movies, listening to music and playing online games, etc. Respondents were allowed to give more than one reply to this question.

When asked to compare the use of digital technology now with pre-Covid years, 76.97 per cent said they relied more on digital technology, 2.09 per cent said they used less, while 20.94 per cent said their usage remained unchanged.

As for issues they encounter in digital life, 82.40 per cent cited fake news, 63.84 per cent said they encountered scammers who tried to entice them into transferring money, while 62.04 per cent contended with hackers who pretended to be someone they know. The respondents were allowed to give more than one answer to this question.

When asked how they have adapted to an online world, 71.81 per cent said they use their judgement when consuming online information, 57.90 per cent told themselves that the world has changed, while 57.05 per cent said they use digital technology on a trial-and-error basis.

When asked what they want to see in the future of digital Thailand, 70 per cent want easy-to-use online systems with no disruption or bottleneck, 61.52 per cent want Thais to have equal access to digital platforms and 54.79 per cent said they want free digital services.