Kingsoft, local start-up launch Thai WPS Office
CHINESE software company Kingsoft and start-up Thai WPS have officially launched Thai WPS Office, the local version of China’s WPS Office suite.
Ge Ke, chief executive officer of WPS, said WPS Office had been launched in 2011, and there now had been more than 2 billion downloads worldwide of both the business and consumer versions. It can be used on desktop computers, both Windows and Linux, and mobile devices, both iOS and Android. WPS Office now supports more than 40 languages, the latest being Thai.
This version was jointly developed by the Chinese parent and its Thai partner, Thai WPS Company.
“Now we are partners, but in the future Thai WPS will be a part of WPS,” Ge Ke said.
The suite comes with three main components: WPS Writer, WPS Presentation, and WPS Spreadsheet.
As its key strategy to penetrate the Thai market, Ge Ke said the company decided to allow the product to be customised for the education sector, to bring a cloud-based service to the Thai market, and to provide specific features to fulfil the demands of enterprise and government users.
Danny Chen, marketing director of WPS, said that WPS Office had two versions, a paid version for business and a free version for consumers.
For the business version, the company has just started to offer a cloud-based model.
“Thai WPS is now our local partner to help us to do marketing and localisation for Thai WPS Office,” he said.
Pongporm Yamarat, chief marketing officer of Thai WPS, said Thai WPS Office was a joint intellectual property of its Thai and Chinese co-developers. The Thai version was developed for a year before the official launch yesterday.
The TH Sarabun font is integrated in Thai WPS Office. The software has compatibility back to Windows 95, so it can be used without needing to upgrade the operating system in older Windows units.
Initially, the business version of Thai WPS Office is being introduced with a lifetime licence priced at Bt5,250, but purchases made during the first three months will cost just Bt4,990.
“In the next two weeks, we will launch a rental price for Thai WPS Office Business, and then will launch Thai WPS Office Home at an affordable price,” Pongporm said.
Deputy Prime Minister Prajin Juntong said the Ministry of Digital Economy and Society and its organisations, especially the Digital Economy Promotion Agency, would study how to utilise Thai WPS Office to facilitate the “Thailand 4.0” policy.
