Thailand Online Gaming Market Maintains Exponential Growth and High Acceptance of Foreign Online Game Titles

IDC: Online gaming market in Asia/Pacific excluding Japan (APEJ) region revealed that Thailand totaled US$32.9 million in subscription revenue in 2005, growing by approximately 44% over 2004. The growth of online gaming is benefiting from developments in other adjacent markets, especially PC market growth, cheaper Internet connections, the digital content market, and telecommunication market.

Importing foreign-developed games and introducing them to the local market remains the most effective way to expand business growth. For players wanting to establish immediate presence and create market noise, carrying popular online games developed from Korea and Japan would be the ideal shortcut, given the popularity of foreign online games among the local gaming populace,.

MMORPGs gameplay, which allows gamers to interact and engage in a variety of activities with other players, ranging from chatting with their friends or teaming up in order to complete complex tasks, continue to appeal to the local gaming populace. Service providers are in fact aware of this and have indicated that MMORPGs will still account for the bulk of their product portfolio. Moreover, the prevalence of foreign developed games, of which the majority are MMORPGs, continue to drive MMORPG adoption in the local market.

In 2005, Thailand, the largest online gaming market in South East Asia region, held 2.4% market share of the APEJ region's total subscription revenue of US$1.39 billion, where online gaming service providers often overlooked the potential of Singapore for other larger, more robust gaming markets such as Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines. The region's market is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 21% from 2006 to 2010 reaching US$3.6 billion by 2010. The growth is driven by the rapidly increasing numbers of varied players in the online gamers ecosystem. Telecommunications service providers, online game developers, and even traditional information and communication technology (ICT) vendors are showing growing interest in this fast-emerging market. The region's market is expected to surpass the US$2 billion mark by 2007, with the entry of several new countries into the region's online gaming radar, albeit the current lack of commercial values in India, Indonesia, and Vietnam.

Figure 1

Source: IDC, 2006

Size of bubble: subscription revenue in respective country in 2005 in US dollars

Online gaming market in Asia/Pacific excluding Japan Publ 20060620