Plans hatched for Thai version of Netflix

Buddhipongse Punnakanta. The Nation/Asia News Network

BANGKOK — A government minister has unveiled his bid to create a Thai-owned content platform to compete with Netflix, which is popular in the Kingdom.

Digital Economy and Society Minister Buddhipongse Punnakanta revealed the plan during “RoLD Virtual Forum: Living with Covid-19”, a videoconference event on empowering digital citizenship held by the Thailand Institute of Justice on Wednesday (June 3).

“Currently, international content platforms in countries such as China buy Thai content to generate big profits,” he said. “If we create our own content platform, it will become a channel to market and sell [Thai] content to other countries.”

Buddhipongse said the private sector would need to help create the Thai-owned platform, since state-owned platforms had failed to gain popularity with viewers in the past.

“For example, three international online shopping platforms are more popular than platforms run by the ministries of Commerce and Interior, and Thailand Post, because state-owned platforms do not meet the people’s needs,” he said.

“Therefore, the government should provide a budget and allow the private sector to create a platform, conduct research, run a publicity campaign and sell content.”

Buddhipongse added that a Thai-owned platform would be able to expand to the regional level within one year.