Local animation and gaming expected to flourish

Thailand’s animation and gaming market in 2017 can expect double-digit growth for the first time in over a decade, thanks to the increased use of popular animated cartoon characters in marketing strategy.

“We expect the market to grow by 12% to 14.5 billion baht this year,” said Monchai Sricharoensak, acting director for digital content marketing of the Digital Economy Promotion Agency (Depa), formerly known as Sipa.

The animation and gaming market was valued at 13 billion baht in 2016, an increase of 8% from 12 billion in 2015.

Businesses are increasingly using animated cartoon characters in videos to help market their products or business ideas and improve recognition.

“Increasingly sophisticated marketing strategies are pushing the growth of the animation and gaming market and enhancing the industry’s development, said Mr Monchai.

Mr Monchai said there are around 100 animation and gaming companies registered with the Business Development Department under the Ministry of Commerce. Of the total, 60% are animation companies, and the rest gaming firms.

Depa believes there are an estimated 1,000 i ndependent animation and game developers that are unregistered and working as a tailor-made freelance contractors in order to avoid corporate income taxes.

He said Depa and the Ministry of Commerce are urging game and animation freelance developers to register with the system in exchange for financial incentives, such as access to capital and marketing support from state agencies.

Last year, the Department of Business Development eased registration conditions for the setting up of a company, by reducing the number of people registered from three to only one person.

Mr Monchia said Depa is providing a wide range of support to local animation and gaming companies, from financial to marketing advisory and business matching with potential partners.

“The animation and gaming industry is a core business sector that Depa is set to promote and support as part of the government to push Thailand 4.0,” he said.

Depa provided a budget of 117 million baht to help ICT companies last year.

In collaboration with five l ocal digital content associations, Depa yesterday kicked off the Digital Content Festival 2017 to promote digital content industry development.

The festival, running from March 20-24 at Centara Hotel, showcases works from leading Thai digital companies operating in animation, game, e-learning, computer graphics and visual effects.

Tidarat Thanapakpawin, president of the Thai Game Software Industry Association, said the event is part of government efforts to promote Thailand to become a digital content hub in Asean over the next five years.