Issue08 : 22 July 2014

As mobile phones become a daily essential and the internet is available everywhere, e-commerce becomes ever more important. Horizon Thailand meets one Thai company that is taking full advantage of this new market opportunity.

Songyot Kanthamanon, the CEO and founder of Ready Planet

Tourists who visit Thailand have long enjoyed shopping along the busy streets of Bangkok. Now the internet provides people with a new way of parting with their money – online shopping. The Thai National Statistical Office (NSO) estimated that the total value of e-commerce in Thailand was some US$12.7 billion in 2013.

“It’s a growing market, [one that] every business must adapt to,” says Songyot Kanthamanon, the CEO and founder of Ready Planet. “[E-commerce] is cheaper and more effective than many traditional media.”

Ready Planet embarked upon its journey as a website developer in 2001. Its extremely user-friendly platform is one that even those with limited computer skills and time can get to grips with quickly.

One challenge Kanthamanon has encountered is that potential clients fail to grasp how easy it can be to use Ready Planet. “The problem was how to educate the customers,” he says. “People usually don’t believe that instant websites exist, but when they learn how to manage their personalised sites, they realise it’s even better than hiring IT companies to do it for them.” Such companies are expensive and sometimes slow to response to client’s request, Kanthamanon claims. “Each update may be delayed for two weeks.”

In an era when people access internet as much via their smartphone as a PC or laptop, Ready Planet’s instant website offers a feature called Multi Screen, an automated programme that makes websites look equally good whether on a PC monitor or mobile phone screen.

Now Ready Planet has become a recognised IT company in Southeast Asia, with 12,000 active members using its instant website service. For larger companies, it offers an Enterprise Service that covers websites, e-store and customer service.

Since 2009, Google has been a business partner, helping Ready Planet establish a foothold on the international market. And in 2013, the giant Chinese search engine, Baidu, also signed a business contract with Ready Planet, bringing Thai sites and e-stores to the Chinese mainland.

The future of Thai e-commerce looks bright with both services offered and the number of users increasing all the time. Later this year, Ready Planet will launch a localised readymyanmar.com for Myanmar users, and it has plans for further expansion into the Philippines, Indonesia and Vietnam.

With such ambitious plans, you might forgive Kanthamanon for having doubts, especially with major international counterparts such as blogger.com and wordpress.com on the scene, but the e-entrepreneur is having none of it. “I’m not too concerned with these competitors,” he says. “What we have, and they don’t, is a proper localisation. Our strength lies in payment method, language implementation and art styles. We call them local services.” It is this strength that Kanthamanon sees as being key to Ready Planet’s continuing success.

For further information, visit www.readyplanet.com or contact
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Words by Ratipol Opasjaroenkij