In late August, we went to Thailand and conducted more than ten days of in-depth research on the local mobile Internet development, focusing on industries such as mobile payment, e-commerce and logistics.

First talk about why we chose Thailand as the research sample.

According to data from the official statistics bureau of Thailand, the monthly income of Thai residents' households in 2017 was 26,946 baht (about RMB 5,600), and the overall society is in a stable development trend. Many data indicators show a good trend, such as the 1% unemployment rate in July 2018, achieving a GDP growth of 4.8% in the first quarter of this year.

Overall, although a coup breaks out in Thailand every few years, ordinary people's lives are relatively stable. Except for the terrorist acts of religious extremists in the south bordering Malaysia , most of the country has good security and relatively stable life. In Southeast Asia, the total economic volume ranks second and the per capita GDP ranks fourth. These all provide an excellent breeding ground for the development of the new economy represented by the Internet.

We first classify Thai mobile payment products according to their countries, see the table below

. Among them, rabbit is payment based on NFC card, and is a transportation card issued by Bangkok BTS Urban Rail Transit Company. Payment can be made at the joint merchant. Although this payment method has been eliminated by mobile payment in China, due to the resources mastered by these two companies and the relatively low acceptance of mobile payment by local Thai users, in our opinion, the relatively lagging payment method still has a certain market in Thailand (we will highlight it later).

In addition, the banking industry as an important force in Thailand's mobile payments cannot be ignored.

711 payment method supported by convenience stores

In addition, blue pay is also needed to introduce blue pay, a company founded in Shenzhen, China. Its main product is vending machines in Thailand. Its experience is similar to domestic vending machines (small stores also support it). However, in terms of payment methods, it can be shared by cash, TrueMoney, WeChat and Alipay. blue pay is more like providing transaction channels, with a certain coverage rate in some shopping malls and light rail and BTS urban rail transit, but the overall scale is not large.

We will introduce the specific articles about the transformation of mobile payments by different Thai companies. Here we will briefly outline the main pattern of the country's payment market.

Tencent exit the battle, LINE receive WeChat to fight Alibaba

In the previous table, Chinese companies have extremely high penetration rate of Thailand's payment market. For example, behind the Thai local product TrueMoney is Alibaba (accounting for 20%), and behind the parent company Garena of AirPay is Tencent (holding 39.7%). There was once a public opinion that Alibaba Tencent will copy the domestic payment war in Thailand, but at present, this situation should not happen.

We create rankings based on the download volume of payment products from App Annie to Thailand, see the picture below.

Since Alipay has not yet been opened to its own residents in Thailand, and Lazada wallet is mainly used as a built-in product of Lazada and has not promoted independent apps, these two types of products are not reflected in the list.

is easy to find that in the field of mobile social, LINE is a completely overwhelming advantage over WeChat. The weak social performance of

has made Tencent's mobile payment offense unable to be as skilled as China's. As of now, LINEPay has long been able to open registration for Thai locals, but WeChat payment is still only targeted at Chinese tourists. LINE's suppression on Tencent in the Thai payment field is evident. If WeChat is removed, Tencent will only have AirPay in Thailand's mobile payment layout, but because it focuses more on game recharge, it rarely sees promotion in convenience stores and stores, making its download ranking far behind similar companies. In the short term, it is difficult for AirPay to fundamentally improve its influence in Thailand, and Samsung Pay is almost impossible to see it except for a small number of stores.

, the only Internet companies on the list are Alibaba and LINE.

For Alibaba, it mainly has three firewalls in the battle for mobile payment in Thailand:

. Alipay is aimed at Chinese tourists, and this main attraction in Thailand and a convenience store represented by 711 can be seen. In this channel, WeChat and Alipay are in love with Alipay. Moreover, because Alipay cooperates with the larger Kaitai Bank in Thailand, the two parties will also conduct joint marketing in some places where tourists gather;

. For online shopping, Lazada wallet, the product was incorporated into the Ant Financial system last year, and in Thailand it mainly relies on online Lazada shopping channels. Due to Thai users' obsession with cash and online banking payment, it is for educating users. Wallet has carried out activities such as charging phone bills and discounts. In the upcoming September 9 Shopping Festival, it actively recharged 27 baht for some users' wallets (which our friends in Thailand received) to accelerate user payment education;

. The offline payment field is TrueMoney. Its parent company is the famous Charoenix Group in Thailand, and has tens of thousands of 711 convenience stores in its hands, which can accelerate product layout, but the whole family has not seen TrueMoney.

The payment method supported by the whole family convenience store has not been seen. TrueMoney and WeChat

. Because Alibaba has made early layout in Thailand, and its business promoters are e-commerce and retail businesses that are not closely related to local culture, they will not encounter too much resistance. On the contrary, as a social platform, WeChat, as a social platform, will face more severe challenges.

Let’s focus on the rise of LINE in Thailand.

There are many discussions about LINE being able to defeat WeChat and become Thailand's mobile social NO.1, but in our opinion, the most critical reason for is: the success of localized operations.

Thai has a fascination with cute things. For example, the bear-themed derivatives appear in various stores, and LINE will do this to the extreme. Whether it is in the emoticon store or offline promotion, it will strengthen the positioning of cartoons and animations. We even found LINE's derivatives store in a shopping mall in Bangkok. The products range from mobile phone cases, power banks to T-shirts and clothes, and there is a constant stream of customers. There is even a LINE theme adventure room in the store, with the ticket price of about RMB 180, exceeding the price of the Grand Palace. The nude bear commemorative version of Rabbit card sold in

BTS for two months is worth 199 baht, and the free card set

ticket price is more than the Grand Palace

LINE strengthens many elements that attract users in Thailand. We consulted several Thai locals about the difference between LINE and WeChat. Answer: The former is cute and has a sense of picture when thinking about it, while the latter is a cold social tool.

On the contrary, although WeChat is worshipped by product managers in China, it faces huge cultural differences in Thailand, which also reminds it to face severe adjustments to its localized operation concepts in the journey of internationalization.

Due to the success of the social field, LINE has adopted similar radical practices in China in Thailand. The LINE platform has already included video, payment, taxi and other products, and has launched LINEMan for food delivery business, and has SIM card LINE Mobil (similar to Tencent's big king card), which is more and more like a small WeChat.

payment is undoubtedly one of LINE's key businesses. We found that it mainly uses two major means in operators: 1. Subsidies. We found that LINE's payment subsidy advertisements among offline merchants in Bangkok, which are of great strength; 2. Alliance with rabbit, encourage users to jointly bind rabbit cards with LINE, and share users and payment scenarios.

Overall, LINE's expansion path in Thailand and WeChat in China is almost the same. LINE's App is also moving towards a giant platform. Although it is restricted by user habits, we cannot ignore its aggressive ability in payment applications and scenarios.

taken in a cafe outside a middle school in Bangkok

So in this way, it is almost inevitable that a head-on conflict between Alibaba and LINE will break out, but:

. Alibaba's ally in Thailand, Charoenix Group, has 711 convenience store support, which is a resource that LINE does not have;

. Although LINE found rabbit as an ally, the government has been doing it in recent years. Promoting unified payments for the two rail transits has encountered boycotts at this stage, but it has further enhanced the uncertainty of rabbit, an ally; although

.LINE is blooming everywhere, it actually does not monopolize high-frequency first-tier products like WeChat. For example, WeChat has Didi and Meituan Takeout, but LIN's E can hardly be called a first-tier company, both takeout and taxi business (Thailand takeout is still in the market education period, and will talk about it later). The low proportion of absolutely leading products in the LINE ecosystem will reduce its offensiveness to a certain extent.

But just like in China, high-frequency social products entering payment have natural user habit advantages. Although Alibaba has formulated a three-layer firewall, it is also destined to face the impact of LINE to a certain extent.

We once asked the locals how to choose between LINE and TrueMoney. Answer: If it is just convenient, you must choose LINE, but if 711 is not connected, you must install the latter.

Finally, I simply answer some popular questions:

can rely on scenarios to promote payment in Thailand?

Answer: It's difficult, cash is still the most important use scenario in Thailand. Whether it is Grab or convenience stores, although there are multiple payment methods, locals still love to use cash. Cash on-the-payment is still one of the important payment methods for online shopping. Even if you have to attach a bank account for refunds, it is so troublesome that people still choose to buy online cash payment.

Lazada's account cash subsidy

But Thais are price-sensitive, and subsidies can promote the transformation of user behavior. Currently, Lazada wallet is doing, LINE also has, TrueMoney has, but the proportion is relatively small. With the deepening of the industry's progress, it will be sooner or later that the subsidy war will be launched in Thailand.

Will the monopoly of mobile payment in Chinese Internet companies repeat in Thailand?

Answer: Basically no, Thai companies are all private enterprises, and the overall business competition atmosphere is very strong. As of now, banks, Internet companies, department stores and even operators are snatching this market. Although Internet companies have certain advantages in technology and user aggregation, the competition between all parties is quite fierce. It is not easy for Internet companies to completely control the market.

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