Thailand internet report: mobile penetration has exceeded Thailand’s population

eMarketer has just come out with an insightful report on Thailand’s internet penetration and usage. Here’s a quick roundup of some key stats:

Broadband penetration

• According to Thailand’s National Statistic Office (NSO), internet penetration in 2012 was at 26.5 percent, up from 18.2 percent in 2008.
• The number of fixed broadband internet subscribers is at 4.5 million as of Q2 2013. That’s a 6.7 percent penetration rate by population and accounts for 22.7 pecent of households, according to NBTC. These numbers have grown modestly since 2012, when the figures were 4.3 million fixed broadband internet subscribers for a penetration rate of about 6.3 percent of the population and 21.5 percent of households.

Mobile penetration

The number of mobile subscribers in Thailand had exceed its population since 2010 (106.6 percent). But with the 3G licences granted for all the main telco operators, dtac, AIS, and True, the mobile penetration rate in Thailand is growing even faster.

• As of Q3 2013, NBTC estimates the total number of mobile subscribers in Thailand to be 90 million. That’s 131.8 percent penetration to the whole country’s population.
• There were 14 million smartphone users in Thailand as of Q4 2012, which is a 43 percent increase from 2011, according to infoma.
• Android devices dominated smartphone sales in Thailand in 2012: 70 percent of the smartphones sold were Android, 20 percent iOS and 10 percent others (Windows and Blackberry).
• In 2013, Android is projected to take most of the smartphone market share again with 68 percent Android, 18 percent iOS, and 14 percent others.

It’s interesting to see that although Android still leads the market, the market share for both Android and iOS is expected to drop, while Windows and Blackberry expect to gain this year.

In addtion, GfK projects that entry-level phones, prices around THB5,000 ($160) would drop in average price to about THB3,000 ($97) this year. This is also something Huawei mentioned when it announced its interest in the Thai market.

For more details, see the full report by eMarketer here.

(Editing by Charlie Custer )