Industry expects 20 per cent growth this year

Thailand's game and animation industries are continuing to grow rapidly, with local developers proving their ability to develop and produce digital merchandise for both domestic and international markets.

Eakkanit Chansawang, managing director of game provider Mogamo, said the local game industry was at a crucial stage in its growth because mobile-phone users were spending more money to buy smart phones and were accessing new applications via app stores.

He said his company had developed a new game platform to market its products. Game lovers can purchase online games over their mobile phones for a fee of Bt60 per game.

Mogamo also provides a game portal for mobile operators, including AIS, DTAC, and True. It plans to deliver 30 new games per month - or a hectic production rate of one new game every day.

"I think that within five years, Mogamo will be the No 1 game-distribution channel in Thailand," Eakkanit said.

To maintain its expansion rate, the company has set up a special team to develop new applications, including social-media, business, financial and football applications based on various mobile platforms such as iPhone, BlackBerry, Android and Symbian.

Moreover, the firm is also developing a mobile application for flight reservations, providing an online agency for mobile users who want to reserve, confirm and pay for airline travel over their mobile devices.

Mogamo's business direction is not limited to the demands of the local market. It aims to expand into overseas markets, first of all by providing games and applications to Southeast Asian markets such as Singapore, Malaysia, and Indo-nesia via retail partners. It is also planning to work with local partners in Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam to provide games and applications to those markets.

Thai Animation and Computer Graphics Association (TACGA) president Lak Taechawanchai said the game and animation markets in Thailand were continuing to grow. The local animation industry was stable last year, despite the global economic crisis.

He said the main factor driving the animation industry had been co-production projects involving international investors and local animation developers. These result from local developers' ability as outsource workers and their creative skills, enabling them to develop animation to meet market demands.

The association expects the Thai animation industry to grow by about 20 per cent this year, to a value of about Bt11 billion.

"The TACGA wants the government to act as a facilitator, creating business matches between local animators and investors to help animators develop products to meet market demand," Lak said.

Saksiri Koshpasharin, the managing director of Imagimax, one of Thailand's biggest animation studios, said the Thai animation industry had the opportunity to produce outsourced animation for global markets. There are no boundaries to co-production arrangements in this sphere, and the creative minds and outsourcing base of Thai developers qualifies them for this kind of work.

Imagimax is both developing co-produced animation projects and providing outsourced animation to international companies, he said.

Moreover, the company is waiting for seed funds to co-operate with an international animation school in the creation of such a school in Thailand in the near future.