Groupon Inc, the world's largest deal-of-the-day company, is increasingly expanding into a mobile commerce platform to capitalise on growing appetite for mobile shopping.
The US-based company last year started operating its local entity in Thailand with 90 staff. It also built its own warehouse for storage of goods here.
Bram Clincke, co-chief executive of Groupon Thailand, said the company considered investing long-term in the country thanks to its promising online business.
He said the penetration of mobile phones in Thailand exceeded 130%, fuelled by the availability of commercial 3G wireless broadband service and the upcoming 4G.
Daily deal sites like Groupon have seen their revenue grow here dramatically over the past five years. As of September, 40% of transactions at Groupon globally were on mobile devices.Mr Clincke said the Groupon apps have been downloaded by more than 50 million people in 43 countries, the world's third most used in retail, behind only the apps of Amazon.com and eBay Inc.
Groupon has sold more than 400 million deals since its inception, he said.
Mark Cleaver, another co-CEO of Groupon Thailand who is responsible for overseas sales and marketing, said the company added two more product categories into its selections: electronics products and tourism-related services.
Groupon's daily deals mainly consist of the best of restaurants and spas.
Mr Cleaver said the company recently unveiled new versions of its e-commerce site and applications for mobile shoppers to make it easier for customers to shop for Groupon's large selection of deals and products.
Groupon is offering digital coupons for customers instead of conventional paper coupons.
Groupon deals require an average discount of 50% from its local and international merchants.
Its major customers are females aged 25-35 and high-income earners, he said.
A survey conducted by Groupon across 12 markets in Asia-Pacific with 25,070 respondents, including 2,313 Thais, showed that Thais plan to spend an average of 2,635 baht per person this holiday season. Fifty-seven percent of Thai respondents plan to purchase gifts via smart devices.
Pawoot Pongvitayapanu, president of the Thai E-Commerce Association, said there are about 20 daily deal websites in Thailand but only eight are active.
He said competition in the country's e-commerce market looks set to intensify, thanks to the influx of foreign companies expanding to the kingdom.