Thailand ranked 34th out of 36 countries in terms of attractiveness to online global marketplace players, according to a study conducted by global payout solution provider Hyperwallet.
The study, "The 2018 Marketplace Expansion Index", attempted to pinpoint the most attractive countries for marketplaces to break into next year.
Hyperwallet analysed 10 key factors including infrastructure, e-commerce activity, and foreign competition and workforce to select 36 countries out of 209, as targets for expansion. The study then divided the selected countries into three tiers: established, emerging and evolving global markets.
The 12 countries ranked as established are China, the US, Britain, Germany, India, Singapore, Australia, Canada, Austria, Denmark, South Korea and the Netherlands.
These countries boasted sizeable retail e-commerce markets (larger than US$50 billion annually), and were dominant in global retail, food and transport platforms, with companies such as Uber and Amazon.
In most "established countries, domestic platforms struggled to remain competitive against these foreign competitors", the study found.
Countries in the top level also have strong payment infrastructure, which allows users to seamlessly pay sellers or freelancers, and provides marketplaces with robust logistics networks.
Thailand was ranked 34 overall, and was placed under the evolving countries category. Countries that fall in this tier are often overlooked as giant marketplaces focus their energy on larger, more obvious geographies for expansion.
However, marketplaces that align their strength with the unique opportunities presented by countries in this category, could enjoy unique first-mover advantages, said the study.
Evolving countries mostly have underdefined regulations, marked by vague sharing-economy policies and political instability, but have a large freelance workforce that service-based marketplaces could draw upon for their labour needs.
Marketplaces looking to do business in Thailand still face large grey areas in the sharing-economy business models, poor payment infrastructure and lowly ranked ease of doing business.
Thailand's e-commerce industry grew 21% year-on-year in the first 10 months of the year.
Thailand was outperformed by a number of players in the region: Singapore (6), Indonesia (18) and Malaysia (24).
In spite of its shortcomings, Thailand has one of the strongest freelance employee pools, according to the study. Moreover, new banking regulations like Know Your Customer will simplify the personal identification process, which will make it easier to accept a wide array of payment options, including those favoured by tourists, it said.
Other countries in the evolving category include Spain, Switzerland, Italy, Poland, South Africa, Turkey, Mexico, Brazil, Saudi Arabia, Russia and Chile.
Countries ranked in the emerging tier include Norway, Belgium, Sweden, United Arab Emirates, Finland, Indonesia, Hong Kong, France, Czech Republic, Japan, Israel and Malaysia.
These countries exhibit some important strengths, but also some important barriers for entry, including an imperfect consumer base, strong local marketplace players and difficult business environment.