By Asina Pornwasin

Thailand's forecast e-commerce market growth rate of 40 per cent this year seems a reasonable one, now that more companies are resorting to the Internet to boost business.

Low operating costs as well as the broader scale of clients that can be reached are the reasons behind many companies' investment in the Internet, say e-market place operators.

Raising the Internet's popularity among small and medium-sized enterprises is also the government's push for higher competitiveness, as well as increasing openness on the part of SMEs to new technology.

There are more than 1 million broadband Internet users in Thailand. And through the World Wide Web, companies can reach out to millions more outside the Kingdom.

Many e-market places have enjoyed a rapid increase in the number of customers and transactions.

For example, www.Tarad.com has about 150,000 online merchants and more than 1 million items available. The site recorded around 240,000 product transactions in the first half of the year, up from 190,000 over the same period last year.

The top three products are fashion items, mobile phones and cars.

At www.ToHome.com, where mobile phones, health and beauty products and home furniture are hot items, the average is 4,000 to 5,000 purchase transactions per month. It has about 150,000 customers, around 90 per cent of which are based in Thailand. Around 55 per cent of the domestic customers are in Bangkok.

To the providers, most buyers still feel convenient about paying offline for products and services to online merchants and this is expected to support their projection of growth of more than 30 per cent per annum.