Thailand: a country overview
This article is at least a year old
Thailand has the most developed podcast landscape out of all JKAPAC. In fact, GWI estimates that 19% of TH internet audience listens to podcasts at least > 2 hours a day, +4 pts from the USA.
Of course there’s a lot to unpack, which we will in our TH deep-dive coming soon, but first let’s look at the charts.
You would notice 2 things: the top 5 are all Youtube-first podcasts; and two topics are of huge interest: horror, and learning.
A huge driver to new podcast listenership is due to COVID-19. Specifically, COVID exploded Youtube viewership that then translated to podcast viewership.
Horror has always been big in Thailand. In fact, Thai horror films are routinely exported across APAC, and it’s commonly assumed that Thai horror is more scary than others. Quite naturally, horror would emerge as a top category within podcasts. We’ll dive into the rich history of horror podcasts in our future deep-dive, because the genre is deeply influential and have a long history (as far back as 1993 on radio).
On “Learning”, it is driven by similar factors as Vietnam, albeit supercharged as upwards of 90% of Thai identify as Buddhist.
But what then defines the topics within “learning”? It’s most definitely more nuanced and due to a variety of factors. Top down - by the creator, particularly “The Standard” which is often viewed as the Gimlet Media of Thailand, focuses on routine subjects such as “Learning English”/ “Learning Current Affairs”. Bottom up - by elements of Gen Z interests such as Alljit on “Mental health & wellness”.
We’ll discuss all the other factors, and try to make some clever best bets in the coming TH deep-dive. In particular (1) TH’s podcast consumption snapshot, and (2) what content bets can be made, by cross-examining cultural preferences and successes across other mediums.
- This article is part of our series on Podcasts in Asia
Thank you
Thank you to GWI and our country partners:
Chai - Founder and creator of TheGhostRadio.com (Youtube, Spotify. They are routinely the top podcasts within Thailand with over ~ 2.5 million subscribers.
