BitesizeBKK Newsletter Edition 4

Friday 17th November 2023

Good morning. Welcome to another week of BitesizeBKK’s This Week, Wrapped. Is it just us, or has there been a lot of news to digest just ahead of the busy holiday season? We’ve hit the half month mark for November, and we’re already thinking about festivities (and food).

As always, if you like what you’re reading, please forward this email to a friend, a friendly ex or a colleague at work!

The Big Bites

1. Bring Out Your Patagonia Vests, Big Tech Bros Are Coming

   
   

   Ah, some much-needed good news and growth stimulation for the Thai economy. We’re breathing a collective sigh of relief that we don’t have to write about the 10,000 baht digital handout money this week. According to multiple reports, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google, and Microsoft have pledged to invest 300 billion baht (US$8.46 billion) to beef up Thailand’s digital infrastructure.

   
   

   Over the next few years, the money will be allocated to build infrastructure such as data centers and cloud facilities and costly developments like an  AI research center.

   
   

   In a separate statement, the Thai government and Google have also announced a strategic cooperation policy. The new development will see the launch of a Google Cloud region in Bangkok and some Google Career Certificate scholarships in collaboration with the Board of Investment of Thailand (BOI).

   
   

   🥤 Bitesize Take: Our Prime Minister has been very busy with his travel schedule these past couple of months, with travels to San Francisco this past week as part of the APEC CEO Summit 2023, where he also met with executives from Tesla and Microsoft. While big companies have committed to signing MOUs to invest in Thailand, these things won’t happen immediately, but it’s a step in the right direction. With increased interest from global technology companies, Thailand should be better positioned to compete with our regional peers, such as Indonesia and Vietnam, which have leapfrogged towards technological innovation and investments.

   
   

2. Thais Are Taking Over The World (Well, at least Oxford Street)

   
   

   UK-based luxury department store Selfridges (with a landmark location on London’s Oxford Street and branches in Birmingham and Manchester) will now be wholly owned by Thailand’s Central Group, operated by the Chirathivat family.

   
   

   A bit of context here: Central Group and René Benko’s Austrian real estate company Signa Group (which is heavily backed by Europe’s most influential business magnates) bought Selfridges in 2021 in a deal worth $5 billion, but now Signa has found themselves in a bit of financial trouble. The company has since been placed in the hands of “restructuring experts.” Luckily, Central Group can take over Signa’s part of the deal. Central said it has exercised its right to convert a loan and will become a majority shareholder in the store

   
   

   The Financial Times published a lengthy report on how Signa Group tumbled and how billionaire René Benko lost control of his company.

   
   

   🥤 Bitesize Take: The majority takeover strongly establishes Central Group as a serious player in global retail, not that they weren’t prominent before. The sudden downfall of Signa Group highlights how glitzy property ownerships and friends in high places do not necessarily translate to strong numbers and solid operations. Central Group will leverage this majority ownership to cement its own position in luxury offline retail.

   
   

   Meanwhile, Thais will continue to hope that one day, we can use The 1 cards at Selfridges Food Hall.

   
   

3. Thailand Pitches US$28 Billion Infrastructure Project

   
   

   Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin wants the world to know that Thailand is finally ready for the world (and ready for some big foreign investment), whether you’re interested in AI, Cloud Centers, or well, shipping shortcuts. The mega-project, estimated to cost about US$28 billion is commonly referred to as ‘Landbridge,’ and has actually been proposed by several Thai governments over the past decade.

   
   

   But, it hasn’t been done.

   
   

   Now, here’s some contextual geography (bear with us). The mega-project promises to offer an alternative trade route through Southeast Asia, bypassing one of the busiest sea lanes and hence, boosting productivity revenue, and cutting costs by 15%. It will reportedly shave off travel time by an average of four days.

   
   

   The 100-kilometer bridge would cut across the Kra Isthmus, the narrowest part of the Malay Peninsula, and would connect the Pacific Ocean and the Indian Ocean without requiring ships to sail through the narrow Malacca Strait.

   
   

   Last month, Srettha pitched the mega project to potential Chinese investors during his trip to Beijing for the Belt and Road forum. This week, the PM pitched to US companies and investors in San Francisco as part of the ‘Landbridge Roadshow.’ According to reports, the project drew some interest from investors in Saudi Arabia too.

   
   

   🥤 Bitesize Take: The world is not new to the mega Landbridge project, and whilst its success would boost our country’s GDP by 5.5%, and create hundreds of thousands of jobs, there’s a lot to consider beyond the initial PR stage. There are multiple things that will have to align, from potential geopolitical conflicts to environmental factors, which will be a key concern for western investors. We’re rooting for a big win for Thailand, and we’d love to see the country realize some of its potential to which we’ll be able to compete on the world stage, but this project feels almost too big to be true.

   
   

   What do we know though, we write weekly newsletters for a living.

   
   

4. Light(er) Bites: Our Attention Span Will Continue to Drop

   
   

   Online publication Wired published a short piece titled “TikTok is the new TV” earlier this week, sounding alarms to Gen X and boomers everywhere about whether they’ll have to download TikTok in the future to consume 2 minute clips instead of lengthy HBO shows where actors talk at incredibly fast speeds.

   
   

   Cobell Energy, a series from Don’t Look Up director Adam McKay’s Yellow Dot Studios, lands on TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube, cementing the growing power of short-form content. Now, we kind of saw this for a month with Quibi, which launched and folded in less than a year during the pandemic, but this is different, because creators are leveraging existing, super successful platforms.

   
   🥤 Bitesize Take: The trend shows that Gen Z viewers are discovering TV shows in new way, whether they’re watching 2-minute clips of an old movie on Reels, or highlights on their TikTok feed. While we’re all for training our attention spans through reading longer articles, books or consuming 45-minute episodes of shows, those who are below 25 may simply be wired differently.

   
   

   We don’t believe that the future of content will be exclusively short form and tailored for your mobile screen, but content studios will need to experiment with what works, as well as continue to innovate their business models to stay fresh and ahead of the curve.

   
   

Earlier this week, we spent two days at True Digital Park for the annual Corporate Innovation Summit hosted by Rise, a corporation based in Bangkok that works closely with corporates, family businesses, and startups to help scale up innovation initiatives.

The two-day conference, held on 14-15 November, drew hundreds of speakers, both local and global speakers, who flew in to deliver insights, from Google Thailand’s Country Director Jackie Wang, Dr. Santitarn Sathirathai, who was recently appointed to the Bank of Thailand board to Aukrit Unahalekhaka, CEO of Ricult.

BitesizeBKK was also a media partner for the summit.

Beyond panel discussions, the summit held a handful of actionable workshops for attendees, as well as a startup showcase room with local founders showcasing their product.

We learned about several corporates’ mission towards sustainability (a big topic with a lot of goals, but important nonetheless), as well as how countries such as Thailand can leverage collaboration and upskill our workforce to lay the foundation for innovation.

We also listened in on a keynote which talked about how countries like Thailand can emerge as a key player in the “Asia” success story, beyond China.

There’s a lot of work to be done across the region, and for Thailand in particular. However, it’s always inspiring to hear about how companies and innovators are working to drive change at these conferences.

Weekend Checklist

Bitesize’s Weekly Picks

Source: VillaFrantzenBar.jpg / ZaoLarb.jpg / HIDE.jpg

✅ We’re still dreaming of Villa Frantzén Cocktail Bar’s immaculately crafted drinks and elegant yet cosy Nordic barn living room setting, suitable for an apéritif to open up your palette, or for the perfect nightcap. Our favourites include the juicy and tangy ‘Blueberry & Sherry’, and the elevated espresso martini ‘Caramel, Coffeé & Banana’!

✅ We’re always a fan of Zao Ekkamai, and their sister eatery Zao Larb in Thonglor will be cooking up an evolved Ubon-style brunch only on 18 November from 8.30am-2pm onwards. Swap out your avocado toast for some hearty Guay Jub Yuan, Kai Krata, or Khao Kriab Pak Moh.

✅ If you’re in need of a wardrobe refresh, check out HIDE Selected in Ari - a multi-label retail gem to shop chic, curated apparel and accessories by local designers and emerging brands such as Madmatter, Lick and Promise and more!