Thailand Approves 4 New Cryptocurrency Service Providers

The Thai Securities and Exchange Commission has approved four new crypto business operators to legally operate in the country. In addition to licensing a new crypto exchange, the government has officially approved the country’s first three digital token portals. Meanwhile, new rules, conditions, and procedures have been introduced for digital asset businesses.

Digital Asset Business Operators

Thailand’s Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has officially  approved four new digital asset business operators. Under the country’s  current regulatory framework for digital assets, which covers both  cryptocurrency and digital tokens, a company can apply for a license to  operate an exchange, a broker, or a dealer for cryptocurrency, digital  tokens, or both. Separate licenses are required for cryptocurrency and  digital tokens.

Among the four new digital asset business operators is Bitherb Co. Ltd. The company has received four licenses from the Thai SEC — one for providing a crypto exchange service, one for a digital token exchange service, one for a crypto brokerage service, and one for a digital token brokerage service. According to the commission’s website, the company has not begun operations.

Bitherb Co. Ltd. is a subsidiary of Japanese public company  Remixpoint, which operates a regulated Japanese crypto exchange,  Bitpoint Japan. It is co-founded by Asia Herb Association Bangkok Co.  Ltd. Remixpoint revealed  in February that it had obtained four licenses from the Thai SEC but  the subsidiary had not been added to the SEC’s list of approved digital  asset business operators at the time since its system still needed to be  inspected and validated by the regulator. A representative of Bitpoint  Japan told news.Bitcoin.com at the time that Bitherb “will begin to  operate after [the] SEC inspects the company within 180 days after  license acquisition (by July 30th, 2019).” Bitherb is now listed on the  SEC website as an approved digital asset business operator.

Including Bitherb, Thailand now has four digital asset exchanges, all  of which have been approved for both cryptocurrency and digital tokens.  Three of them — Bitkub Online Co. Ltd. (Bitkub), Bitcoin Co. Ltd. (BX),  and Satang Corporation (Satang Pro) — were approved in January.  Another digital asset operator that has been approved by the Thai SEC  is Coins TH. This company was approved in January to operate as a broker  and a dealer for cryptocurrency.

First 3 Licensed ICO Portals Unveiled

Local media reported  in March that the Thai SEC had approved the country’s first portal for  initial coin offerings (ICOs). However, the commission neither made an  official announcement about the approval nor disclosed the name of the  portal it supposedly approved until now.

The country’s first three SEC-approved ICO portals have now been  added to the commission’s website. They are Longroot (Thailand) Co. Ltd.  (Longroot), T-box (Thailand) Co. Ltd. (T-box), and SE Digital Co. Ltd.  (SE Digital). According to the regulator, none of them have started  operations. Further, the latter two companies still need to have their  systems inspected and validated by the SEC before they can begin  operations.

ICO portals are an integral part of Thailand’s regulatory framework for digital tokens. To sell tokens to the public, the seller must obtain approval from the SEC and the tokens must be sold through an SEC-approved ICO portal. Thailand now has three ICO portals, but no ICO issuer has been approved so far.

In addition, the Thai SEC maintains two lists of “website, tokens, and coins the SEC has advised the public to be careful with any investment solicitations of such entities,” the commission detailed. The first list is for “digital tokens which have not applied or granted approval for offerings.” It comprises 21 names including Onecoin by OFC coin, DB token, ICO by Adventure Hostel Bangkok, and Muay Thai coin. The other list is for “persons and websites relating to digital assets which have not been licensed.” There are currently 18 entries on the list, including Q Exchange, a joint venture between Thai and South Korean companies.

Follow-Up Crypto Regulation

The Thai government’s Fiscal Policy Office has published the SEC’s follow-up regulation entitled “Rules, Conditions, and Procedures for Digital Asset Businesses.” It will go into effect on Jan. 1, 2020.

Among the rules set forth in this document is the capital  requirements for digital asset businesses. For example, operators  holding customer assets must generally maintain daily liquid capital of  at least 15 million baht [~$485,572] and at least 5% of the customer’s  asset value. The percentage requirement is lower if some of the assets  are kept in cold storage. Digital asset exchanges that do not hold  customer assets must maintain capital of at least 5 million baht.

Thailand enacted two royal decrees to regulate crypto assets on May 14 last year — the Royal Decree on the Digital Asset Businesses B.E. 2561 and the Royal Decree of the Amendment to the Revenue Code. The latter imposes levies on income derived from cryptocurrency and digital tokens. Prior to any token offerings, the issuers must obtain approval from the SEC and “the registration statement and draft prospectus shall be filed with the SEC office,” the government explained.

In March, the Thai SEC announced that four cryptocurrencies had been approved: BTC, ETH, XRP, and XLM.  They can be legally used for investments in ICOs and as base trading  pairs against other cryptocurrencies. This list replaces the previous  one announced in June last year. However, approval does not make these  coins legal tender, the regulator clarified.

Sunisa Thamphiban, Assistant Director of the Legal and Development Department at the Thai SEC, emphasized at a public seminar on July 11 that “the Digital Asset Act” aims to “supervise the middleman that will act as an intermediary in the exchange of digital assets.” She elaborated that they must comply with all of the requirements set by the SEC and the Office of the Anti-Money Laundering Committee in order to “prevent the use of digital assets for money laundering.”

What do you think of the way Thailand regulates cryptocurrency? Let us know in the comments section below.

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LineMan App: A door to door delivery solution like no other

Line, a popular messaging service app decided to launch a door to delivery app in 2016. Line Man app currently operates in Bangkok, and it was a joint venture of Line and Lalamove, a logistic company, whose motorcycles are used to make deliveries around the city. The app allows users to order food, deliveries from local convenience stores, and parcels.

The app has seen a whopping 300% growth in service usage since its launch. According to Lineman numbers, it attracts around 1.5 million users per month. LIne Man app also provides ride-hailing services in the Bangkok city, which has also seen massive growth, and Line is looking to expand its services in other provinces as well in this year. Managing director of Line, Ariya Banomyong, believes that this app is made for local people of Thailand by the people of Thailand. He also added that Line is looking to cover more industries as the competition intensifies in coming years.

Five in one app to provide useful services:

Users have access to 5 services when they use the Line Man app which includes; 1. Food delivery from local restaurants, 2. Parcel delivery around the city. 3. Ride-hailing service to the local people. 4. Goods shopping service from local convenience stores. 5. Messenger Express delivery in 24 hours around the city.

 

User-friendly interface

Line Man, being an on-demand service app, has a very intuitive user-interface, and has a magnificent navigation system, which allows keeping track of live orders, Line Man also has a comprehensive ecosystem for payments, ordering, and delivery which makes the app more accessible to users.

 

Promoting E-Payment for services

Currently, most heavily used service from Line Man is food delivery, and most people use cash to pay for the service, but Line Man is promoting e-payment method for transactions. According to Ariya, by the end of this year, Line Man plans to develop these five services further and launch new services as well.

 

Collaborating with different organizations to provide better services.

Collaborating with other businesses has been the key to success for Line Man. The Line Man has collaboration with Wongnai app, which has almost 10,000 restaurants in its database from which Line Man app users can order their food. Line Man uses Lalamove’s vehicles to deliver food and parcels. Managing director of Line, Ariya Banomyong in believes that in future LINE would partner up with many local businesses to provide more services of daily need to local people. Line has also been successful in creating jobs for local people around the country, which ultimately helps in the country’s economic expansion. Line Man also has collaboration with Thai Post, Alpha Fast, and Ninjavan.

 

Competition from International companies

Since Uber sold its services of Southeast countries to Grab, a Malaysia based company, Lineman has faced fierce competition from them.

Lineman has shown robust resilience not to let a big company like Grab to capture their local market. Managing director of Line, Ariya Banomyong believes that Line will grow its user base more than 100% in this year and also added that a strong foundation is what makes them above their competitors. Line messaging app, their main product has around 44 million users in Thailand, which also gives them a slight advantage over their competitors, as people of Thailand are already aware of Line they are most likely to use its by-product for other services as well. According to Ariya, Line Man is currently looking to expand their userbase rather than raise monetization. Line Man has helped to bring more business to small and medium enterprises, which has enabled them to raise their standards and grow in the market.

Get, a relatively new food delivering an app which is backed by the Indonesian unicorn start-up Go-Jek. It also has the potential to grow up to become a substantial competitor to both Grab and Line Man.

 Using Line Man as a personal assistant service

According to Ariya, people use Line Man not just for the five services that they provide but also for their personal services like booking a table at the pub, buying things or booking tickets for a concert and all other things, of course, this happens with mutual trust between assigned Line Man and user. Line Man management people told marketingoops.com that we did not expect people to use Line Man for these services and it was surprising to them, even though Line Man do not authorize these services, but they see a vast potential to grow in this field in the future and maybe make some of these services available to all users.

 

The growing market for Online-to-Offline service in Thailand

Line Man reached a million users in just two years of operations, providing that most of the services offered by them are only available for Bangkok people, this tells that there is a high demand for online to offline services in Thailand and Line Man has been capturing it by expanding. Thailand’s e-commerce is highly dependent on social commerce, according to Bangkokpost.com, Thailand’s e-commerce market was worth 3.1 billion dollars(US) and in which social commerce contributed 51% and 49% came from e-market.

Social commerce consumers in Thailand are three times more, in comparison with the global number of 16%. Food delivery apps have been around for many years in Thailand, but they only focus on a few thousands and restaurants, in a way, Line Man was the first to explore this territory. Line Man currently has as many as ten times more restaurants on their app as compared to their competitors. Users can even order street food from the Line Man app, which no other food delivery apps allow in Thailand.

 

Strategy to cover Southeast Asia market in coming years

Line Man has seen significant growth in the past few years, but their services are only available in Bangkok and other parts of Thailand. Line Man has the potential to dominate the Southeast Asia market as Line messaging app is already a hit in that area. Ariya, Managing Director, has already announced to expand their services to countries like South Korea, Japan, and Indonesia, which account for almost 70% of the total Line’s users. Line Man is still in the early stage and exploring in new provinces to reach out to more users. So far, Line Man has successfully managed to build a solid base in Thailand, especially in Bangkok, where they ran a pilot project for the five-in-one service app.

Line messaging app might not be trendy in western countries but has a massive userbase in Asian countries, initially launched in Japan during the 2011 earthquake and tsunami, it since has reached to a large number of people in countries like Thailand, South Korea, Philippines, and Indonesia, and same case could happen with its by-product Line Man.

According to many experts, this app is on its way of becoming the next big thing in Southeast and Asian countries, with increasing demand in delivering apps and rising competition, Line Man has to keep one step ahead to continue to grow at the rate they are going right now.

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