However, Thailand still has opportunities for expanding the publishing market, it is expected that in the year 2008, the market value will reach 19.2 billion baht or around 600 million US dollars. A possible downside in 2008 stem from economic issues such as the fluctuation of oil prices or the rising inflation. Some interesting figures regarding the publishing business:

Table 1 Numbers of publishers and bookstores in Thailand

Note:   * registered members of PUBAT
** From Se-ed Bookstore’s report

           These figures show a steady increase in the numbers of publishers and bookstores in Thailand, during the years 2003 to 2006. However, the number of publishers dropped slightly in 2007. The overall increase over the 5 years was 31.2%. The number of bookstores increased from 678 in 2003 to 955 in 2006, and to 1,913 in 2007. The overall increase over the 5 years being 182%. The introduction of “Book Smile” in the 7-11 chain stores in 2007 has contributed mainly to the dramatic increase in 2007.

Table 2 Trend of numbers of publishers categorized by size (revenue)

Note:   *Revenue=more than 100 million baht
**Revenue=more than 30 million baht
***Revenue=less than 30 million baht

           While the number of small publishing houses has dropped, the number of medium and large publishing houses has increased 13.4% between 2006 to 2007, due to their expansion.

Table 3 Revenue of publishing houses in Thailand

           In 2007, all categories of publishing houses in Thailand gained higher incomes, in comparison to the figures of the previous years. The revenues of the medium and large publishing houses witnessed a dramatic increase of 87.8% over the 5 year period.

Table 4 Numbers of new titles launched from 2003 to 2007

           The number of new titles increased steadily from 2003 to 2005, dropped in 2006, but recovered ground in 2007.

Table 5 Numbers of titles launched per publisher from 2003 to 2007

These figures show that publishers now have a tendency to publish fewer titles, being more selective to publish only titles that they feel will be popular with the reading public.

Table 6 Book Revenue VS Gross Domestic Product (in baht)

           According to these figures, in comparison with the GDP of the Thai economy, the book business in Thailand is insignificant.  Therefore, the ups and downs of the economy do not have much impact on book sales. Books in particular, are not considered a luxury item.  The most important factors influencing the book business in Thailand seems to be the government’s education policy, the human development policy, the publishers’ own creative abilities, the efficient book management, and the strength of the networking in the book business.

Table 7 Amount of money spent on books (per head)

           Even though the GDP fell between the years of 2006 to 2007, the amount of money spent on books actually increased.

Table 8 Numbers of population VS bookstores

           There is a very small number of bookstores compared to the total population of Thailand, as shown above. However, as mentioned earlier, the introduction of in the 7-11 outlets in 2007 has helped to redress the balance.