General manager Phumate Manuphaibul said this week that the company would also once again begin arranging promotions. That activity was suspended for all of this year, due to negative factors like the political turmoil of the first nine months. He said Counter Service was devising a promotion plan, the highlight of which will be a sweepstakes.

The marketing budget for this year is Bt70 million to Bt80 million.

Phumate said the company would allocate Bt40 million to open 750 new payment points, 80 per cent of them in 7-Eleven convenience stores, which are also under the CP Group. The remainder will be at independent locations.

The company on Monday celebrated its 10th anniversary. Over the past decade, it has built up 5,000 payment points nationwide, almost 4,000 of them in 7-Eleven stores.

In honour of the occasion, the company launched its latest service, Money Transfer, which allows people to transfer money nationwide anytime within a 24-hour period using its Seven Value and Chuem Rak (Love Link) cards. People can also use the cards to donate money to 15 different foundations.

Counter Service will also spend Bt60 million next year to continue developing its payment services via the Internet. Phumet sees the Internet as a good marketing channel, with the number of users growing and hourly rates falling.

Counter Service has been offering payment services over the Internet for some time. Ten of its 280 business partners that use Counter Service payment points to collect money from their customers have participated in testing this channel.

Nitida Asawanipont

The Nation