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Published on November 13, 2007

Chief commercial and operations officer Chatchai Chatchaiganan said transactions this year were expected to total about Bt6 billion - Bt2 billion short of the original target. Spending via the cards has dropped since the second quarter.

"In the first 10 months of the year, transactions totalled Bt5 billion. Spending should be higher in the final two months, because of the festive season, so I estimate that transactions for the full year will be about Bt6 billion," Chatchai said. "Although we'll miss our target, Bt6 billion is still higher than last year's Bt5.1 billion."

Chatchai said the frequency of card use had also declined, from an average four-and-a-half times per month last year to three times per month this year. However, total spending per card had increased from Bt800 to Bt1,200.

He said Smart Purse was launched only last year, for use as a digital cash card. The company spent between Bt400 million and Bt600 million to set up a digital-payment system in more than 4,000 7-Eleven convenience stores throughout the country and in other partner shops. The company believes it will break even in 2010.

"At present, we have 1.6 million cardholders. If we want to earn a profit, the number of cardholders should be 5 million," he said.

Chatchai said the company had installed 9,000 Smart Purse terminals around the Kingdom. Of these, more than 4,200 were in 7-Eleven stores and the rest in Thai Smart Card's other partner shops. The company plans to increase the number of terminals to 15,000 next year.

The company is looking for new partners to expand its business and is targeting schools, universities and chain restaurants. It expects to sign deals with Saint John's University, Saint John's School and other private universities next year.

Its has recently cooperated with North Chiang Mai University (NCU) to launch a smart student-identification card called NCU Smart Purse. The card stores a student's academic records. It can also be used to access the university's computer centre, libraries and classrooms and as a source of digital money for paying tuition fees and making purchases at shops in the university area and central Chiang Mai town.

Thai Smart Card is also collaborating with the private Wachirawit School in Chiang Mai, where each student must use Smart Purse when they purchase food, beverage and stationery items.

"We chose Chiang Mai as a pioneer regional market. The company now has 350 Smart Purse terminals and 32,000 cardholders in Chiang Mai. We're quite impressed with that number and intend to expand our business to other provinces, such as Phuket," Chatchai said.

Thai Smart Card is also negotiating with Thai online game-service provider Asiasoft to become a partner. Asiasoft provides online games to more than 9,000 Internet cafes around the country, 3,000 of which are targets for the Thai Smart Card.

The company recently concluded a deal with S&P restaurants and will install digital-payment systems in 50 of its shops this year. It is also negotiating with the Oishi Group and MK Restaurants and is planning to talk to Thai mobile-phone companies to offer their customers the ability to top-up phone accounts via Smart Purse.

"At present, 80 per cent of our cardholders are 7-Eleven based customers. When we find more partners, we expect to increase the proportion of non 7-Eleven cardholders to 35 per cent," he said.

Nalin Viboonchart, The Nation, Chiang Mai