Index Creative Village is developing a dog website and a TV reality show to cash in on the growing canine market.
Co-chief executive officers Kriengkarn and Kreingkrai Kanjanapokin yesterday said the website and reality show would form part of the company's TV and Multimedia portfolio.
The company wants to cash in the booming trend in all segments, notably the country's ageing society and gay society, but it opted to develop content for dog lovers first because of the rapid growth of the local market.
According to the Office of Small and Medium Enterprises Promotion, the overall Thai pet market is valued at Bt10.5 billion.
About 47 per cent of the total is accounted for by food and the remainder by pet medical treatment, services and accessories.
Kreingkrai said pet food posted 20 per cent sales growth in the first quarter of the year despite the political and economic uncertainties.
"The figure for the pet nonfood category is very interesting for Index in developing new business content by putting the relationship between owner and dog via content in the online, on air and 'on ground' formats," he said.
Index is developing www.doggang.com, a website that is also designed for mobile applications to tap customers who are into social networking. The site will be launched in September.
The company is also developing the country's first dog reality show, "The Dog Master", which is expected to air via free TV in the final quarter of the year. Onground dog activities will be seen next year.
Kreingkarn said the company is negotiating with TV stations over content for the programme. The company has allocated Bt5 million for developing the two forms of content.
The dog website and reality show are its second new business model, having successfully held robot shows. The coCEOs said the company would launch another new business model by the end of the year.
Index's TV and multimedia activities generated revenue of Bt9.75 million in the first half, down from Bt15.51 million over the same period in 2009.
The company believes the canine market is an opportunity to boost TV and multimedia revenue in the second half as well as event organising, said Kreingkrai.
Even though the eventmarketing industry in the first half was affected by the political unrest, Index's revenue from the sector grew by 32 per cent to Bt996.16 million from Bt752 million a year earlier.
The company is confident it can meet its annual revenue target of Bt1.8 billion.
While event marketing in the second half is expected to improve, the overall market this year will drop by nearly 10 per cent due to the recent political turmoil.