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Thai Portal integrates multimedia— The Nation
October 10, 2000

BANGKOK (The Nation) - Thai Portal, the operator of the Thailand.com portal website, is offering a new experience to Internet users worldwide, giving them access to Thailand-related information and news through the full integration of multimedia technology.

The company is planning to launch the latest in multimedia broadcasting services, allowing visitors to the Thailand.com site to either watch online TV programmes from the Nation Channel or listen to radio programmes.

Thai Portal is a subsidiary of the Nation Multimedia Group (NMG), which is the publisher of The Nation and Krungthep Turakit newspapers and the producer of TV and radio programmes under the Nation Channel and Nation Radio.

It is, therefore, able to integrate local content from various media within the group and offer them to Internet users of the site, said NGM's chairman and chief executive officer Thanachai Theerapatvong.

With the full integration of various kinds of content, he said Internet users could search for text-based information and news, watch television programmes and listen to the radio - all at just a click of a mouse.

Thai Portal is currently testing the broadcasting of television programmes from the Nation Channel on the Internet. It is expected that such a service will be available to Net users by the end of this month.

"Internet users will be able to watch TV programmes in both Thai and English language in real time," Thanachai said.

The broadcasting of TV programmes is just the first step in the planned multimedia integration at the Thailand.com site, as the company is also bringing a radio channel to the Web, thus offering users an alternative means of absorbing content. This represents another way to help the company provide more valueadded services to the site.

Thanachai said Thai Portal would initially broadcast Nation Radio's programmes on the website, but it also planned to produce more radio programmes covering, for example, educational content at a later date. "We're now in the integration process, and hope that the service will be completed and launched within the next two months," he noted.

The various integration moves are expected to make Thailand.com a window for information about the country, offering a place where Internet users can find anything they want to know about the Kingdom.

Thailand.com also plans to offer Net users a free e-mail account, under username@thailand.com. The service will be available by the end of the month.

Apart from the information side, Thai Portal is still acting as an e-commerce hub for exports and tourism, said Sermsin Samalapa, the company's president.

Last week, the company launched a travel information section, enabling potential visitors to search for tourism information on Thailand and plan their trip accordingly. Importantly, visitors are able to make flight, hotel and car rental reservations online through the site.

"They can do everything from here at just a click of a mouse, and they will find that their trip to Thailand is an interesting one," Sermsin noted.

Potential tourists can also customize their own package tour online. They can input their requirements, including budget and the time available for traveling, and the company will help them find an appropriate package that meets their needs.

Currently, Thai Portal has over 300 hotels and five leading travel agencies, as well as leading car rental companies such as Budget, as alliance partners.

Sermsin said Thailand.com was now providing more than 2,000 pages of travel information, covering tourist destinations, maps, essential information for tourists, special travel tips, adventure tourism, and a hotel, resort and restaurant directory. It plans to add more information to the site, and hopes to have 10,000 pages by the end of the month.

The portal site previously launched an export section, offering a complete range of information to allow Thai manufacturers to open a new channel to conduct business globally. Some 300 exporters are currently participating in the site, generating around Bt50 million in revenue transactions.

Meanwhile, Thai Portal is seeking an international strategic partner to join in its operations. It is talking with several dot.com companies, such as MeetChina.com, Yahoo, China.com and Lycos, with a view to jointly building a dot.com business.

Thanachai said he expected a deal to be concluded within the next few months.

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