Internet Business

[trackx]

Hello,

My name is Marco from Belgium and i am 32 years old, I am married with a Thai lady and we have a son of 4 years old

I m analyst programer specialized in web technology with 10 years up of experiences

These last 5 years i have worked specially of building Content management system and on eHR plateform (payroll, automatics recruitment process...) specially in .NET

I am actualy analyse and writing on paper an internet information/business project regrouping several services

The idea of the project is to regroup information about an area, an area could be a continent, a country, a district,.... each area will inherite data of his children area

Each area can have several website with different content, different domain name and sure different design with the aim of be on the top of search engine with only one aplication

In a first time the area developped will be the Thailand and all his main area (Main website and children website).

The websites will offer informations about Thailand and his area, a booking system, social network sharing (facebook,...), hotel/area review (like tripadvisor) and user interaction with all services

I m conscious that there are many website already offer such services (sawadee.com, asiawebdirect, agoda, booking.com, tripadvisor...) but i don't see or i don't know a plate form who offers these services in all in one packages

I m also conscious that is a big project and it can takes several months to be accomplished.

If the project is financialy possible and accomplished we will plan to setup a limited company with my thai wife spouse as Travel Agent (with one or two workers and one million bht capital)

So We need an e-commerce licence, TAT licence, VAT licence and ebooking suppliers access

I have several questions about the cost and some other points any advise will be helpfull.

Is it possible to stay in Belgium and continue our actual jobs after company setup ? (We dont wan't take the risk to loose all if the project fails, we don't search to make money with the company only some revenue who permit to live in Thailand and pay the study of our son)

Have you an idea about the cost of all licence ?

I have some difficulties to find Thailand contacts of hotels suppliers offer Multi GDS webservices in OTA format (Open Travel Alliance) Can you advise me ? (very important for the business plan)

Is it a good idea the present the project to TAT ?

We will be in Thailand next January and i will have a full analyse on paper of the project...

Any advise would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance

Marco

[Sunbelt Asia]

It is recommended that you do open a company in Thailand with your wife as a major shareholder and as Director so that you can apply for a TAT license and then an e-commerce site. If you were to run your business from Belgium but take payments and do business in Thailand without such a company set up you may run into problems in the future and be considered to be violating the Labor Act. Additionally, many hotels may require your business to be recognized by the Thai government before they will do business with you.

Since you wish to work in Thailand in the future, it is best that you establish a Thai limited company so that you can obtain a work permit further down the line. Your wife, as director of the company would apply for the TAT license and then the e-commerce license.

Hotels and accommodation aren't our specialty but once you start working with the TAT they may be able to help you with hotel contacts. Alternatively, we also have a department at Sunbelt Asia that charges a 5,000 Baht a day professional fee and can research anything you like. info (at) sunbeltasia.com

[sunbelt][/sunbelt]