Ministry of ICT urging Thais to use internet more creatively

BANGKOK, 21 May 2015 (NNT)-The Ministry of Information Communication and Technology (ICT) has revealed that Thailand is the world’s 9th largest Facebook user.

Deputy ICT Minister Somboon Mekpaiboonwattana said at a seminar on digital economy that awareness about online threats and creative use of social media should be raised among internet users.

More than 100 participants from the public and private sectors joined the event that is gearing Thailand towards the digital economy.

According to the survey conducted last year, more than 42% of the Thai population used Facebook. The United Nations has also disclosed that the GDP of any nation would grow by 1.3% for every 10% rise in the number of Facebook users in any given country.

The Deputy ICT Minister also said that the current global economy growth is mostly digitally based. The Thai government is trying to lay a foundation for such growth in Thailand to increase the country’s competitiveness in the global market.


-- NNT 2015-05-21

What a bizarre way of looking at stats.

Is it the case that countries with a higher GDP simply have citizens that use Facebook more, or is it the case that GDP rises due to increased Facebook usage, as this article implies?

"The United Nations has also disclosed that the GDP of any nation would grow by 1.3% for every 10% rise in the number of Facebook users in any given country."

Really?

So, if Thailand (or any nation) manages to increase the number of facebook users by 10% and there is no increase in GDP, what recourse do we have against the United Nations?

A cynic might think that the authorities are encouraging Thais to spend all their waking hours on Facebook because it's so much easier to monitor everyone when they are all using the same website....................

Perhaps we should all quit our jobs, use FB more and help the economy. Or a better idea, let's just go to work, forget about our jobs and use FB more. But wait a minute, that's what happens now.

More than 100 participants from the public and private sectors joined the event that is gearing Thailand towards the digital economy.

They should give all grade one students a Chinese tablet PC and the problems are solved.

Just looking at the teachers at my school, who're all updating their fb every day/minute/ hour.

They don't even know how to Google something. The hub of digital nomads.

A couple weeks ago I told my school's IT guy that I had been running on Windows 10 for the last few months. His mouth dropped open and he said "Windows 10?". He didn't even know it existed.

My better half spends most of her spare time exchanging photos and mindless chat with her mates on Facebook. She'll be thrilled to bits to learn she is helping to raise the country's GDP. Personally, I'd rather she had more time for raising my expectations of dinner and a bit of rumpy-pumpy.

Ministry of ICT urging Thais to use internet more creatively

This no doubt will be followed up by an announcement of even more site closures and censorship for the good of the people...well, the coup people anyway.

From my limited perspective, I would think that the high rating is a result of the workforce accessing FB during working hours.

I've checked 7 different sites--none of the top ten lists include Thailand. Then again, one of them said the USA had 982 million FB users (kind of hard when the population is 300 million but okay).

http://www.statista.com/statistics/268136/top-15-countries-based-on-number-of-facebook-users/

Heres a 2015 list

http://top10for.com/top-10-countries-with-highest-number-of-facebook-users-2015/

i don't think you need much of brains or creativity to use facebook

the reason of so many murders, job losses & divorces

waiste of time

what do thai people mean with creative ? see a succesfull shop and then start many business the same around the original one till no-one has a good business anymore ?

How can we be more creative when the Min bans some sites?