Swankier Pantip Plaza faces testing “new” IT market

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EDITORIAL

Swankier Pantip Plaza faces testing “new” IT market

The Nation 

 

Reopened mall must balance evolution and the old values that made it famous

 

BANGKOK: -- Pantip Plaza in Pratunam used to be known as a poor man's computer paradise. Not any more. The place now has a new, sparkling look, bigger parking lot and revised business concept featuring squeaky-clean shops and restaurants. All of the changes will test the developer's belief that Thailand's information technology evolution has reached the point where the market is far bigger than it once was.

It's a little ironic to say that most customers in the IT market are now those with little or zero knowledge about mother-boards, hard drives, RAM or drivers. Before it was closed down for renovation, Pantip was a must-go place if you were streetwise computer geeks who knew all that stuff inside and out and didn't want to spend obscene money on brand-name products.

Pantip Plaza's regular visitors went there by bus or taxi, many carrying desk-top computers that they put together themselves with the help of shop attendants that treated customers like misbehaving children.

The good old days are long gone. The Pantip developer's unspoken idea is that the IT market is no longer for computer geeks, and that the "old setting" of Pantip might be scaring away a lot of potential customers, who were intimidated or turned off by large volumes of interior computer parts on display, shop windows strewn with printed papers advertising their "specifications", and vendors who probably suited flea markets better.

In many ways, the developer's assumption is right. The Pantip of old fell victim to the fast growth of the IT market.

Everyone, with or without "high-tech" knowledge, now wants to try new mobile phones or computer tablets, and "applications" are making things that used to be so out-of-this-world difficult simple enough. If Pantip Plaza continued to cater to the geeks, the place could lose out to emerging new competitors.

But the trick is how to strike a balance. While the transforming market has warranted the new business concept, the management of the shopping complex will have to rely on the very same thing that made Pantip Plaza popular - its reputation as an unrivalled playground of high-tech enthusiasts, whether they are rich or poor. If that reputation is gone, the renovated Pantip could have a shorter life span than an Adobe version.

Nostalgia aside, the old Pantip was a place that bred know-how and created talent. Many shop workers earned expertise that could not be taught in schools or universities. Some went on to have better lives. A lot of customers, in learning to chop and change or plug and play, became some sort of experts themselves. This "value" of the old Pantip Plaza might not be yielding tangible business 
benefits, but it's a great value all the same.

The new Pantip Plaza stems from business necessities. Yet the old one also reflected the IT landscape of its day, although it had its flaws, like the nightmarish parking area. The old Pantip gave customers, shop attendants and fledging business owners great learning experiences, something that beautiful sales uniforms and glittering shelves displaying glamorous brand names may not be able to match.

It's a big challenge how the new Pantip Plaza can keep the "soul" of the old one. If it can't, it will be just one of the IT malls that are sprouting up everywhere. If it can, Pantip Plaza Pratunam will be able to hold a special status in the fast-developing IT market.

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/opinion/Swankier-Pantip-Plaza-faces-testing-new-IT-market-30294513.html

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2016-09-05

[yellowboat]

It was a very positive place before smart phones.

[alfalfa19]

That's a nice story, but I'm wondering if this new improved Pantip still includes the gang of insistent cockroaches selling porn dvds at the entrance?  Also, although Pantip was one of my favorite stops in Bkk, it wasn't for hardware. 

[tominbkk]

Back in the day it had a bit of a monopoly on IT gear.  Now there are so many choices that are much better.  I live in N. Bangkok, and there are 2-3 places much closer for me to shop at.  I'm sure there is nothing there that I can't get at a closer shop.  I'm sure that is true for most people in Bangkok.

[sharecropper]

Definitely less porn being proffered, but the place is soulless now, and I wonder if many selling in there will be able to survive.

 

It may just be the economy and tourist slowdown (of former buyer types, I mean), but the place usually seems dead.

[matador007]

Some pictures of this new "swankyness" ?

Would be nice to go along with the article... words can only do so much.

[Boon Mee]

The Pantip building on Nam Wong Wan is still a hive of 'old style' IT activity.

Prefer it much more than the one in Pratunam.

[JSixpack]

1 hour ago, tominbkk said:

Back in the day it had a bit of a monopoly on IT gear.  Now there are so many choices that are much better.  I live in N. Bangkok, and there are 2-3 places much closer for me to shop at.  I'm sure there is nothing there that I can't get at a closer shop.  I'm sure that is true for most people in Bangkok.

 

Yep. But there was nothing like the old Panthip. I'll always have fond memories of the place. The only constant is change, eh.

[Lupatria]

But they won't go that far to sell genuine licensed products- do they?

[mesterm]

1 hour ago, sharecropper said:

It may just be the economy and tourist slowdown (of former buyer types, I mean), but the place usually seems dead.

 

Yes the place is really empty these days.

[ddavidovsky]

I used to go down the computer malls every week when I had a tower PC to maintain, but the days of the constant upgrade are  over. A laptop can now do everything and lasts for ages. I have hardly made a significant computer purchase in the last five years. Peripherals, I order from AliExpress - no more hopeless hours trudging round Pantip looking for things they don't have, such as a silent mouse, or a USB hub that actually works.

 

Tawanna computer market in Bangkapi used to be most intense place in Bangkok. They moved it up the road to a new 'Pantip' but  it was always dead and its days are now surely numbered. I won't be visiting the  new Pantip and I expect it will eventually go the same way.

[nickcar]

4 hours ago, Boon Mee said:

The Pantip building on Nam Wong Wan is still a hive of 'old style' IT activity.

Prefer it much more than the one in Pratunam.

 

I would be very happy if you could give detail of where this is. I.e close to bts or other easy transport etc. 

 

Also anybody else who knows of old style pantip type places. 

 

I loved the old pantip. Used to build a new computer from parts bought there every 3 or 4 years. 

[scorecard]

Come on 'the Nation' where's some photos. Poor reporting.

[Boon Mee]

54 minutes ago, nickcar said:

 

I would be very happy if you could give detail of where this is. I.e close to bts or other easy transport etc. 

 

Also anybody else who knows of old style pantip type places. 

 

I loved the old pantip. Used to build a new computer from parts bought there every 3 or 4 years. 

Not too close to any BTS  train unfortunately but only 2 blocks east of the tollway overpass.  Same tollway one takes to Changwattana. Lots of bus traffic along Nam Won Wan though.

Approximately where Nam Wong Wan becomes Rattanatibbit if that helps! 

 

It's a huge building on the left hand side of the street as you're traveling east. - approx 9 floors tall.  

Edited September 5, 2016 by Boon Mee

[Thian]

I went to Pantip ngamwongwan for a Raspberry pi, nobody speaks english and they also have never heard of it nor any other minicomputer.

 

Then i wanted to buy ordinary electric wire, no hab...

 

Soon the new phantip will be a tshirt or budha-statue market as well. Laptops are sold in every mall these days and as long as they can't spea inlit i won't buy anything from them. Banggood.com is great for buying electronics.

[DLang]

Are the touts still there offering hardcord porn at the top of each escalator?

[Thian]

13 minutes ago, DLang said:

Are the touts still there offering hardcord porn at the top of each escalator?

 

They were also at the bottom of the escalator and as soon as i entered the building they started pulling my arms.

 

Why not move Ban Mor to phantip? It's very hard to go there and the only place in BKK for electronics. I don't like chinatown at all, can't walk there and there's no place to sit/rest/eat.

[siam2007]

12 hours ago, Father Fintan Stack said:

The revamped Pantip is a busted flush I'm afraid. 

 

A poor runner-up to other IT malls such as Fortune which along with the IT stuff has other interesting shops. Panthip is clinging on to a reputation it no longer deserves.

 

Still, we'll always have the Loso song to bring back memories of the old place, with its fantastic food court and the old khao soi woman. 

 

 

Fortune has always been my place to go since a decade (and even today they still have some nice Vinyl records shops), but the new Pantip will for sure find its place as Pratunam is the no.1 hot spot for Asian tourists

[dbrenn]

Shame. I bought my first computer from Pantip back in 1996. It was always going wrong and my determination to keep tweaking and fixing it set me on course for a successful career in the IT industry. One thing led to another and I became a citizen of Thailand and Australia thanks to all the IT skills that I learned. 

 

All dumbed down now, just like cars that we can't service ourselves anymore. At least we now have time to play Pokemon. 

[bendejo]

20 hours ago, tominbkk said:

Back in the day it had a bit of a monopoly on IT gear.  Now there are so many choices that are much better.  I live in N. Bangkok, and there are 2-3 places much closer for me to shop at.  I'm sure there is nothing there that I can't get at a closer shop.  I'm sure that is true for most people in Bangkok.

 

I agree.  Used to be the go-to place, now it is the pain in the ass to get to place, not that near to a BTS/MRT and the traffic -- ever seen the westbound traffic on Phetchaburi Road between 4 and 7 pm?  Contrast that to Fortune, which is right on the MRT and has a Tesco in the basement.

 

 

[brianinbangkok]

Last trip to Pantip this year was in May, it feels kinda empty.
Main thing gone seems to be the illegal software shops.
In the past I regularly visited the both Pantips and Zeer IT finding cheap parts to upgrade the desktops.

Something of the past I guess only upgrades on laptops now is add memory or put in a SSD .
Pantip has to go with the times I guess however I hope it can find a way of being the place to go for IT.

[tominbkk]

On 9/5/2016 at 10:01 AM, Father Fintan Stack said:

The revamped Pantip is a busted flush I'm afraid. 

 

A poor runner-up to other IT malls such as Fortune which along with the IT stuff has other interesting shops. Panthip is clinging on to a reputation it no longer deserves.

 

Still, we'll always have the Loso song to bring back memories of the old place, with its fantastic food court and the old khao soi woman. 

Yeah that food court was good!