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00:00I mean, give us a sense of how energy prices, high energy prices, impact, you know, the economics of food
00:07delivery as well as logistics.
00:09Yeah, I think today it hasn't, you know, impacted yet as the government is still stabilizing the fuel price.
00:16I think there are really some inconvenience in queuing to get the fuel in Thailand.
00:23But so far, I think the oil price hasn't increased locally yet.
00:26But when it does increase, which I think it will, we are taking a look closely on how it will
00:32impact the fuel costs of our riders.
00:35We have more than hundreds of more than 100,000 riders working for us.
00:39So if that happens, then I think we'll do something to help, you know, the burden of the riders.
00:46So what are some of these contingency plans that may be put in place if oil prices were to rise?
00:51I think we calculated quickly on the back of the paper, maybe it will increase the cost per trip, maybe
00:58two or three baht.
01:00So part of that will subsidize to the riders.
01:03But then admittedly, I think some of that cost may also impact the consumers as well.
01:09How will that eventually impact business, you think, in terms of demand for those rides if, you know, prices continue
01:16to rise?
01:18I think it will impact food delivery a little bit.
01:21I think there could be less demands as fuel price increase and then consumers may see an increase of the
01:27delivery fee.
01:28But at the same time, the fact that maybe not just fuel prices increase, but other food costs increase as
01:35well.
01:35People may save costs, stay home and order more food delivery too.
01:39I'm just wondering whether what's happening in Iran is helping to shape the way you think about the future.
01:47Might you be pushing through electric vehicles instead of, you know, motorbikes that rely on fossil fuel?
01:54Of course, I think we have been doing electric vehicles initiative since, I think, two years ago.
01:59I think we have more than 1,000 cars working for us who are electric vehicles.
02:05And at the same time, we have been pushing electric bikes into the market too.
02:08So that will definitely help.
02:10And in terms of how current developments, geopolitical developments are impacting the way you look at your IPO, where are
02:17you with that?
02:18Yeah, I think we are at a stage of considering different venues.
02:22I think Thailand, of course, I think Singapore as well, Hong Kong as well as NASDAQ in the U.S.
02:29I think these are the options that we are considering.
02:31I think we are considering not just, of course, geopolitics, but also the liquidity in that market as well as
02:38the support that we have from the market too.
02:41So if you're talking about liquidity, then the U.S. market makes sense.
02:44That seems to me the most liquid market right now.
02:46So would New York be the first choice or, I mean, what's the thinking on that?
02:50It's one of the preferred choice, I think.
02:52Of course, there are other considerations that we have to consider before we make our decisions.
02:57Such as?
02:58Yeah.
02:58Such as, I think, the size of the fundraising, that we have fundraising amount, whether or not that makes sense
03:06to go into the U.S., whether or not the regulatory environments or geopolitical are actually supportive to us going
03:14to the U.S.
03:15or not.
03:15You're in Singapore.
03:17You're backed by GIC, the sovereign wealth fund in the country.
03:20Is there a lot of pressure for you to IPO in Singapore?
03:24There are always some pressure, but at the same time, I think we are an entrepreneur that works with multiple
03:31stakeholders, not just one stakeholder.
03:33So I think we do what's best for the company, employees and also shareholders.
03:37So what's the plan for the funds that you will be raising through your IPO?
03:41I think we are, of course, our main business are profitable already.
03:48So I think this is more for like future businesses, M&As and other expansion.
03:53And what future businesses are you interested in?
03:56I think we are diversifying from food.
03:58I think we are the only player that has, you know, all the deep ecosystem in Thailand, not just food
04:05delivery, but also the POS, B2B businesses and also the fintech in Thailand.
04:10So having those deep rooted ecosystem, I think that's something we are executing.
04:16And then with, you know, fundraising, I think we'll do more business in Thailand.
04:20I think that's our first choice.
04:21So what exactly would you be investing in?
04:24Are you looking for perhaps acquisitions to help you grow and perhaps expand in a more accelerated way?
04:31Yeah, acquisitions are always in the cart.
04:35I think we have been doing a lot of deals throughout the years to give us opportunities to expand to
04:41new businesses.
04:42They were supplying from food, such as going into the telepharmacy business.
04:46That's something we see as an opportunity.
04:49But we also see a very high growth in the grocery business as well as people are doing more quick
04:54commerce in Thailand.
04:55What kind of growth are you anticipating?
04:57We are looking at, you know, close to 100% year-on-year growth in the mart or grocery business.
05:05And that's from a low base?
05:05Yeah, that's from, you know, we have grown already, you know, two times last year.
05:09So I think it's just the base is quite sizable.
05:12And that pace is sustainable going forward.
05:14Is there enough demand for you to see that kind of growth going forward?
05:17I think so.
05:17I think right now we are mainly working, operating on the urban cities.
05:22I think there are more opportunities to expand to other parts of Thailand.
05:25You talked about how you are intending to expand within Thailand.
05:29How about the overseas market?
05:30How attractive is it?
05:31And what are your considerations when thinking about being a global player as opposed to be a local player?
05:38I think our mission is to help digitalize Thailand.
05:43So I think that remains our base case.
05:46Expanding overseas are something we keep an eye on and look at.
05:50At the same time, we will only execute that if the timing is right.
05:54And of course, maybe there's an M&A opportunity to open up.
05:58So is it a 10-year horizon before you start looking at, you know, expanding overseas?
06:03It could be a five-year horizon.
06:05Yeah.
06:05And how long do you think you'll take to get to where you want to be within the Thai market?
06:12I would say most of the things that we want to do, expanding and diversify in the business,
06:18I think within two or three years, we should see quite a sizable, you know, diversification other than food delivery.
06:25Right now, we're seeing the Thai currency getting impacted by a strong dollar.
06:31We're also seeing an economy that is growing rather sluggishly.
06:35Is that impacting consumer demand?
06:37Have you seen changes in the way consumers consume your services?
06:42It does impact.
06:44I think macro always, of course, whether we have a tailwind or a headwind on the macro side, it impacts
06:51the business a little bit.
06:52But food delivery, on-demand services and payment business that we are doing are still growing strong.
06:59I think we expect to grow around 20% year on year to this year.
07:03We expect to reach around $660 million USD in revenue this year with, of course, I've been that positive since
07:10last year.
07:11So I think regardless of the macro, I think food delivery, other businesses that we are doing are still growing
07:17strong.
07:18Because I think we are working with local consumptions and also our services are quite attracted to the mass.
07:26So it's not expensive to order food delivery with us in Thailand.
07:29Of course, we know that the Thai government is intending to help support consumption, provide incentives for the consumers.
07:38Would that provide a boost? Is that what you're anticipating?
07:42Yeah, I think we are one of the players and the key players who work closely with the state in
07:48order to, you know, of course, boost consumption in Thailand.
07:52Like, for example, quarter four last year, we worked closely with the government on the half-half campaign or called
07:57the Korean campaign that has been quite successful boosting the GDP to, I think, 2.5% in the quarter
08:03four.
08:04Food delivery, it's a main part of the economy now.
08:07And I think we look forward to work even more closely with the government going forward.
08:11It is a sector that is ripe for tech adoption, AI in particular.
08:17How are you embracing AI into your business?
08:20Oh, we actually have been doing a lot.
08:23I will separate it into predictive AI, which are, like, for example, what we use for distribution algorithm, cooking time
08:31prediction, recommendations and stuff like that.
08:34We have been working on that since, I think, five, six years ago, but now we are also adopting the
08:40generative AI, which are more like the large language models in different parts of the business, both internal workflows like
08:48the customer services, the sales team, the development teams.
08:52Also, externally, to our main products, I think, on our merchant application, for example, now the merchants can chat with
09:00our AI agents in order to, you know, get recommendations, get bundle recommendations, create menus, for example.
09:07It is a technology that's advancing really, really quickly.
09:10You know, as you think about AI impacting the business in three to five years, how do you see AI
09:17reshaping your business and the way your writers actually adopt the technology?
09:23It is actually, I don't think anyone can predict what will happen five years from now within the AI space.
09:31But the space will continue to get disrupted.
09:33It will continue to get disrupted.
09:35I think in all parts of the business, I think we'll be ready to actually adopt the changes as it
09:42comes.
09:43I think not just the writer side, but also consumer side, the motion side, the writer side, and within the
09:48company.
09:49I think we are an AI-driven company.
09:51We are the fast adopter of the AIs.
09:53And then we are also quite confident in, you know, adopting new technology as it comes.
09:59Right now, for example, I think there are in other countries, the AI platforms already connect to food delivery.
10:06For example, in China, I went to China and people can order food within AI.
10:10But actually, consumer behavior haven't shifted to that yet.
10:14Even though it's available, it takes a while before consumers, you know, shift to that behavior.
10:20People talk about AI and they talk about productivity boost.
10:24How much of a productivity boost have you seen so far?
10:27I would say around 30% as I, you know, talk to my teams, both on the engineering side and
10:35also on the, you know, general works.
10:37Most people cited around 30% of productivity increase.
10:42Of course, that's on the individual level.
10:45But as at a company level, I think we have to also find other bottlenecks to, you know, improve in
10:51order to get the end-to-end productivity or throughput of 30%.
10:55So I think we are in the process of doing that.
10:58For example, our codes are already more than 30% written by AIs already.
11:03But the throughput is a bit less than that because there are other bottlenecks along the way.
11:08For example, code reviews and also other processes.
11:12So I think we have to, you know, like improve those processes in order to get the throughput productivity of
11:1730%.
11:17Okay.
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