TikTok Tells the Bangkok Post Forum That Creators Are Driving a 'Discovery Economy'

Speaking at the Bangkok Post's 80th-anniversary forum in mid-August 2026, Chanida Klyphun, TikTok's Director of Southeast Asia Public Policy, argued that Thailand can capitalise on a “discovery economy”. The Bangkok Post reported her remarks on 17 August. Everything below is TikTok's account of itself, reported by a newspaper, and should be read that way.

What “discovery commerce” means

Chanida described a change in how people buy. Instead of searching for a product, comparing options and then purchasing, consumers increasingly discover, validate and buy within a single online experience. Her example was a traveller planning a weekend who finds a hidden cafe through a creator, watches reviews, reads comments, saves the location and decides to visit within minutes. Extended beyond products to travel, food and experiences, she said, this becomes a wider discovery economy.

Why Thailand, according to TikTok

Chanida argued that Thailand does not need to copy its regional competitors. She contrasted Singapore's global connectivity, Vietnam's manufacturing momentum and Indonesia's scale with Thailand's recognised strengths in tourism, food, wellness, hospitality and culture, all areas where creators already work. The Bangkok Post reports that research by TikTok and Accenture projects Thailand's creator economy will reach US$172 billion (5.7 trillion baht) by 2030.

Estimates of the market's size vary widely and appear to measure different things. Coverage of the 2025 Thailand Influencer Awards, organised by the platform Tellscore, valued the creator economy at 45 billion baht in 2024. The two figures are not directly comparable, and neither has been independently audited.

TikTok's own claims

The Bangkok Post also reports several figures that TikTok supplied. The company says it has trained more than 82,000 small and medium-sized enterprises and One Tambon, One Product entrepreneurs; that one initiative linking agricultural sellers with creators generated ten times more revenue in its first week; that it has more than 460 million users across Southeast Asia, including more than 50 million monthly users in Thailand; and that 90% of consumers across Asia-Pacific are influenced by authentic content. These are self-reported and have not been independently verified.

What it means for creators and MCNs

This section is MCN Thailand's reading. The pitch favours creators whose content is rooted in place, such as food, travel, wellness and craft, and the agencies that can connect them with local businesses. Chanida's remark that brands are gradually losing control of the conversation while gaining faster feedback points the same way: creators who are given freedom to tell a product story naturally are, in her telling, the ones who win. Her own conclusion was that “there isn't a single formula for success anymore”.

It is also a platform executive making the case for her platform. Creators and agencies should treat the growth projections as direction of travel rather than a forecast to plan around.