Thailand's software piracy rate dips to 66%

[Len]

Thailand's software piracy rate reduced three percentage points to 66% with losses of US$714 million (22.8 billion baht) in 2017, reported the 2018 Global Software Survey by BSA.

The study, conducted in partnership with global research firm IDC, found in Thailand 66% of software installed on computers was not properly licensed, down from 69% in 2015.

The rate is still higher than Asia-Pacific's average rate of unlicensed software use, which is 57% according to the survey.

However, the reduction has been influenced in part by effective enforcement by the Economic Crime Suppression Division of the Royal Thai Police and a series of education campaigns concerning the risk of unlicensed software use, in particular the cybersecurity risk from attacks when using unlicensed software, said Varunee Ratchatapattanakul, Thailand country manager for BSA.

"That Thailand's rate of unlicensed software use fell by three percentage points is a positive sign, but it remains significantly behind competitors in Asia-Pacific," she said.

"Thailand's software compliance and IT security risk management still need significant improvement."

Tarun Sawney, senior director of Asia-Pacific for BSA, said the survey of 110 national and regional economies found the worldwide unlicensed software rate declined two percentage points to 37% in 2017 from 39% in 2015, representing commercial value of $46.3 billion.

Use of unlicensed software in Asia-Pacific dropped to 57% in 2017 from 61% in 2015, representing commercial value of $16.4 billion (526 billion baht).

"Thailand's digital economy is growing, and software has become one of the most ubiquitous and essential tools Thai businesses use to perform their most fundamental everyday tasks," said Mr Sawney.

BSA also found malware from unlicensed software costs companies worldwide nearly $359 billion a year.