Pantip.com
|
Type of site
|
Thai-language forum and portal |
|---|---|
| Owner | Wanchat Padungrat |
| Created by | Wanchat Padungrat |
| Website | www.pantip.com |
| Alexa rank |
 712 (July 2016[update]) |
| Commercial | Yes |
| Registration | By subscription, national identification number required for posting |
| Launched | 1997 |
| Current status | Online |
Pantip.com is a popular Thai-language website and discussion forum. As of July 2016, Pantip.com was one of the top 10 websites in Thailand and 712 worldwide.
Discussions about Thai politics and current events on Pantip.com's topic boards are often cited in the Thai press, particularly in such English-language newspapers as the Bangkok Post and The Nation, as a gauge of the public's mood about various issues. At the beginning, the site gained its popularity from people's misunderstanding of its name which is similar (and identical in English spelling) to Bangkok's famous IT shopping center, Pantip Plaza, however it is in no way affiliated with the mall (The name is actually styled in Thai as พันทิป, meaning a thousand tips.) Nevertheless, there is a significant IT-related community there.
Pantip.com was founded in 1997 by Wanchat Padungrat, an electronics engineer graduating from KMITL. He holds directorship and ownership of the site. Along with the popular Thai-language portal Sanook.com, Pantip.com was one of the first websites established in Thailand when the Internet was being introduced in the country. As opposed to Sanook.com's lucrative buyout from MWeb, a now-defunct dot com company, Wanchat has no plans to sell the site.
One of the features of the site is the "Café", which consists of 20 "tables" for discussions on a variety of topics. The tables are named after famous places in Thailand, such as Siam Square, MBK Center, Silom and Chatuchak Weekend Market. Topics for discussion include politics, religion, celebrities and education as well as films, sports and outdoor recreation.
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