We don't use the app because we love it, but because we don't have a choice.💔

Think of a typical Thai day.

Get up early. Order coffee through the app.

Daylight. Order a box of rice through the app.

Cool. Call the car home through the app.

Before going to bed, press to buy things that you want for a long time through the app

Everything's convenient. Everything's fast. Everything's on one phone.

But there is a question that is rarely asked aloud:

This convenience, where's the cost, and who pays?

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In recent times, the issue of platform fees has been heavily criticized. Shops complain that fees are expensive. Ryder says that jobs are heavy but income is uncertain. Drivers experience soaring costs, and consumers feel that everything is getting more and more expensive, while the platform side argues that they have huge costs to maintain the system.

This is not about anyone, but it is the new equation of the Thai economy that affects each other as a domino.

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1.Shop x Shoppers: Lost Profit With Unknowingly More Expensive Bills

For trading people, the platform is a golden opportunity to reach customers all over the country without renting a building in the mall, but in fact, it has a high price. Many stores are not ruined because they cannot sell, but because they "sell well until there is nothing left."

Vendors find not only commissions, but also transaction fees, system fees, advertising fees to drive visibility and campaign participation fees. The more platforms have the power to control the system, the more stores are squeezed to pay so that the store does not become "invisible" from the customer's eyes, from the original price to the cost of the product. Today, stores have to add "app survival costs."

And finally, the end of this cost is passed on to the "consumer." We may think that we have a discount, a convenience, but in reality, we are paying for a fake product, a GP or a sub-fee hidden on the checkout page, an invisible cost, but we gouge our pockets every day.

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2.Rider x Chauffeur: Freedom with no bargaining power

Many of the hardest-hit people in this system are Gig Workers, who jump into this profession because the word "freedom" can be turned on and off at any time.

But the truth in the world of the algorithm is different. Income per cycle fluctuates all the time. The number of jobs depends on points and points. While fuel, car depreciation and road risk, they have to bear 100% of themselves, they are intermediate between "self-employed" and "workers queued up."

Even more so, when the public sector starts to organize for safety (which is a good thing), such as licensing or registration, it immediately becomes a new cost added. The question is, who should help bear the cost of this transition period? Between drivers, platforms, governments, or pushing passengers through more expensive services?

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3. Platform x Government: Power is swamped with the stone problem of game control.

Fairly viewed, the platform is not the culprit, because the development of technology, security systems, and marketing to bring people in has a very high cost, so fee collection is normal for businesses.

But the problem is "excessive power." When a platform can point the finger at which store will survive, which rider will catch the job, or what price shoppers will see, this level of power needs to be accompanied by accountability and transparency.

This is the hardest problem of the government. If it is neglected, the little person is pale, but if it intervenes or controls the price bluntly, the platform may reduce investment or push the burden back on the market immediately. What the state has to do is not ban, but create a "transparent rule," such as fees to be cleared, changes to conditions to be notified, and there is a way for the little person to appeal.

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The solution of "platform dependence"

In real life, today we do not use the app because of love, but because "there is no better choice." The store does not access the app, there is no customer. The rider does not open the app, there is no job. The buyer does not use the app, it is a waste of time. This is the absolute dependence.

So the saying "if you are not satisfied, you do not have to use it" is an untrue saying in today's economic world. Sustainable solutions must be driven by three factors at the same time:

- The platform must be more transparent, give up the black box system. The formula for calculating fees and algorithms must be clear, predictable, and not change the rules so suddenly that the livelihood can't keep up.

- The state must direct an understanding of the real economy, reducing the burden of small people in transition, not giving out rules but no remedies.

- Businesses must immunize themselves. Shops must try to make a direct-to-consumer system or create their own direct sales channel alongside them. So that the platform does not become the single line of life.

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Platform is not a demon, and it is not God...It should be a tool to drive the economy forward faster, not a "checkpoint" that collects more and more expensive tolls, so that small people do not even have the capital to walk.

The big problem after this is not the question of whether there should be a platform, but how to allocate the benefits to the Thai platform economy "growing together" as a whole system...Not to let the grown-up platform explode on one side. On the sweat and cost of everyone without choice.

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# EfftiveTH # Digital economy # Shoppingonline # FoodDelivery