This month’s issue of Business Report Thailand (BRT) has an excellent article looking at Thailand’s group-buying industry.

I’ve written a fair amount about the scene generally, at ZDNet Asia and for CNNGo last year, but this piece – written by Siam Voices contributor Dan Waites – focuses specifically on Ensogo (recently bought by US giant LivingSocial), looking at how and why the company is leading the market here in Thailand.

I’ve posted a few excerpts below, with the permission of BRT, but have a read of the September issue of the mag for the full story – where you might find a small quote from yours truly.

On Thailand’s group-buying market and the huge gap between Ensogo and the rest:

In Thailand, there’s a striking uniformity about the sites vying for the Kingdom’s online bargain hunters. This is no coincidence, since most are powered by the same off-the-shelf software. Thailand’s offerings have also all done away with the “tipping point” element that is key to Groupon’s model.

In this sink-or-swim market, the cast of players is changing rapidly. At least two earlier entrants, TikTokThai and o.ffer.us are already defunct. Some of the 30-odd incumbents will no doubt join them before long.

Among the most successful sites are Deal Didi, which Google Double Click estimates received 510,000 page views in June 2011; S! Coupon, which managed 290,000; Dealicious, which notched 140,000; and Ncoupon, with 93,000. But none come close to the popularity of Ensogo, which enjoyed an estimated 6.1 million page views the same month.

On building demand/need for and trust of group-buying in Thailand:

Building trust among wary Thai Internet users has been a hard slog for Ensogo, and Tom [Srivorakul, Ensogo MD] remains wary of the effect “cowboy” operators could have on this carefully nurtured market.

“If other daily deals sites come on board and they’re fly-by-night operators, and they just ruin the trust and the education that the top five have spent a lot of capital on trying to build, that would be a real step back.”

An advertising campaign on Bangkok’s Skytrain and plans for Ensogo kiosks – the first is set to open in September at the Siam Center – are aimed at cementing Ensogo’s status as a trusted brand. The strategy seems to be working. “Eighty per cent of our transactions are now on credit card, which is a good sign for us – that we’re earning trust,” says Tom.

On future services tapping into smartphone ownership and 3G:

The consensus is that location-based “instant deals” will be the next big thing. Because of its size and acquisition by LivingSocial, which has already developed the requisite technology, Ensogo will almost certainly be first off the blocks in Thailand with these services.

Says Tom: “I’ll be walking down Silom and I want a massage, for example – stressed out day. I’ll launch my Ensogo app on my mobile phone and I’ll say ‘anything near me right now offering a massage or a spa deal?’ and we’ll say: ‘fifty metres from you, down this soi between 2 and 6pm, there you go, 70 per cent off.”

Still, the company won’t launch the service without full 3G support – and that has been a long time coming in Thailand. “You only have one chance to make a first impression and if you don’t get it right, people aren’t going to use it,” says Tom.