Short video, AI tools and augmented reality (AR) effects are shaping social media in Thailand, according to DataReportal's Digital 2026: Thailand report. It counted 56.6 million social media user identities in the country in October 2025, equal to 79.1% of the population. Shops, pages and content creators, including those run by foreign business owners, compete on platforms that most people in Thailand already use.
Nearly four in five people in Thailand are on social media
DataReportal published the Thailand report on 8 November 2025, using data from Kepios. The 56.6 million user identities are up 7.5 million, or 15.2%, from the end of 2024. Thailand has 67.8 million internet users, or 94.7% of the population. Of those, 83.5% use at least one social media platform.
The report warns that the figure counts user identities, which may not equal the number of individual people. It may also not be directly comparable with earlier years. Business owners should treat it as a measure of the size of the market, not the number of customers they can actually reach. For YouTube, the same report puts users at 47.2 million, or 65.9% of the population, as of October 2025.
Short video is the main battleground
YouTube Shorts is the clearest example. Neal Mohan, the chief executive of YouTube, said at the Cannes Lions festival on 18 June 2025 that Shorts averages 200 billion views a day, as reported by TheWrap and Tubefilter. Tubefilter noted that YouTube counts every time a clip appears in a feed as a view. The number does not mean people watch every clip to the end, but it shows the platform is pushing short video as a core format.
On time spent, DataReportal's Digital 2026 Global Overview, which cites GWI data, says the average user worldwide spends more than 2.5 hours a day on social media when video platforms such as YouTube and TikTok are included. That is about 18 hours 36 minutes a week. The Thailand report does not give daily time spent for users in Thailand, so it is not safe to assume Thailand matches the global average.
How far AI and AR have come
On AI, the global report estimates that more than 1 billion people a month use large language models (LLMs) and generative AI platforms. This is a Kepios estimate drawn from several sources, not a direct count.
For short video, Mohan said at Cannes Lions that YouTube would bring Veo 3, Google DeepMind's video generation model, into Shorts that summer, according to TheWrap and Tubefilter. TheWrap reported that the Dream Screen option in Shorts had already used an earlier version of Veo. AI features are not switched on in every country at the same time. Anyone who wants to use them for business should check the platform's latest announcement to see whether they are available to users in Thailand.
For AR, the most concrete tool is TikTok's Effect House. TikTok's official site describes it as a free desktop app for Mac or PC. Users can build imaginary worlds, virtual characters, games, filters and sounds. Categories include AI, Games, Beauty, Music and Green Screen. Effects can appear in TikTok videos, TikTok LIVE and the For You feed.
A TikTok Newsroom post from 19 April 2023 profiled creators who make effects as a serious job. One of them, Laura Gouillon, has made more than 100 effects, which together have 11.4 billion views, and has worked with more than 20 brands. These figures belong to a single creator and date from 2023. They are not an average for ordinary businesses.
Where a small business can start
The data suggests the online audience in Thailand is large enough for businesses of any size. The challenge is choosing the right format and platform for your customers. A large budget is not required, and Effect House costs nothing to download.
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Try short videos on TikTok and YouTube Shorts first, then review the per-clip statistics on your own page.
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Download Effect House and build a simple effect in a category that fits your product, such as Beauty or Games.
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Follow each platform's AI feature announcements and read the terms of use before using them in advertising.
User numbers, view counts and AI user estimates change every year. Anyone using them to set an advertising budget should check the latest DataReportal reports and platform announcements first.
Source: DataReportal (Digital 2026: Thailand and Digital 2026 Global Overview Report), TikTok Newsroom, TikTok Effect House, TheWrap and Tubefilter (reporting on remarks by YouTube CEO Neal Mohan at Cannes Lions).
This article is adapted from ViewNews' Thai-language report.
