Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing ride sharing in Thailand. So what do we mean by this? Well we're talking about things like Uber, Grab, there's an app here in Thailand called Bolt which we will get into here in a minute. Again these are all so-called ride-sharing apps. Now if you go back, basically to the last election here in Thailand which I think was 2019 if I remember correctly, ride sharing at the time was not legal. Now there were political operators out there who one of their campaign platforms was getting it legalized. In the meantime that has occurred. However, there are shades of gray to this so let me get into this. 

I thought of making this video after reading a recent article from the Pattaya Mail, that is pattayamail.com, the article is titled: Pattaya Police crackdown on illegal Bolt app drivers. Quoting directly: "While Thailand legalized ride-hailing apps a year ago, the Bolt application isn't one of those and Pattaya-area authorities came down hard on their drivers Friday." Quoting further: "Chonburi Land Transport Department and Pattaya traffic police officers snared numerous Bolt drivers operating or called to the Central Pattaya shopping mall Nov. 24. Each will find up to 2,000 Baht and told to stop using their personal cars to provide public transport." Quoting further: "Authorities said that while services such as Grab are now legal - six companies registered last year to provide ride-hailing app services - both cars and drivers must obtain special licenses. The private citizens using their own cars to pick up Bolt customers all were illegal, they said."

So there is a regulatory structure that sort of underlies the legalization of ride-sharing staring here in Thailand. So again, it's not particularly a free-for-all and for this reason those who are looking, Thais, whomever, who are looking to operate in the sort of ride-sharing space need to kind of be aware of the fact that they probably should be dealing with one of the ride-sharing apps that has all the correct licensure and they themselves need to obtain the correct licensure in order to operate such a business here in the Kingdom of Thailand.