Japanese startup ChargeSpot, a mobile power bank sharing service, has entered the Thai market, the first country in Southeast Asia, looking to capitalise on heavy smartphone use in one of the world's top tourism destinations.
The company yesterday launched services with a preliminary 300 power bank rental stations in Bangkok and plans to increase to 5,000 by the end of this year and 15,000 by 2020.
Tomson Chiu, chief executive and managing director of ChargeSpot Thailand, said the company hopes to break even in the country over the next two years.
ChargeSpot is the world's first transnational power bank sharing service. Mr Chiu said users pick up a power bank at one station and return it to any ChargeSpot station in available countries.
The company has over 5,000 power bank rental stations in Hong Kong in collaboration with 7-Eleven convenience stores, the Hong Kong Trade Development Council and New World First Ferry.
There are 17,000 ChargeSpot stations in Japan at leading malls and convenience stores and over 10,000 stations in Taiwan.
To use the service, users can download ChargeSpot's mobile app or access it via WeChat or Line to search for the nearest station. Then they scan a QR code to rent the power bank.
The rental service starts at 15 baht per hour for the first three hours. There are no more additional charges from the fourth hour to the 24th hour, which means users pay only 45 baht for the first 24 hours.
The additional fee for subsequent days is 30 baht per day. Users need to pay a deposit of 450 baht that will be returned when the power bank is deposited at any of ChargeSpot's stations.
Alternative payment methods are credit and debit cards, mobile banking, internet banking, WeChat Pay, Line Pay, Alipay and other partner e-payment wallets.
"We believe our business will succeed in Thailand and foresee rapid growth of internet and smartphone use serving the digital lifestyle," Mr Chiu said.
The company targets Chinese tourists as the major clientele in Thailand.
According to We Are Social and Hootsuite's latest 2019 reports, there are 57 million Thais accessing the internet with 55 million doing so on mobile devices.
Mr Chiu said the power bank from stations are compact at 7cm x 1.5cm x 14.5cm with a capacity of 5,000 mAh and are compatible with all Android and iOS devices using micro-USB, Type C and Lightning charging ports.
ChargeSpot has a factory in China. The company plans to expand into Southeast Asia by the end of 2019 to Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia.
"The advantage we provide is our users can rent in one country and return in another," Mr Chiu said. "This allows a level of freedom to travel and recharge that no other service can provide."
