THAILANDSICThailand Standard Industrial Classification

TSIC Activity

47611

Retail sale of books, newspapers, periodicals and magazines in specialized stores

ประกอบกิจการผลิต จัดหา จัดพิมพ์ ซื้อ ขาย นำเข้า ส่งออก และจัดจำหน่ายหนังสือ ตำรา วารสาร สิ่งพิมพ์ สื่อการเรียนรู้ สื่อมัลติมีเดีย หนังสืออิเล็กทรอนิกส์ (eBook) และฐานข้อมูลทางวิชาการทุกชนิด

What this activity covers

Retail stores specialising in books, newspapers, magazines, and educational materials.

  • Books and Novels — Retail of various types of books
  • Textbooks — Retail of educational textbooks
  • Newspapers — Retail of daily and weekly newspapers
  • Magazines — Retail of periodicals and journals
  • World Maps — Retail of geographical maps
  • Dictionaries — Retail of language dictionaries
  • Encyclopedias — Retail of reference encyclopedias

What companies here also do

Seen in real company registrations under this code — beyond the official definition, so licensing may differ.

  • Wholesale Distribution — Wholesale of books and educational materials
  • Educational Supplies — Retail of educational equipment and supplies
  • E-books — Sale of electronic books
  • Magazine Production — Production and sale of magazines

Foreign ownership

List 3: Restricted, FBL/BOI route availableinherited from 47

Retail sale of goods of all kinds, where the aggregate minimum capital or the minimum capital per store is below the level prescribed in the Act

Not a hard restriction — only applies while under-capitalised. A foreign-majority retailer is exempt from this List 3 item (no Foreign Business Licence needed) once registered capital meets the Act's minimum, typically THB 100 million in total and THB 20 million per store. Verify current ministerial-regulation figures.

FBA B.E. 2542, List 3 (14)Routes: Foreign Business Licence, BOI promotion, US Treaty of Amity

Auto-mapped, verify against the Act. These TSIC mappings are indicative, not legal advice; the schedules of the Foreign Business Act B.E. 2542 are the authority. See the full foreign ownership reference.

Industry at a glance

as of 23 ก.ค. 69

The whole registered industry under this activity, every registration year, from the DBD DataWarehouse.

633
active companies operate here
฿3.3Bregistered capital, combined
฿10.1B
Sector revenue · 2025
-11% since 2023
฿86.8M
Net profit · 2025
279 profitable
202320242025

net profitrevenue

Foreign investment

new registrations · 2026 YTD
0%of new registered capital is foreign-held
฿0 foreign฿9.6M Thai

Almost entirely Thai-held — little foreign capital enters here.

1 of the 5 largest companies here are foreign-owned Thailand subsidiaries.

New in 2026

14+7.7%

registrations, YTD

Registered capital

฿3.3B-0.5%

since year-end

Largest by revenue

Latest filed-year revenue, not a multi-year total

  1. 1C.A. Education Public Company Limited฿1.6B
  2. 2Kinokuniya Bookstore (Thailand) Co., Ltd.intl฿920.3M
  3. 3Asia Books Co., Ltd.฿690.1M
  4. 4Physics Center Publishing฿474.9M
  5. 5Open Durian Co., Ltd.฿389.0M

Largest by registered capital

  1. 1Siam Golden Bay International Co., Ltd.Bangkok฿500.0M
  2. 2C.A. Education Public Company LimitedBangkok฿391.9M
  3. 3Asia Books Co., Ltd.Bangkok฿301.7M

Source: Department of Business Development DataWarehouse. Financial figures are combined totals of companies that filed statements; revenue and profit shown for the latest three reporting years.

Companies registered since 2022

Browse all

New DBD registrations under this activity since 2022, the period the registry snapshot covers, not the full historical register.

103
Registered
since 2022
96
Still active
7
Dissolved
฿1.0M
Median capital
of active

New registrations per year

2022peak 29 in 20242026

Largest active companies by registered capital

Source: Department of Business Development (DBD) new-registration records, 2022 to present. Counts cover companies first registered in that window, reflect the latest snapshot load, and may lag the live register.

Emerhub

Restricted activity? There is usually a route.

Emerhub structures foreign-owned companies around FBA restrictions: Foreign Business Licence applications, BOI promotion, and compliant shareholding structures. Talk through your case before you commit to one.

Talk to Emerhub Thailand