Today, millions of Thais are logging into the Paotang app to register for the government's "Thais Help Thais Plus" programme. The app is expected to handle requests from up to 30 million people.
What began as an economic stimulus platform has evolved into one of Thailand's most widely used pieces of digital public infrastructure.
At the same time, the Ministry of Digital Economy and Society is rolling out new digital platforms, from AI Passport and Digital ID to the proposed ONE ID platform, while promoting greater "data integration" and "common standards" across state agencies.
On the surface, the government's initiative sounds forward-looking and inspiring. Still, when Thailand already possesses a vast ecosystem of state-designed digital platforms, why is it still putting up money to build new ones?
Thais already live with Paotang, ThaiD, Thang Rath, Mor Prom and dozens of other public sector applications used every day.
Several have already proven capable of operating at national scale, supporting tens of millions of users under real-world conditions.
Rather than continuously starting over, why not build upon what already works?
The House budget committee and the Digital Government Development Agency says state agencies operate more than 2,700 applications, to the point where many citizens can no longer remember which service belongs to which app.
The legion of state apps is just a symptom of a silo-culture -- it become a bureaucratic modus operandi that each ministry has its own "Single Sign-On" system.
The real question, therefore, may not be whether Thailand needs yet another platform.
It is why the state during the past decade -- since the birth of internet, and the advent of Artificial Intelligence (AI) -- still struggles to make existing systems work together.
This contradiction has become more striking as the government itself speaks of "interoperability" -- seamless integration of public administration.
In reality, the public still needs to go to a plethora of state apps while the data of ministries remains isolated.
The issue is not a lack of technology, it is streamlined architecture.
If interoperability is truly the goal, why does the government and various ministries keep asking for money to develop new systems?
Every new app means another procurement cycle, another vendor contract, another database, another cybersecurity burden and another system citizens must learn to navigate.
At a time when the government speaks of efficiency, budget discipline and the use of AI to modernise public services, Thailand may not need a new super app every year.
Digital government should not be measured by the number of new platforms it launches.
It should be measured by how seamlessly existing systems work together, reducing friction instead of forcing citizens to start over whenever they deal with the state.
All citizens want is unified and stable system where citizens can access easily, without having to sign in to every new platform to receive a public service.
