Other Services in Thailand: 20,455 Firms, Thinnest Margins (2026)
In short
Section S, Thailand's catch-all other services category, holds 20,455 registered companies as of 7 Jul 2026. That is more firms than agriculture, arts and entertainment, human health, education, mining or electricity and gas. Yet the section nets just a 0.36 percent margin, against a 4.10 percent national average. Return on assets sits at 0.25 percent and return on equity at 0.67 percent, both near the bottom of the register. Micro firms make up 80.5 percent of the section, well above the 75.1 percent national share, and only 16 companies in it count as large.
What does the other services section actually look like?
Section S is the Department of Business Development's catch-all bucket, the residual category for repair shops, membership bodies and personal service firms that do not fit anywhere else in the registry (DBD, 2026). It holds 20,455 registered companies as of 7 Jul 2026, or 1.03 percent of every company with a classified industry section. That count alone puts section S ahead of agriculture at 19,259 companies, arts and entertainment at 18,486, human health at 17,294, education at 13,897, mining and quarrying at 8,231 and electricity and gas at 7,833, six sections already profiled on this site. Size is not the story here. Section S turned 85,703,884,775.21 baht of revenue into just 311,989,306.81 baht of net profit, a margin of 0.36 percent, while the whole economy averages 4.10 percent. Return on assets for the section is 0.25 percent and return on equity is 0.67 percent, both a fraction of the national 2.55 percent and 6.12 percent. Only two of the 21 sections run a thinner margin: arts and entertainment at negative 1.09 percent, and the four company extraterritorial organizations section at negative 10.00 percent, a group too small to read as anything but noise.
Net profit margin by industry section
- Financial and insurance25
- Mining and quarrying14
- Professional, scientific and technical14
- Education13
- Electricity and gas12
- Human health and social work11
- Real estate8
- Water and waste7
- Transportation and storage6
- Information and communication6
- Accommodation and food service6
- Manufacturing4
- Administrative and support4
- Agriculture3
- Construction2
- Wholesale and retail trade1
- Other services0
- Arts and entertainment-1
Figures in percent net margin.
Section S sits second from the bottom among sections with a meaningful number of filers, just above wholesale and retail and just below every other sector shown.
Industry sections ranked by net margin
| Industry section | Net margin | Companies |
|---|---|---|
| Financial and insurance | 25.40% | 35,567 |
| Mining and quarrying | 14.04% | 8,231 |
| Professional, scientific and technical | 13.64% | 138,962 |
| Education | 13.13% | 13,897 |
| Electricity and gas | 11.86% | 7,833 |
| Human health and social work | 11.07% | 17,294 |
| Real estate | 7.70% | 149,608 |
| Water and waste | 7.31% | 4,818 |
| Transportation and storage | 6.27% | 85,273 |
| Information and communication | 5.81% | 52,537 |
| Accommodation and food service | 5.66% | 83,598 |
| Manufacturing | 4.37% | 230,396 |
| Administrative and support | 4.32% | 100,691 |
| Agriculture | 2.55% | 19,259 |
| Construction | 2.31% | 283,534 |
| Wholesale and retail trade | 1.27% | 715,976 |
| Other services | 0.36% | 20,455 |
| Arts and entertainment | -1.09% | 18,486 |
Net profit margin and company count by section, as of 7 Jul 2026. Public administration, households and extraterritorial organizations are excluded, each has fewer than 40 filing companies.
Why the margin runs so thin: the size profile of section S
| Metric | Other services | National |
|---|---|---|
| Micro share | 80.53% | 75.15% |
| Small share | 18.93% | 22.19% |
| Medium share | 0.46% | 1.96% |
| Large share | 0.08% | 0.70% |
| Survival rate | 61.80% | 50.00% |
Size band distribution and survival rate for section S against the national registry, as of 7 Jul 2026.
Why this matters
Section S proves that company count and financial weight are separate stories. It holds 1.03 percent of the register's classified companies but only 0.11 percent of national revenue and 0.01 percent of national net profit, a section that is bigger in headcount than several sectors this site has already covered yet almost invisible in the money it generates. The size profile explains most of the gap. Section S is 80.53 percent micro firms, above the 75.15 percent national share, and only 16 of its 20,455 companies count as large, a share of 0.08 percent against 0.70 percent nationally. Thin margins do not mean these firms are failing. The section's survival rate is 61.80 percent, well above the 50.00 percent national figure, so operators here tend to stay registered even while keeping almost none of every baht of revenue. For a founder scanning where to compete, section S is a warning about crowding, not opportunity. Thousands of small operators split a thin pool of profit, and the section's own top filer, FORTASIA CO., LTD., reports 3,553,401,621.99 baht in revenue, a fraction of the top companies in sections like manufacturing or finance.
Definitions
- Net margin
- Aggregate net profit for a group of companies divided by their aggregate revenue. A 0.36 percent margin means 0.36 satang of profit for every 100 baht of revenue.
- Return on assets
- Aggregate net profit divided by aggregate total assets, a measure of how much profit a section generates from what it owns.
- Return on equity
- Aggregate net profit divided by aggregate shareholder equity, a measure of how much profit a section generates from owners' invested capital.
- Survival rate
- The share of registered companies still marked active rather than dormant or dissolved in the registry.
- Size band
- A company's classification as micro, small, medium or large, assigned by the registry based on measures such as revenue or employees.
- TSIC code
- Thailand's five digit industry code, based on the international ISIC system. Each industry section such as S is made up of many TSIC codes.
- Aggregate ratio
- A ratio built from summed totals across every company in a group, such as total profit over total revenue, rather than the average of each company's individual ratio.
Assumptions
- Only companies with a filed financial statement contribute to revenue, profit, margin, return on assets and return on equity figures.
- Public administration, households and extraterritorial organizations are excluded from ranked comparisons because each has fewer than 40 filing companies, too few for a stable ratio.
- Size band and survival figures for section S are rolled up from its 37 five digit TSIC codes in market_tsic_insight, since market_section_insight does not carry size band or survival columns directly.
- 5-digit TSIC descriptions are not available in the source data, so this page names only the lettered section, not the specific sub-activities inside it.
Methodology
Net margin, return on assets and return on equity are aggregate ratios, meaning total sector net profit or profit divided by total sector revenue, assets or equity, not an average of each company's own ratio. Figures come from the DBD registry's market_section_insight and market_tsic_insight aggregate tables, computed 7 Jul 2026. Only companies with a classified industry section and a filed financial statement contribute to revenue and profit totals. Size band and survival figures for section S are rolled up from all 37 five digit TSIC codes it contains. Public administration, households and extraterritorial organizations are excluded from the ranked comparisons because each has fewer than 40 filing companies, too few for a stable ratio.
How we verified this
- Summed entity_count across all 21 market_section_insight rows equals 1,986,489, matching the verified national count of companies with a classified industry section.
- Section S share of classified companies: 20455 divided by 1986489 equals 1.03 percent.
- Section S share of national revenue: 85,703,884,775.21 divided by 80,148,033,688,000 equals 0.11 percent.
- Section S share of national net profit: 311,989,306.81 divided by 3,288,219,434,948 equals 0.01 percent.
- Sections re-sorted by net_margin confirm section S at 0.36 percent ranks 19th of 21, ahead of only arts and entertainment at negative 1.09 percent and extraterritorial organizations at negative 10.00 percent.
- Section S entity_count of 20455 exceeds agriculture at 19259, arts and entertainment at 18486, human health at 17294, education at 13897, mining and quarrying at 8231, water and waste at 4818, and electricity and gas at 7833.
- Summing market_tsic_insight rows for section_code S gives entity_count 20455, active_count 12642 and inactive_count 7813, matching the section-level count and giving a survival rate of 12642 divided by 20455 equals 61.80 percent, against the national survival rate of 993373 divided by 1986709 equals 50.00 percent.
- Summing count_micro, count_small, count_medium and count_large across section S TSIC rows gives 16472, 3872, 95 and 16, which sum to 20455 and equal shares of 80.53 percent, 18.93 percent, 0.46 percent and 0.08 percent.
- National size band shares recompute from the registry totals of 1,986,709 companies with a size band: micro 1,492,979 divided by 1,986,709 equals 75.15 percent, small 440,928 divided by 1,986,709 equals 22.19 percent, medium 38,926 divided by 1,986,709 equals 1.96 percent and large 13,876 divided by 1,986,709 equals 0.70 percent.
References
- Department of Business Development. (2026). Registered juristic persons and financial statement aggregates. Ministry of Commerce, Thailand. https://www.dbd.go.th/
- United Nations Statistics Division. (2008). International Standard Industrial Classification of All Economic Activities, Revision 4. United Nations. https://unstats.un.org/unsd/classifications/Family/Detail/27
Frequently asked questions
How many companies are in Thailand's other services section?
20,455 as of 7 Jul 2026, making section S the 11th largest of Thailand's 21 industry sections by company count.
Why is the other services margin so low?
The section is 80.53 percent micro firms and only 0.08 percent large firms, one of the most bottom heavy size profiles of any Thai industry, and it earns a 0.36 percent net margin against a 4.10 percent national average.
What kind of businesses sit in section S?
It is the DBD's residual other services category, covering activities such as repair services, membership organizations and personal service businesses that ISIC classifies outside every other section (UNSD, 2008).
Do other services companies survive longer than average?
Yes. Section S has a 61.80 percent survival rate, above the 50.00 percent national rate, even though its profitability is among the weakest of any section.
Cite this page
Chatpong L. (2026). Other Services in Thailand: 20,455 Firms, Thinnest Margins (2026). Max Data Insights. https://maxdatathailand.com/insights/other-services-companies-in-thailand-2026
Data & corrections
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Written by
Chatpong L.Founder, Max Data, Max Solutions Co., Ltd.
Chatpong L. leads Max Data, a company-intelligence platform built on Thailand's official business registry. He writes about the structure of the Thai economy using primary registry data. His work covers company formation, industry concentration, and regional business activity.
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This page reports company-level and aggregate statistics only. It names no individuals and makes no claims about any person. Figures are provided for information and may be revised as source data updates.