This year, Taiwan-based worldwide subscription streaming service GagaOOLala participated in the Bangkok International Book Fair for the first time, targeting Thailand’s rapidly growing BL (Boys’ Love) and GL (Girls’ Love) publishing and film and television markets.

GagaOOLala founder and CEO Jay Lin (林志杰) said he hopes the platform can collaborate with local publishers and creators to adapt content into screen productions, adding he believes vertical short dramas with LGBTQ+ themes have great potential.

The fair is one of Thailand’s largest book events and kicked off last Thursday at the Queen Sirikit National Convention Center in Bangkok. Lin attended a forum at the book fair Monday afternoon where he noted that Thailand is GagaOOLala’s second-largest market globally by membership and one of Asia’s most consistent producers of BL and GL content. He also shared his observations about the impact of AI on the film and television industry. 

Per Lin, GagaOOLala serves all of Asia and can help promote Thailand’s pink economy, or the purchasing power of the LGBTQ+ community, by bringing BL and GL works and fan culture to the global stage. He added that the platform has previously collaborated with Thailand and Japan on co-produced BL projects, some of which have aired on Thai television.

Lin said about 80% of the world’s vertical short dramas currently originate from China. However, only around a few hundred focus on LGBTQ+, BL, or GL themes. He sees this as a major opportunity for creators in Thailand and Taiwan. 

Regarding AI, he said it is already being applied to big data analysis and marketing technologies, with an AI customer service chatbot expected to launch in May. He added that the team is also experimenting with using AI to assist in storyboarding, scriptwriting, and visual production.