Tamsang-Tamsong did not begin with “how do we build a better delivery app”. It began with a different question: if platforms have become everyday infrastructure, why does the community that depends on one have no say in how it is run?
Research on the platform economy points to something uncomfortable: stakeholders in the platform model — consumers included — tend to end up on the losing side. COVID-19 made it plain. Restaurants were paying rising commissions at exactly the moment rider earnings were falling.
To manufacture network effects, large firms distort the market — dumping capital to create artificial demand. It wins users in the short run and damages the market in the long run.
“Stakeholders in the platform model, consumers included, tend to be exploited by the platform companies.”
Driver earnings have fallen by nearly50%under corporate platform architectures. That is not a side effect — it is what the design produces.
The social solidarity economy is not charity, and it is not a refusal to do business. It changes one question: who is this business for?
Restaurants, riders and customers work out the procedures, the fees and the day-to-day operations together, instead of receiving rules handed down by a company.
Fees and procedures come out of regular meetings between all three groups — not a terms-of-service update pushed to your phone.
When everyone designs together, things commercial platforms avoid become possible — like ordering from several restaurants in one trip, which cuts transaction costs for everybody.
Cooperative and SSE models promote participation and democracy in the workplace, shifting the goal from maximum profit to community benefit.
The cooperative principles are the right answer, but Thailand's cooperative law is dated and restrictive. Registering as a cooperative is not always a workable option for a new kind of enterprise.
So the project's proposal is to apply cooperativeprinciplesto other existing legal forms — making the solidarity economy practical now, without waiting for the law to change.
Inequality in all its forms sits underneath today's crises. Cooperatives and the solidarity economy are therefore not about running a kinder business — they are about distributing the power to decide.
The reportThai Delivery Reimaginedcompares two operating models of Tamsang-Tamsong, asking which ownership structure works better in the Thai context.
Drivers own and run the operation themselves. A simpler structure, faster decisions, and the returns land directly with the people doing the work.
Shops, drivers and customers share ownership. Harder to coordinate, but it makes it possible to pursue economic, social and environmental goals at once.
Both share three aims: reducing packaging waste, setting fair labour standards, and actively restoring driver earnings.
An idea only matters when someone runs it in a real neighbourhood. If yours is interested, we're glad to talk from the beginning.