Piso Net: Pinoy Internet Culture
We’re talking about Piso Net and Pinoy Internet Culture, with Titus Dalisay, PR & Content Marketer.
View the slides:
Piso Net: Pinoy Internet Culture
Before we jump in to Piso Net, let’s learn a little about Titus:
- I am an SEO specialist and still learning
- Based in Davao City, Southern part of the PHILIPPINES
- I have two daughters (3yrs old and 5yrs old)
Connect with Titus on LinkedIn.
PINOY – why PINOY? It is the street name for Filipinos —That’s what we call ourselves. Pinoy for a man; Pinay for a woman.
Philippines Demographics
- 7,000 islands that total 115,831 square miles (300,000 square kilometres).
- The islands are broken up into three categories: Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao – which are basically north, central and south, respectively.
- A total of 108M on population
- It is the 13th most populated country in the world, between Mexico and Ethiopia
- Male population is a little bigger with 50.24% and female pop not far with 49.76%
- Metro Manila is reported to contain around 22.7 million people, which is a quarter of the Philippines’ entire population.
Digital Ad Spend for the Philippines
Digital advertising spend in the Philippines is around $400M and it is projected to reach $500M by the year 2021.
Philippines Top Spot for Internet Use Worldwide
Surprisingly the Philippines takes the #1 spot for internet use worldwide.
Digital 2019, a report from Hootsuite and We are Social showing people’s online behaviour around the world, showed Filipinos spend an average of 10:02 hours a day on the internet — on any device.
- Even in Social Media Filipinos also spent the most time; at 4 hours and 12 minutes on average per day. It also noted that the country has the highest female ratio on Twitter at 63 percent, and Instagram at 64 percent.
Source: GlobalWebIndex (Q2 & Q3 2018)
PisoNet
- In the Philippines, we have, ‘PisoNet’, an arcade-style computer unit used as an internet or gaming vending machine
- It is around $0.019 per 4 minutes or $0.28 hourly rate
- Kids as young as 8 years old can access the internet for surfing or gaming
- PisoNet can be seen in every (under-privileged) village
Unfortunately, while internet use is so high, the Philippines is among the lowest-ranked countries in internet speed and availability.
The Philippines has an internet speed of 19 megabytes per second. This is based on the average download speed of a fixed internet connection.
Reasons:
- The Philippines is made up of 7k islands, which makes the construction of fixed networks harder to accomplish.
- While governments from other countries actively invest in the construction of these much-needed infrastructures, here in our country the task rests mainly on the shoulders of the private sector.
- Even neighbouring countries like Vietnam receive crucial ICT investments from their government which is why they enjoy better internet speeds.
- We have 5 ISPs for the Philippines. Converge just started 4 years ago, we also have Globe, Sky, PLDT/Smart and Bayan.
- Converge is not available in most areas… So 3 big players for the rest of the PH islands are Globe, Sky & Smart/PLDT. Basically it differs on the place who’s faster between the big ISP players.
- A little good news for us… 5G is about to be available as it was launched last June 2019 from Globe, and it will be the first in the Philippines and in Southeast Asia to launch 5G.
Philippines Outbound Travel
With this study here we can see that travel (including accommodation) reached about $643M being the #1 most annual e-commerce spend by Filipinos. Electronics & Physical Media comes in 2nd.
Here we can see that there are 4.57M Filipino travellers and based on 2013 data Hong Kong is the top pick and Singapore came 2nd.
- MANILA TO HK (2HRS 15MINS)
- MANILA TO SG (3HRS 35MINS)
- MANILA TO BANGKOK (3HRS 10MINS)
- MANILA TO KOREA (7HRS 30MINS)
- MANILA TO THAILAND (3HRS 40MINS)
More Outbound trips are for Leisure with 74% and only 26% for business. Filipino travel mostly during long holidays as you can see in the Chart between April and May is high and December being the highest for Christmas break.
Filipino Travellers TOP Considerations
- Filipinos strongly value relationships with friends and family. With many Filipinos working overseas, this tends to be a major consideration to travel.
- The feeling of togetherness and emotional connection is the most important to Filipinos and the destination comes secondary.
- As you can see out of the top 5 consideration, 3 are focussed on cost. Filipino travellers would likely choose something that has an airline promo that is within the budget and value for money.
How Can We Jump into the Filipino Digital Market?
Filipino Business Culture
Relationship Oriented:
- Family ties: Understanding that most business in the Philippines is run by family-owned conglomerates is important. It’s, therefore, a good idea to secure a good contact person — an ally, in essence — in the organisation to help guide you through its nuances.
- Slow and steady: Building a relationship with Filipino business people is a slow process.
- Personal contacts can be crucial to success.
- Deepen a relationship with them, be talkative and as personable as possible. Avoid appearing stiff and cold but maintain modesty.
Meeting Etiquette & Considerations:
- Filipino business culture is hierarchical, but group consensus is still necessary.
- Verbal agreements are adhered to on the basis of trust.
- Hiya (shame or embarrassment), a Filipino is unlikely to directly refuse a proposal or reject something you say, even when they do not agree with it.
- To avoid directly saying ‘no’, a Filipino may respond with a statement to the effect of ‘bahala na’, which generally means that it is up to God’s will or fate.
- Appealing to emotion and making exaggerations or promises that sound too good to be true are likely to make Filipinos hesitant or suspicious of doing business with you.
Platforms
So, what platform can we leverage for the Filipino market?
Most Active Social Media Platforms
- Based on this study Facebook is the social media platform Filipinos tend to use the most, with 97% of internet users. And Youtube for the 2nd spot at 96%.
- FB messenger came 3rd with about 90%. Most Filipinos now use texting less and more on FB Messenger as it is more convenient, easy to talk with groups and easily shares info, pictures, videos, links etc. Even at work it is being used as a way to communicate by companies within their departments.
- The number of social media users in the Philippines has grown from 67 million to 76 million this year. Of these 76 million, 75 million are on Facebook.
- PH is #6 on the list as the largest advertising audiences on facebook; with 68m reach (88% of the POP ages 13+)
Facebook, Google & Youtube are the top 3 platforms to consider in entering PH digital market.
Audience
- 18-24 age range topped the most users for social media at 17% female and 16% male.
- Therefore, strategically ages 18 – 44 is the sweet spot target age for the PH social media market.
Conclusion
- PH Digital Ad spend is increasing yearly
- PH spend the most amount of time on the internet & social media
- Pinoy are patient (waiting for the internet to load)
- Pinoy spends mostly on Travel online
- Consider Value for money
- Always travel as a family and looks into family-friendly travel
- Pinoy Business Culture
-
- Relationship oriented – most valued
- Family ties
- Slow and steady
- Personal contacts can be crucial to success
- Deepen a relationship with them
- Business etiquette
- Needs to have contact
- Doesn’t say no much (shy & embarrassed)
- Relationship oriented – most valued
- Platform (Facebook, Google & Youtube)
- Target Age Range (18-44 years old)
