An NNN-AMIC Special Report by Iya P. Joson
BANGKOK, Nov 17 (BERNAMA-NNN-AMIC) — While the rest of Asia and the world are getting fascinated over the power of mobile remittances, Filipinos are yawning over it, probably wondering what makes a service that’s available in every urban and rural sari-sari store in the country so special.
Dr. Madanmohan Rao, a new media consultant and author from Bangalore, India, says of Philippine mobile innovation: “I remember 10 years ago when I came to a conference in Manila. For the first time, I saw how powerful SMS, the humble SMS, can be as a medium in a country like the Philippines.
“I think the Philippines has been a trendsetter in mobile texting as a social medium, as a political medium and mobile remittances.”
With the country experiencing 75 per cent mobile penetration, it’s not difficult to see why this is so. One-fifth of the Philippine population can also be found online, according to Jay Jaboneta, New Media Manager of the Philippine President’s Communications Office.
That means more than 24 million Filipinos are able to log into their Facebook, Twitter, Friendster and Plurk accounts regularly — consequently leading the Filipino to hold 60 per cent of Friendster’s entire user base, and to be the sixth most popular user in both Facebook and Twitter.
The Filipino’s familiarity and mastery over the English language could be the reason behind Philippine online popularity. “It’s probably more of the role of the English language as the medium for Facebook and Twitter,” says Jaboneta.
“That’s why Filipinos are becoming trendsetters, because in a way it gives them an advantage, because they can understand English better.”
Both Dr Rao and Jaboneta attended the 2nd Asean (Association of South East Asian Nations) Media Forum in the Thai capital last week, where a major focus was on the use of social media by youth in Asean to promote the building of an Asean community by 2015.
It is also a reflection of the Philippines’ government’s commitment to promoting social media in its own country that Philippines was the only country to send a senior government representative to the Forum. Jaboneta is the Head of President Aquino’s New Media office.
“Out of 87 government agencies in the Philippines, almost 20 have official Twitter and Facebook accounts,” said Jaboneta. Compared with the rest of Asia, he added, the Philippines had an “extensive presence” already.
When the Philippines’ official government weather station PAGASA (Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration) launched its official Twitter account last Oct 15, it received an overwhelming following from Filipino Twitter users.
Only four weeks has passed since its inception, and already dost_pagasa has over 28,000 followers.
The Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) is another example of a Philippine government agency extending its services through social media. “[The MMDA] has a Twitter account wherein you can Tweet and ask about the traffic situation in a certain area,” said Jaboneta.
“When you ask [a query], within two minutes you will get a response. They have a team that really monitors Tweets and responds on time, so you’ll get traffic updates on the go,” he added.
For Rao, a simple SMS account that helps you avoid traffic jams such as the one MMDA has set up makes a “huge difference”. “It is in the simple things of daily life that mobile and social media make the most impact,” he said.
Mobile remittances, credit sending services and movie reservation assistance — all of these services Filipinos can access via SMS through applications like GCash, Pasa Load and SureSeats.
“I Tweet a lot about what’s happening in mobile,” said Dr Rao, who is a very active Twitter user himself, and conducted a day-long workshop at the Bangkok Forum on social media.
“Very often I Tweet something and people say ‘Oh the Philippines did this 10 years ago’.”
But it isn’t enough that Filipinos keep creating mobile innovations and limiting their reach only within Philippine shores. “You have to be more globally-oriented in projecting your knowledge,” Dr Rao said.
“I’m hearing a lot of consultants coming to India [and] to other parts of the world, saying ‘This is how to do mobile money. See, the Philippines did this’. I think Filipinos should be publishing reports, case studies and sharing it with the whole world,” he suggested.
As “innovators” of the mobile medium, the Philippines need to find ways to share its advancements globally. “The Philippines is a trendsetter, but now Philippines must learn how to project this expertise,” said Dr Rao.
http://www.bernama.com.my/bernama/v5/newsindex.php?id=543705
