Philippines- - Understanding the market [Developing Markets Series 1- (South East Asia)]

In my last article, I wrote about Vietnam. This is in continuation to my last article, as promised that I will continue the Series 1- (South East Asia)] .so....here I will focus on another promising market in South East Asia- Philippines. In case if you working on your next presentation or looking out for some stats or considering a job, you might find this useful. I will try to add some visuals as well, feel free to use them.

Some Quick facts about the Philippines market (*Some data might not be very recent)

*Note- I just want to focus on things which are relevant and not text-heavy..So I am skipping verbose texts and stuff.. feel free to use the graphs/charts/pics...

Positives

•Young population- median age is 23 years. 50% of them are under 23 -Total: 23.4 years | Male: 22.9 years| Female: 23.8 years. Urban population: 44.4% of total population

•English language proficient- Other languages: Filipino (official; based on Tagalog) and English (official); eight major dialects - Tagalog, Cebuano, Ilocano, Hiligaynon or Ilonggo, Bicol, Waray, Pampango, and Pangasinan

•Vibrant and dynamic culture

•High growth market- Strong remittances from overseas employed Filipinos

•Positive business climate

•Always connected- Digital savvy audience

•Western influenced

•12th most populous nation- huge demand

•A positive economic and political context

Negatives

•High poverty incidence

•Basic facilities are not within reach

•Weak internet infrastructure

•Unpredictable weather

•Heavy road traffic

Some statistics

·        2nd largest Internet market in South East Asia and 6th in whole Asia

·        44 Million – Total online Population- Projected – 69.3 Million by 2018

·        Internet access has grown by 500%-the fastest in the region

·        Email is the #1 activity of 90% of the local users

·        About 83% of the users send private messages through the social media

·        Approximately 81% of the users update or post messages regularly

·        Roughly 79% of the users read the news

·        Around 78% of the users utilize instant messaging services for chatting

·        The average user spends 21.5 hours online every week.

·        For ecommerce transactions- 53% use cash, 36% use credit cards and 10% use bank transfer

·        81.68% use Google search as their primary search engine

·        51% have their active YouTube profile

·        48 Million Facebook users

·        Time spent- 6.3hrs/day on internet and 3.4hrs/day on social media

Remittance landscape- Philippines market

Remittance is one of the key contributing factors in the Philippines GDP. Filipinos who work overseas are known as Overseas Filipino workers. The below mentioned statistics will help companies who are into Block-chain and trying to capture Filipinos (either based in or outside Philippines)

Statistics

•Remittance accounts for 10% of GDP in Philippines

•3rd largest recipient for remittance after India and China

•Worth of total USD 28 billion in 2014 with a global total of USD 583 billion

•Traditional remittance providers in the Philippines, such as Lhuiller and Palawan Pawnshop, charges between 5-12% for small transactions

• Flaws with traditional wire transfer- long delays and also it requires minimum amount in the bank account.

•42% bank penetration and less than 5% credit card penetration

•73% of the Philippines population still remained unbanked

•Filipino workers spend around USD$2 billion in transaction and conversion fees when sending money back to their families.

•As per the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas , cash remittances climbed 4.6% to $25.8 billion in 2015, exceeding the central bank's projection of 4% growth.

•A central bank survey showed 95.9% of households that receive remittances use the money to buy food and other household needs. They also earmark remittances to buy houses, cars and other investments.

•As of 2014, there were over 10 million Filipinos living outside of the Philippines With the average Filipino remittance amount at US$250 and with an average remittance cost of 5-8%, about US$12.50-$20 was “lost” per transaction

This was just an overview of Philippines for 2016, stay tuned for more information on other developing countries. Thanks for reading, if you find any mistakes or data mis-match, please do let me know.