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Understanding Tech Issues with Reliable Vision of Innovation
by Jerry Liao, Philippines
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Philippines--The social networking capital of the world
May 9, 2008 20:39The Philippines has been regarded as the texting capital of the world for a long time now. Anywhere you go, anywhere you look, almost every Filipino owns a mobile phone--regardless of his or her status in life. The mobile phone is a commodity here and mobile phone credits are sold like candies. You can buy phone credits for as low as 1 peso. How much does it cost for one to send a text message? 1 peso, too. That's retail for you.
But I am not here to talk about why we are regarded as the texting capital of the world, that's an old story already. Universal McCann recently released its latest study undertaken in March 2008 entitled Power To The People--Wave3.
The report indicated that 83 percent of Filipinos surveyed are members of a social network, making the Philippines the social networking capital of the world, followed by Hungary with 80 percent and Poland with 76 percent.
Uploading photos was regarded as the number one activity as far as sharing content was concerned, and again the Philippines topped that with 86 percent, ahead of China (73 percent), and Mexico (72 percent). This can be attributed to mobile ownership and mobile phones which are nowadays equipped with cameras.
The Philippines was again number one when it cameto watching videos with 98.6 percent, followed by Mexico (94.6 percent) and Brazil (94.2 percent).
The Philippines came in second when it came to blog readers with 90.3 percent, South Korea at number one with 92.1 percent. When in came to downloading podcast, the Philippines was fifth with 61.8 percent, China at number one with 74.3 percent.
In as far as subscribing to RSS feeds, the Philippines landed sixth with 45.2 percent, Russia at number one with 56.6 percent. When it came to uploading videos, the Philippines came in second with 60.5 percent, Brazil at number one with 68.3 percent.
In as far as social networking usage was concerned, MySpace led the pack with 32.3 percent, followed by Facebook (22.5 percent), Blogger (15.7 percent), Baidu (15 percent), and QQ (14.6 percent) completing the Top 5.
In summary:
-83 percent watched video clips, up from 62 percent in the last study in June 2007
-78 percent read blogs, up from 66 percent
-57 percent of Internet users were now members of a social network
-RSS consumption was growing rapidly up from 15-39 percent
-Podcasts were now mainstream digital content, listened to by 48 percent
-22 percent installed a widget or applications [although relatively few installed marketing apps]
-55 percent shared photos
-22 percent shared their videos
-31 percent started a blog
The research covered input from 17,000 Internet users across 29 countries and was undertaken to understand the rise in consumer-generated content and how people were using the social media. You can view the entire report here.
By the way, I will be in Hong Kong from May 11-14 for a much-needed break. Mickey, Donald, Goofy, Pluto, Dumbo--here I come.
God bless!
- Talkback
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Thanks Jerry for the information, I will check the site soon.
May 09, 2008 22:31
statistics are but numbers that people around the world will look upon as figures to compete with or as baseline criteria. but its nice to know what people make good use of technology in this day & age, take note that there's tagalog/filipino version of blogger now which was recently initiated by Google. this is a good one.
May 10, 2008 07:42
@arthemus - you're very welcome.
@ferdiel - i totally agree with you that these are mere numbers. I am just glad that its growing steadily and more and more Filipinos are going online nowadays. For communication now, hopefully for business in the near future.
May 10, 2008 12:20
Indeed Philippines is the social networking capital of the world! Gadgets now are status symbol..whatta!! From classic Maria Clara to modern Juan dela Cruz!
May 15, 2008 04:31
@mackybates19 - hi. I do hope the trend continues as the prices of gadgets are going down. More people getting wired I believe is good.
May 16, 2008 07:57
About Jerry Liao
Jerry Liao is an IT consultant in the Philippines who conducts seminars on various tech topics. He is a regular columnist of Manila Bulletin, a member of the academe, a system developer and a system analyst. He is a frequent fixture in press conferences and tech launchings, most of which are posted at infochat.com.ph. He loves to tinker with the latest gadgets and gizmos, but his most cherish possession are his children.
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