Tags: Consumer Goods and Concerns, Internet, Mass Media and Communications, Technology Industry, Telecommunications
By Alexander Villafania
MAKATI CITY, METRO MANILA – While the majority of Filipinos who access the Internet still use traditional platforms such as desktop PCs and laptops, there is a small but growing number of users who use mobile devices, especially smartphones and tablets.
About 12 percent of all Internet users in urban cities in the Philippines access through mobile phones while one percent use tablet PCs.
Access on mobile devices among Filipinos, especially those between the ages 16 and 20 years old, is driven by social networks such as Facebook. Other major age groups that access Facebook are those between the ages 21 and 24 years old.
A steady decline in usage follows those who are in older age groups.
Overall, at least 54 percent of Filipinos in urban cities have used the Internet. About 71 percent from the A, B, and C socio-economic class are using the Internet. Surprisingly, even those in the lower socio-economic levels (51 percent) are still able to access the Internet.
Of course, the most widely used service would be Facebook, which accounts for over 98 percent of all Internet users in urban areas.
It is estimated that around 12.2 million Filipinos have access to the Internet.
These results came from samples of an upcoming report by market research group Taylor Nelson Sofres (TNS) entitled “TNS Digital Life 2012.” It surveyed 72,000 consumers from 60 countries regarding their Internet access and purchasing behavior and includes a portion on Philippines wherein around 1,000 individuals from urban cities were interviewed.
The full TNS report would be officially released in the next two months. However, the early release of these samples provides a glimpse of the Filipino Internet behavior.
One aspect of the study showed that in terms of media consumption, digital platforms are outperforming radio and print versions. For instance, 45 percent of those surveyed said they connect to the Internet daily compared to listening to radio (35 percent) and reading newspapers (12 percent) and magazines (4 percent).
Only TV remains a dominant medium with 89 percent of the survey’s respondents saying that they watch TV every day.
TNS Philippines Managing Director Gary de Ocampo noted the value of a growing base of Internet users in the Philippines especially when it comes to purchasing products. While online trading remains low, searching for products to buy is a major activity when going online.
He noted that in many cases, purchasers depend on their on their social networks for brand information and reviews. At least 59 percent of social network users depend on information from social networks.
Given the level of Internet use among urban-living Filipinos, this alludes to opportunities for consumer brands to focus on building their social network campaigns. Mobile Internet users also tend to open new possibilities for consumer brands.
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Lol, these things are eerwyvhere I was on Lubang island (Just south of Manila) staying with some friends and we drove over some farm’s field, down what looked like a goat trail and then around a corner was this bar, and they had one there. There are also hundreds of bars with these. I was slightly gutted when they had a cut down version of Queen’s Bohemian Rapsity.