Web 2.0 in the Philippines

What is web 2.0 in the Philippines? Do people understand? Do people know what it really means? Moving back from the UK to the Philippines, brought a big shock for me, technologically, as web 2.0 was an undefined term which only a few knew. There were only 2 aspects of web 2.0 that people knew well, blogs and social networking…

… Blogging was pretty much what everyone had, whether they have their own wordpress blog, blogger, friendster, multiply, typepad etc. It somehow dominated our internet space, as a matter of fact people know more ‘blog’ sites than web 2.0 websites. While, Social Networking is probably the most known web 2.0 application in the Philippines, in fact, Philippines was one of the biggest number of users in Friendster (I’m not so sure today as everyone’s gone Facebook crazy). Social Networks even get great publicity being cited in the media and Facebook has even become a verb (“Ifacebook mo” = post it up in Facebook).

We do have lots of websites that specifically target just the Philippines, but notice how it’s not user friendly and designs that are so 1.0. There’s a huge gap in the market, an opening that not a lot are seeing or even considering in doing. What we need are web startups, internet entrepreneurs and investors. Us, Filipinos, are entrepreneurial in nature and this is a space that we haven’t really penetrated at all.

–Trust is the issue–

The fundamental problem here is “Trust”, because of negative publicity of the net, hackers, phishing, fraud. People are then hesitant in registering their true details, not to mention their credit cards. The way to go is showing credibility by accreditations or publicity.

We need to really push things and help upgrade Philippines. We’re too behind with the internet, but we have the people and skills to make it happen. Let’s develop the internet space and get the ball rolling. My theory is that if we get enough publicity and strike the interest of the public, change will happen and people will be more open to cloud computing.

If you’re a web 2.0 Philippines startup or existing web company, please contact me as I’m really interested in knowing more about your website/s.