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Mobile
Filipino
By Michael Alan Hamlin
September 09, 2002
Last year, the number of mobile telephone
users in China grew by 5.1 million - each month. This year, growth
has slowed somewhat, most recently to around four million a month,
or about a third of all mobile phone users in the Philippines. China
Unicom recently introduced CDMA technology, and users of that advanced
technology quickly grew to 2.2 million. China, with better than
10 times the population of the Philippines, has become Asia's -
and perhaps soon the world's - center of the mobile telecom universe.
But as a percentage of population,
the Philippines doesn't look quite as small. About 20 percent of
all mainland Chinese own mobile phones, while in the Philippines
almost 17 percent of all Filipinos are pre-paid or post-paid subscribers
to mobile services. Statistically, that suggests more than one mobile
phone per household. And although the popularity of SMS text messaging
is growing rapidly, telecom providers throughout Asia look to the
Philippines to understand trends in the development of value-added
services like special logos, ring tones, graphics, applications,
and other services.
According to the DigitalFilipino
StatsReport compiled by e-commerce law champion Janette Toral, between
150 and 200 million text messages are sent every day in the Philippines,
with an average user sending 20. Despite the lowest per capita income
in Southeast Asia with the exception of Indonesia, users spend on
average P1,037 a month for their mobile service.
A recent survey by Toral of 528 users
in Metro Manila, Davao, Cebu, Bicol, and other parts of the country
showed that an impressive 91 percent of all respondents 17 to 56
and up own a phone. Between 90 and 100 percent of respondents aged
21 to 55 own a phone, and surprisingly perhaps, 29 to 36-year-olds
send more messages daily than every other age bracket, between 25
and 30. So the next time you think of criticizing your teenager
for his or her text obsession, remember who's sending most of those
messages.
Toral's survey also showed that users
are using their phones for more than gossip and downloading logos,
ring tones, and icons, although that happens at least once or twice
a month. "News can be considered our application leader in
terms of being used on a regular basis," she notes. Almost
60 percent of respondents retrieve news using their mobile phones
daily, and another 15 percent once a week. By comparison, about
35 percent of users download logos and icons once a month, and another
20 percent or so do downloads once a week.
However, only about 20 percent of
users surveyed avail of any value-added service, and that's likely
to be at least in part because of cost. Globe Telecom president
Jerry Ablaza observed recently in the Far Eastern Economic Review
that school children are saving lunch and snack money so they can
buy additional phone credits. That doesn't make many parents happy
in the knowledge that being in touch takes priority to healthy eating.
But it does teach children to budget, and save. And fortunately,
I don't recall any reports of children collapsing from malnutrition
as a result of scrimping on food.
The popularity of wireless telephony
has "spurred a new area of focus for the software development
sector," according to Toral. She lists 12 companies that are
developing wireless applications, from community and entertainment
content to m-commerce transactions. At least five companies provide
SMS messaging services. imGAME develops games for mobile devices,
and Webcast Technolgoies and Asian Navigation Tracking Service provide
location-based services (perhaps something parents can use to keep
track of those text-happy teenagers).
Toral's research also helps benchmark
Philippine Internet penetration, which should be around 3.5 million
by the end of the year. But consider that in July, China had around
41 million users. That's a lot of users, but is equal only to about
four percent of total population. As a percentage of population,
the Philippines is a little better off, with somewhat over 4.5 percent.
Developed Asian nations naturally have higher penetration. For example,
about half of all Japanese households are connected to the Internet.
But the growth in Internet usage
as a percentage of the population in a developing economy like Philippines
is encouraging considering that the economy is growing about half
as fast as China's, and receives a fraction of the job-generating
foreign investment China does. China's annual foreign investment
of US$45 billion is equal to about $45 per person. The Philippines'
US$400 million or so - depending on who's counting - is equal to
less than US$6 per person.
So despite the investment odds, Internet
Philippine penetration in the Philippines is growing at a respectable
rate relative to developing Asia's best-funded - in terms of FDI
- economy. By 2005, Internet penetration will double according to
Toral, to about seven million, not far off from half of all households.
She believes that it will be the use of wireless devices to access
the Internet that will enhance growth over the next three years.
As this happens, mobile value-added
services and the Internet will continue to generate new opportunities,
jobs, and hopefully, investment in the Philippines. It's good to
know where we stand for these reasons and more, and research like
Toral's helps make that possible.
(Michael Alan Hamlin is the managing
director of consultancy TeamAsia and the author of three books on
Asian economies and companies. His latest book is Marketing Asian
Places, of which he is a co-author (Wiley, 2001). He can be reached
at mahamlin@teamasia.com.ph.).
Copyright © 2002 Michael Alan
Hamlin. All Rights Reserved.
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