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Surfers
Mature!
By Michael Alan Hamlin
October 07, 2002
The latest survey results by DigitalFilipino
show that Internet usage in the Philippines appears to be shifting
from toy and communications service to serious research and business
tool. So important, in fact, that most users set aside money - whether
from allowances or expendable income - for their own personal pre-paid
access cards, taking direct control of usage and investment. And
it's also interesting that among younger users, women fairly significantly
outnumber men.
The latest survey is the third in
a series of regular surveys conducted by ICT champion Janette Toral.
The current issue is concerned principally with Internet usage and
online shopping behavior, but future surveys will examine such things
as online banking habits and trends in ownership of computing devices.
The current survey provides some hints, however, of increasing sophistication
among Philippine Internet users in these and other usage categories.
It also indicates increasing importance of the Internet for small-
and medium-sized businesses and entrepreneurs.
The survey - which is based on the
responses of almost 600 Internet users nationwide - is an important
service to enterprises that service the Internet community directly
by providing such things as access services and indirectly by providing
value-added user services, such as shopping, banking, and researching.
The survey allows such enterprises to make more informed decisions,
both strategically and operationally, about the services they offer
or intend to offer.
Of the very comprehensive survey
findings, a number clearly stand out because they indicate an increasing
maturity in the use of the Internet. And that the Internet has become
an important tool for users. Consider for example that 95 percent
of the respondents use the Internet every day for at least an hour.
Most use it for at least two hours. And when the responses of all
users are averaged, online time jumps to between three and fours
daily.
When asked why they spend all this
time on the Internet, over 40 percent said it was principally to
do research. Broken down by age group, research was the primary
reason for using the Internet for 60 to 70 percent of all users
between 17 and 40. Only around 20 percent of all users said e-mail
was the primary motivation for going online. However, users indicated
that the Internet is still an important communications tool, with
each one receiving an average of 32 e-mail messages a day. While
close to 40 percent are of a personal nature, though, 35 percent
are business related, with the remainder span and junk mail.
Note that these are findings for
all age groups from 16 and below to 56 and up. The percentage of
business-related e-mails among employed users is likely to be much
higher, and perhaps that will be confirmed in future surveys. Whether
it is or not, it is clear from the current survey that the Internet
is not mostly a communications tool. A previous DigitalFilipino
survey indicated that role seems to fall to mobile telephony, especially
SMS, or text messaging services.
Because the Internet has grown in
importance to users, they seem willing to invest more for access
from the home and Internet cafés. The average respondent
pays P1,034 for usage each month, with the 46-55 age group paying
substantially more, probably because they cover access costs for
the entire family. However, the survey found that in other age groups,
individual household users increasingly invest in their own pre-paid
cards. This could be for ease of access - Internet cafés
are located principally near schools, for instance - or to lessen
reliance on heads of households, or both. It also suggests that
users are increasingly willing set aside money from allowances and
expendable income to invest in Internet access.
More users are also accessing the
Internet from work than ever before, 60 percent in the current survey.
Toral notes in her report that, "It is interesting to note
the growth of Internet connectivity to the workplace. At this time,
such facility is no longer limited to big companies but (has spread)
to SMEs as well. Eleven percent of our respondents are entrepreneurs
who have Internet connectivity in their place and see it as vital
to their businesses."
Although men dominate in the higher
age brackets, the reverse is true in the 16 and below to 24 age
groups, where up to 78 percent of respondents were women. Overall,
women and male users came out almost even. But the results among
the younger age group indicate that women may dominate usage over
time. Catalyzing usage is likely to be financial services, such
those offered by BPI, Citibank, and others.
All users are also shopping online.
Although Amazon.com remains by far the most popular shopping destination,
users are spending far more money on software, hardware, and even
shoes, for instance. Respondents spent as much as US$400 on software
in a year, and US$300 on hardware, the same amount they were willing
to spend on shoes, incidentally. Users overall spent an average
of US$162 a year on the Internet.
The survey also showed, unfortunately,
that the digital divide is alive and well in the Philippines, and
needs to be addressed. Eighty-three percent of recipients were college
graduates with bachelor and master degrees. Annual incomes reported
were mostly in the range of P120,000 to P720,000, among those employed.
So while the survey results were encouraging because they show that
the Internet is becoming a value-added too, they also showed that
much remains to be done to make that tool available to more Filipinos.
(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). Write him at mahamlin@teamasia.com.).
Copyright © 2002 Michael Alan
Hamlin. All Rights Reserved.
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