Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Toral: E-commerce growth

By Janette Toral

Digital Filipino

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

THE list of 2011 Digital Filipino – Search Profile Index Web Awards winners (http://bit.ly/webawards2011) shows that e-commerce players are dominating the local market.

The strength of online communities has allowed sites like Sulit.com.ph to grow through the years.

Being in a community of like-minded individuals who are interested in offering and getting fair deals paves the way for content and interaction growth.

Multiply.com fully embraced its potential as an e-commerce platform last year as it began offering payment facilities for its online sellers. This is an important milestone in the local market as traditional methods, which go through a tedious process of accreditation, have been used for the longest time.

Local companies have also embraced the power of the Internet to offer an experience that is usually rendered by similar companies in other countries. Without a doubt, Cebu Pacific Air’s special flight deals prompt customers to constantly monitor the site and make bookings the moment a promotion is available.

BPI Express Online began extending is banking services to modern smartphone devices, further enriching the banking experience. It also launched new products that cater to its growing users’ active way of doing online transactions.

On the government side, the pro-active role of the National Statistics Office in sharing the country’s statistical information is a valuable resource for students, professionals, and businesses. Its online citizen service, which allows Filipinos to request birth certificates and related identity documents online, makes this usually tedious errand lighter and faster.

The same can be said for the online chat and text messaging service, Chikka.com. The service platform transcends and adapts to changing times by making the technology accessible to social networks, smartphones, and the like. In my case, I use the platform to communicate to one of my students who is based in Japan to follow up on assignments.

For those active in buying domain names online, the ease of use of the DotPh service is comparable to international domain name sellers. With more Filipinos eager to build an online presence, more folks will own a .ph domain for sure.

MannyPacquiao.ph has made boxing an exciting beat and it also introduces other local boxers who are showing great potential for international title belts. The Filipinos’ passion for this sport has also created new revenue opportunities online and offline for those covering developments in this space.

As casual and multi-player games kept growing in the country, Friendster.com’s transition from the first full-blown social networking site to a gaming hub was a development worth watching.

At first, many doubted whether it will work. Surprisingly, there are users, old and new, who embraced the change and welcomed the new Friendster, which is seen adapting to the current generation of users.

Once Friendster fully extends its platform to the mobile device and extends the game experience there, I’m certain it will rock and even attract its first generation of users who are more mobile-oriented nowadays.

Published in the Sun.Star Cebu newspaper on January 04, 2012.

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