Phl gets huge thumbs up from Facebook

MANILA, Philippines – The Philippines has long ago gained recognition for a tech-savvy populace adept with mobile devices and active on social networks. Indeed, a typical Pinoy maintains accounts on multiple social media platforms such as Twitter, Instagram, and, of course, Facebook.

Ranged against the global average, Filipinos have 1.6 times more friends and use the Messenger app 1.3 more times. Facebook vice president for Asia Pacific Dan Neary recently disclosed these facts at a press conference in reply to a question from The STAR. “Filipinos are (also) spending more time (browsing) Facebook and Instagram than watching TV, 1.7 times,” he added, and further reported that Filipinos spend “289 minutes every single day on mobile devices and communicating – almost 50 percent more than the global average.

“If you think about it, over 90 percent (of people on the) Internet is on Facebook already. That’s really compelling. You will get it from an engagement standpoint and the fact that people are sharing more messages, have more friends…to all mobile where our services are being designed for,” Neary said.

Facebook said 49 million Filipinos are on Facebook – with 44 million accessing it on their mobile devices. That impressive number is part of “more than 241 million people (using) Facebook, (with) 94 percent on mobile,” it said.

With those numbers as backdrop, Neary announced the establishment of a Philippine office for the Mark Zuckerberg-led giant. The announcement is not surprising in light of Pinoys’ “deep” relationship with Facebook. In fact, Neary is aware that Pinoys are asking the question: “Why only now?”

“I think we often get a lot of criticism, especially given how active Filipinos are on Facebook. We have a genuine effort to try and move as fast as we possibly can… into the areas and markets that we care about. The Philippines is one that we care about,” he said. “You can debate whether or not we could have gotten here earlier, but nonetheless it’s a priority… within Facebook overall. Southeast Asia in general is one of our fastest growing regions and the Philippines is a big part of that.”

By opening a Philippine office, Facebook hopes to escalate its business through enterprises “that want to leverage the Facebook platform,” from small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to large domestic firms, to multinationals.

The company is keeping a particularly keen eye on SMEs which, averred Neary, are “driving the overall Philippine economy.” Facebook affords these businesses to connect with the community, an ability that he declared as “super compelling.”

To lead the Philippine team is former Samsung Electronics mobile business director Digs Dimagiba, who brings 18 years of experience in the industry to steer the “local business team that will partner closely with businesses and agencies, helping them get more value out of Facebook’s solutions.” As of December of last year, the social networking service had reported 32 million Filipinos connected to a business page. Ninety-five percent of users discover new products and brands via the platform.

Despite Facebook’s impressive penetration rate thus far, Neary is eagerly looking to sign up “the next billion users” of the service in the continent.

“Asia is going to be a really big part of that (growth). Asia is already (represents the) largest group of users that we have and it’s also the fastest growing. We (continue to) look to the Philippines with still half the people not online, and we’re really just getting started on servicing the business community,” Neary said.

While Neary refused to disclose the amount of investment Facebook has sunk or will continue to sink into the country, he hinted at its level.

“Historically we would manage things with businesses out of our Singapore office which is where most of our regional teams reside. Now the fact that we have it here represents a significant investment for us,” he declared. Neary is also keeping mum on the number of employment opportunities for Filipinos eager to join the company.

One would be hard-pressed to find doubters of anything Facebook brass decides on these days, as CNN recently reported its stock rise to an all-time high of  $121.58 per share. Profits were up nearly 200 percent as Facebook raked in  $5.4 billion in sales. An analyst confidently predicted the share price to “breeze through” a  $145 target as it continues to “(add) users like crazy.”

Facebook, he said, continues to fine-tune “applications, services, or features,” and the Philippine office will “give more voice” to local users and businesses to meet their specific needs in order to have content that resonates with them.

Advertising, for instance, must be pertinent. “Oftentimes, what we see in the industry are comments like: ’Look, why did you serve me up an ad on pregnancy if I’m a guy?’ It just doesn’t make sense,” Neary rued. “Our focus is on making sure what we’re serving up to you is the most relevant. We’re doing it in a way that’s not harming the user. We spend a lot of time in holdout groups – groups of people that never see ads and we’re constantly comparing the level of engagement versus those that we serve ads to make sure that we’re addressing the very question (of) finding the right balance.”

Despite all that the company has achieved and its incredible rise to success, Neary expressed continued excitement for the future.

“If you go to a Facebook office, we’re a company that believes in a strong mission, a strong culture. You’ll see a lot of statements on the wall that best articulate what we believe in. One of the ones that I personally really love is this statement: We believe that our journey is one percent done. And so with that, we’re just super excited to be in the Philippines,” he concluded.