One habit of highly effective people

Account manager Jen Esguerra spends most of her time preparing and giving powerpoint presentations. A young professional on her way up in one of the Philippines’ top multinational corporations, she exudes an aura of easy confidence in any boardroom, pitching with the poise of one prepared to stun even the toughest of clients.

Jen’s predominantly Filipino clientele is often amazed at her deep understanding of the local market. From localized industry statistics to intimate profiles of local players, she always manages to dish out the latest trends–from fashion to politics. Her best-kept secret? Yehey.com–where anything that’s made in the Philippines—or by Filipinos—is found.

From the office, home, or from any coffee shop with wireless Internet connection, Jen clicks on to Yehey!’s powerful search engine for a range of detailed information on virtually every aspect of Filipino life. For an upwardly mobile yuppie, having at your fingertips the latest figures on your brand’s top 10 competitors, quotes from one of their CEOs, or feedback from consumers on the street is a guaranteed career booster.

"Yehey! makes work so much faster, easier and more relevant to the Filipino audience," she says. "I’m always able to get fresh data to which my clients can relate."

In times when all she wants to do is relax and cool her heels, Jen logs on for the latest sports and entertainment news, the hippest trends in clothing, or check out movies to watch. From links to popular magazines, message boards to Yehey!’s own brand of online journalism, an ongoing discussion on the most relevant to the silliest yet most entertaining of issues abound. She can also email, pay her bills, or schedule a date with a cute guy—without leaving the four corners of her PC monitor.

What the Filipino surfer is looking for

Jen is but one of hundreds of thousands of users who have already passed through Yehey!’s website. The only existing web portal that’s uniquely tailored to Filipino sensibilities and tastes, Yehey! currently boasts of over 280,000 registered users, as well as 360 million page views and 21.6 million unique visitors per year. A big chunk of this comes from students and professionals eager for first-hand accounts and impressions on local politics, business and lifestyle.

Yehey!’s Management Information Systems (MIS) department regularly tracks the most visited channels in its site to find out this generation’s motivation for logging on. And it seems that for most Filipinos, three main power features stand out: search, content, and connectivity.

In 2005, 25 million hits registered on Yehey!’s search engine function alone. Filipinos know the site offers more localized content than any other web portal available. Want to take a vacation in Cebu? You can find the best value-for- money deals in Yehey! While international search engines only list high-end hotels that probably have their own sites anyway, Yehey! is capable of listing even the most obscure of local products, services and destinations online.

What if you need a locally produced study on the Philippine banking industry? Yehey!’s chances of finding that is much, much greater than Yahoo! or Google. Suppose your thesis lacks quotes from a celebrity professor from the state university? Yehey! tells you precisely where to go.

Statistics show millions of users are catching on to the Yehey! bandwagon. Yet it’s not just because of Yehey!’s superior search technology. In 2005, more than 30 million hits were indexed on Yehey!’s varied content sites. Those registering in millions include pages on news, sports, entertainment, finance, culture and lifestyle. Obviously, users are beginning to appreciate Yehey!’s unique capability to integrate various local preferences into a one-stop shop portal.

"The things we get to read in Yehey! are not far off issues that are probably more important to people living halfway across the world," says Jen. "Rather, we read about issues that really affect us, issues and events that are really important to us. That’s what makes it so appealing."

Another thing pulling those hits is Yehey’s ability to connect people to several popular partner sites. In 2005, almost 80 million hits passed through Yehey! before reaching discussion and traffic-heavy websites such as Pinaytalk.com, Pinoypride.com and Greenarcher.com, where users not only exchange opinions on various subjects, but also form alliances and friendships. There is no way international search engines will be able to facilitate such fast and efficient connectivity to interactive communities that appeal most to Pinoy sensibilities.

There are dozens of other reasons this generation has chosen to log on to Yehey! From email, chat rooms, e-commerce services to search, browse, and connect, everything that’s found on the country’s most popular website contribute to generate millions of page views. Ultimately, what ties everything together is Yehey!’s unique position as the only Internet entity able to offer every single one like a plate of Pinoy delights.