Click your way around Metro Manila

MANILA, Philippines - New in town? Want to know the restaurants and shops nearest your location? Want to know what movies are on? Need today’s TV schedules? Want know any happenings?

Thanks to the Internet and advances in mobile communication technology, nearly any information is only a click away as modern everyday living continues to evolve. These days, you don’t even need to pick up a phone to order pizza.

When online Metro Manila guide Click the City (www.clickthecity.com) started in 2000, it was only a Web site directory of restaurants, shops, movie schedules and the usual metro info that you could find in newspaper lifestyle sections.

But later cellular phones started getting smarter and the Internet became faster and more accessible even on the road. Today, just having a Web site isn’t mobile enough.

“We thought that Click the City had to evolve when new technology became available,” says the site’s product head, Bea Acosta, about its development into one of the Philippines’ top Internet sites.

Although smart phones have been around since 1992, the game changed when the late Apple CEO Steve Jobs unveiled the iPhone in 2007. It was also a game changer for Click the City.

“We got excited that you could put Click the City in your phone,” Acosta relates. “We explored, took a year to develop and play around with how this new medium would work with click the city content.”

In 2009, the first version of the Click the City mobile application was introduced. It is today consistently among the top 10 free lifestyle apps downloaded from Apple’s Apps Store.

According to Acosta, 80 percent of the Click the City downloads went into Apple devices, the remaining 20 percent into Android-run gadgets. “It wouldn’t have evolved that way if the technology wasn’t available.”

The number of Click the City’s unique visitors, or people new to the site (repeat visitors are not counted), jumped from 3,671,755 in 2009 to 4,139,619 in 2010. For this year, from January to October 31, it’s already at 4,434,150.

Although the Philippines has one of the highest poverty rates in Asia, inexplicably, Filipinos are the heaviest Internet users in Southeast Asia.

The Philippines ranks 8th among countries with the largest number of Facebook users, at 26.7 million, according to Check Facebook (checkfacebook.com). It means there is a large online market out there.

Because of rapidly changing technology, going online is more than just searching the Internet for information. That is certainly the case with Click the City, which tourists and foreign residents have found useful.

“For example, you’re a traveler or an expat and you’re not familiar with Metro Manila,” says Acosta. “When you get here, what’s your transportation? Where’s the money changer? What is the best route to go to this landmark? We want to go beyond restaurant and movie listings. We want to show how a traveler or foreigner should go around the city.”

Acosta once met a visiting Canadian who used Click the City after a friend in Manila recommended it. For other people, it’s almost like a divine blessing. “Thank God for Click the City! I found the movie schedule,” exclaimed one on Twitter.

Like radar, Click the City users can find malls, restaurants, shops and other establishments nearest their locations. It also has maps to show you where you are and how far you are from the establishment you are looking for. Following Youtube’s steps – and when Internet connections became faster – videos were added.

Acosta is most excited about the app’s electronic ordering system, its newest feature. Just go to the “delivery” page and click on the restaurant where you want to order from. Choose from the menu, tap in your order, and tap “send”. Payment is cash on delivery.

And there is no telling how the Internet will define lifestyles in the near future, says Acosta. “We’re pretty excited with how everything is changing. It’s not just logging on and waiting for the computer to start. It’s very different engagement now with the market. We try complete the user experience.”