Women get Wired

Remember Localvibe.com? Sure you do. It was that online city guide put up by four Ateneo kids some years back, partly on a whim. According to stories passed on from one writer to another, the Internet company was born during a drinking session, when friends Chuck Syjuco, Aye Navarro, Bernice Arcenas and Jet Lacson decided to pool their resources together to put up their own website.

Perhaps nothing prepared them for what would come next. The site, which captured Manila’s real "vibe", easily became the most successful local online city guide: international publications such as Time magazine hailed it, Manileños had another source of pride and, ultimately, the site got so big that it was bought by an international company, Get-Asia.com Pte. Ltd.

But that’s old news. The more recent one is how Chuck–a poet, one-time commercial model and party guy rolled into one–who’s also one of the more visible faces behind GetAsia.com.ph, decided to leave the company he helped put up in exchange for a once-in-a-lifetime chance to pursue his Masters Degree in Creative Writing in one of the US’s most prestigious universities. Many were surprised, and the inevitable next question was, "Who’s going to take his place?"

Well, his shoes may be hard to fill, especially with the success and acclaim he’s brought to his own "project," but in comes 28-year-old Marianne Carandang, founding publisher of the defunct literary journal Pen and Ink and former managing editor of GetAsia.com.ph. As the new editor-in-chief of the site, she’s not entirely treading on new ground. As Chuck’s long-time collaborator, she’s perfectly at home with her new title: The no.1 authority on everything and anything about Manila.

Helping her as the new managing editor is pretty, 25-year-old former "terror" teacher-turned-sex columnist Miren Anna Garamendi. Anna, also one of GetAsia.com.ph’s original staffers, used to edit the Chemistry channel, the site’s most successful channel (there are 11, including Movies & TV, Scene, Food, Arts, Sports & Health, Travel, Music, Style, Tech and The City).

So what’s it like being the women on top of one of Manila’s most successful Internet city guides, what with men virtually dominating the local cyberspace industry?

"The Internet is such a powerful medium, and one of the best things about it is that anyone can get into it. It doesn’t matter if you’re a guy or a girl, as long as you love what you’re doing and you’re committed to the service you’re giving to the people," says Mari.

Their commitment is, of course, providing Metro Manilans with information they really need, especially that which is not yet available in mainstream media like newspapers, magazines or TV shows. These can be anything from the newest bars and restaurants, movies, food festivals, parties, gigs and the like, to such specific needs as a guide to anal sex, perhaps, or the location of a basement in Makati converted into a screening room for independent, experimental or rare art films.

Along-time friend of Chuck and Localvibe co-founders Bernice Arcenas and Jet Lacson, Anna got a call one day from her friends asking if she’d be interested in joining them. She eventually did, as Associate Editor, in November 2001.

As you’ve probably noticed, there’s nothing in their resume that says anything about computers or the Internet (aside from their stint with Localvibe, that is), so it’s safe to assume that they’re "non-techies".

"Well, you learn when you’re there already. But I guess the most important thing in GetAsia is that you have a pulse for Manila’s vibe, what the people are looking for, what they want, topics they want to read about, places they want to check out. And you give this to them the same way you would recommend say, a bar or a restaurant, to a friend. There should be no promotional, commercial or public-relations-related biases. Just people telling other people about things they might be interested in," says Anna.

"More than a city guide, GetAsia.com.ph has always been known not for simply spotting trends, but dictating trends. That has always been one of our strengths and now that we’re a bigger company and site, we intend to make GetAsia.com.ph the only undisputed authority for the active urban lifestyle," Mari shares.

Since its inception, GetAsia has become the fastest-growing web company in the region. While Localvibe was purely an online city guide that catered to a purely local market, GetAsia has successfully penetrated the Asian lifestyle. You can expect the two ladies and their editorial team to branch further than their established network of city guides, now that they intend to provide web content solutions, content for other publications and consumer marketing programs.

"Now it’s not just about covering events, writing about them and suggesting gimmicks to people. One thing that we’ve been consistent in is how we’re always the first to discover new places of interest in Metro Manila. Now we also want to be one of the first ones to provide a larger audience with a broader range of services, such as building sites for them, or offering them new avenues for their businesses," says Mari.

A tall order for non-techies, you say? Not for these two ladies. You can bet on it.