Grab opportunities online, go digital, businesses urged

Kevin Chua, a World Bank senior economist, discusses the digital entrepreneurship ecosystem during the Department of Trade and Industry’s Slingshot Cebu Revving up Business in a Digital world forum held at the City Sports Club, Cebu Business Park, Cebu City on Tuesday, Oct.23, 2018 . CDN PHOTO/JUNJIE MENDOZA.

Businesses need to integrate themselves in the digital economy in order to cash in on the opportunities online.

Presenting initial results from their study on the Digital Economy in the Philippines, World Bank Economist Kevin Chua said that while the country is facing several challenges in terms of government policies and support, there are still prospects in other areas.

In terms of culture, he said Filipinos are world leaders on internet usage and social media.

He cited data from the We are Social 2018 Digital Report that on average, Filipinos spend over nine hours on the internet a day.

The second longest worldwide. There are also 67 million Facebook users in the Philippines.

“Connected Filipinos are world leaders on internet usage and social media. But they make less online purchases than their neighbors,” Chua said in his talk during yesterday’s Slingshot Cebu 2018 yesterday at the City Sports Club.

The Philippines is behind Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam and Indonesia in terms of buying products online.

In another study by Accenture in 2017 named Insights to Digital Commerce, Chua said that the per capita digital purchase in the Philippines is only at $38.

This is way below the $1,861 in Singapore, $634 in China, $199 in Thailand, $160 in Vietnam, and $74 in Malaysia.

“Despite the low-level of online purchase made by Filipinos nowadays, the Philippine e-commerce retail market will grow to nearly $10 billion in 2025,” Chua said.

This is a 40 percent projected increase than that of 2015.

However, despite this massive projection, Chua lamented that there are only a few businesses that are ready for the digital economy in the Philippines.

In the 2016 Global Information Technology Report made by the World Economic Forum, the Philippines ranked 51 out of 139 countries in terms of internet use for business-to-consumer transactions.

Other Southeast Asian countries ranked higher in the report including Singapore (24th), Malaysia (26th), Indonesia (28th), China (32nd), Thailand (39th), and Vietnam (47th).

With this, Chua underscored the need for businesses to go online and explore its possibilities to scale up their businesses.

Yesterday’s Slingshot Cebu 2018 was attended by local micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSME), local startups, as well as representatives from the tech industry.

Ma. Elena Arbon, assistant regional director of the Department of Trade and Industry in Central Visayas (DTI-7), said they want to spur more collaborations between these three sectors in Cebu and the rest of the region.

“This is the cusp of embracing the digital economy. Brick and mortar businesses need to adapt more and faster. On the other hand, there are bright ideas from startups. The more collision there is from these sectors, the better it is for the emergence of new and disruptive ideas,” she said.

Arbon said they hope these three sectors will be able to collaborate more and network with each other during the activity.

Slingshot Cebu 2018 is already on its third year.

In 2016, the activity focused on the startup ecosystem while in 2017, they zoomed in on the digital transformation.