Philippines: Digital, social and mobile stats in 2015

In this Friday, Jan. 16, 2015, photo, Filipino Catholics prepare to take photos, using their mobile phones and tablets, of Pope Francis aboard his Popemobile in Manila, Philippines. Pope Francis is here on a five-day apostolic visit in this predominantly Catholic nation in Asia. (AP Photo/Bullit Marquez)

(UPDATED AUG. 2, 2015) Defying the challenges of income inequality and awful quality of internet and mobile services, the Philippines is marching forward in digital, social and mobile in 2015 as a raft of numbers would show.

WORLD’S MOST SOCIAL NATION

In its State of the Mobile Web 2015 report, Opera said:

The Philippines used to be known as the text-messaging capital of the world. Now, with easier internet access and higher smartphone adoption, our findings indicate that the country has transformed into the most social nation.

According to our latest the State of the Mobile Web report, mobile internet users in the Philippines tend to visit social-networking sites more than other sites. In total, 86% of page views from Opera Mini mobile browser users in the Philippines are social-networking sites — the highest percentage among Opera Mini’s top-50 user countries, worldwide. This report is based on aggregated information obtained from Opera Mini servers. In June 2015, the servers processed 24,575 TB of data and served over 160 billion pages. More than 250 million people around the world use Opera Mini for a faster web experience and to get the most out of their mobile data usage.

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Last January 2015,  WeAreSocial released this snapshot of the Philippines’ changing digital landscape:

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The numbers are impressive, and represent leaps since 2014:

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Check out the WeAreSocial’s 2015 report and compare the numbers of the Philippines with other countries.

Another study, WAVE8, came out with the snapshot of the Philippines in 2014.

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As of 2014, the Philippines ranks 16th in the world in terms of number of internet users, according to Internet World Stats:

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FACEBOOK NATION

The Philippines’ love affair with Facebook is still strong, according to Global Web Index:

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According to social monitoring group SocialBakers, artist Angel Locsin leads the 10 most popular Facebook Pages:

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 SocialBakers also ID’s the Philippines’ top brands on Facebook:

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INTERNET SPEEDS

As of May 2015, a study by Ookla said the Philippines’ internet services remain among the slowest in Asia, beating only war-torn Afghanistan for the dubious honor.

Malaysia’s The Star released this infographic also last May 2015:

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As of today, 20 July 2015, Ookla’s monitoring shows these numbers:

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Not so much has changed, obviously, since 2014: A widely-shared ASEAN infographic captured the Philippines’ internet services problem in 2014:

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E-COMMERCE

The Department of Trade and Industry has come up with a Philippines E-Commerce Roadmap for 2015-2020.

Here’s a snapshot from the DTI presentation:

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Meanwhile, a think-tank said in Feb. 2015 that:

The online retail market in ASEAN 6 (Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam) has the potential to grow 25 percent annually through 2017.

To achieve this, ATKearney also said that the Philippines and other ASEAN countries should address “five significant challenges”, namely

  1. Increase broadband access
  2. Support local offers
  3. Reinforce online security
  4. Promote e-payment
  5. Improve logistics and trade efficiency

MOBILE

In its 1Q 2015 financial report, Globe Telecom said that:

Globe’s mobile subscriber base reached 46.1 million, up a solid 13% from the 40.7 million a year ago driven by all-time high acquisitions this period.

The PLDT Group of Smart Communications and Sun Cellular revealed in its 1Q 2015 financial report:

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Both telcos remain highly-profitable, as we could see from Globe’s numbers:

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and from the PLDT Group’s as well:

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Here are the links to the publicly-available financial reports of both telco groups: Globe Telecom and PLDT 

The bonanza continues as of 1H 2015 as this BusinessWorld infographic would show:

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MOBILE LIFESTYLE

In 2014, OnDeviceResearch dubbed the Philippines’ mobile market as “young, affluent and growing fast”. The report is rich in information and insights, and a must-read for marketers, brands, researchers, movements, policymakers and non-profits.

Note: Featured image is a photo by Bullit Marquez of the Associated Press, and grabbed from DailyMail. All rights reserved by Bullit Marquez/Associated Press.