Social Networking in the Philippines

Here’s what I gathered from my research on Social Networking around the world, particularly The Philippines. It amazed me that such a tiny country makes a great impact on the internet world. Now since my blog focuses mainly on social media and networks, I think it is befitting to bring this to everyone’s attention. So please enjoy reading.

Thanks to the sources of all these info that I have compiled 😉

Social networking is one of the most active web-based activities in the Philippines, with Filipinos being declared as the most active users on a number of web-based social network sites such as Friendster and Multiply. Social networking has become part of Filipinos’ cyberculture.

History:

Friendster is one of the first social networking websites in the World Wide Web when it was introduced in 2003. However, its popularity in the United States plummeted quickly in 2004 due to massive technical problems and server delays.^[1] But as it was losing its American audience, Friendster slowly gained users from Southeast Asia starting in the Philippines. Friendster director of engineering Chris Lunt wondered why its web traffic was spiking in the middle of the night, and noticed that the traffic was coming from the Philippines. He then traced the trail to a Filipino-American marketing consultant and hypnotist named Carmen Leilani de Jesus as the first user to have introduced Friendster to the Philippines, where a number of her friends live.^[2]

Statistics:

A study released by Universal McCann entitled “Power To The People – Wave3” declared the Philippines as “the social networking capital of the world,” with 83 percent of Filipinos surveyed are members of a social network. They are also regarded as the top photo uploaders and web video viewers, while they are second when it comes to the number of blog readers and video uploaders.^[3][4]

With over 7.9 million Filipinos using the Internet, 6.9 million of them visit a social networking site at least once a month.^[5] Friendster is the most visited website in the Philippines, as well as in Indonesia, according to web tracking site Alexa.^[6] David Jones, vice president for global marketing of Friendster, said that “the biggest percentage of (their site’s) users is from the Philippines, clocking in with 39 percent of the site’s traffic.” He further added that in March 2008 alone, Friendster recorded 39 million unique visitors, with 13.2 million of whom were from the Philippines.^[7] Meanwhile, Multiply president and founder Peter Pezaris said that the Filipino users of their site comprised the largest and most active group in terms of number of subscribers and of photographs being uploaded daily. About 2.2 million out of more than nine million registered users of Multiply are Filipinos, outnumbering even nationalities with a bigger population base like the United States, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Brazil. Also, one million photographs are uploaded by Filipinos to Multiply every day, which is half of their total number worldwide.^[7]

Sixty percent of Filipino users of Multiply are female, while 70 percent are under the age of 25. In comparison, Filipino Friendster users are between the ages 16 to 30, with 55 percent of them female.^[7]

Footnotes:

1. ^ Rivlin, Gary (October 15, 2006). “Wallflower at the Web Party“, New York Times. Retrieved on 2008–06-24.
2. ^ ^{a b c} “Orkut, Friendster Get Second Chance Overseas“. PBS.org (June 15, 2007). Retrieved on 2008–06-22.
3. ^ “Power To The People: Social Media Tracker, Wave3“. Universal McCann (March 2008). Retrieved on 2008–06-22.
4. ^ Liao, Jerry (May 20, 2008). “The Philippines – Social Networking Capital of the World“, Manila Bulletin. Retrieved on 2008–06-23.
5. ^ Yazon, Giovanni Paolo (March 31, 2007). “Social networking to the higher level“, Manila Standard Today. Retrieved on 2008–06-23.
6. ^ Ling, Woo Liu (January 29, 2008). “Friendster Moves to Asia“, Time.com. Retrieved on 2008–06-23.
7. ^ ^{a b c} Salazar, Tessa (June 22, 2008). “Filipinos are prolific, go and Multiply“, Philippine Daily Inquirer, pp. A1, A10. Retrieved on 2008–06-23.

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The Distinction of Today’s Social Media

Social media or social networking
(one example of social media) has a number of characteristics that make
it fundamentally different from traditional media such as newspapers,
television, books, and radio. Primarily, social media depends on
interactions between people as the discussion and integration of words
builds shared-meaning, using technology as a conduit.

Social media utilities create opportunities for the use of both
inductive and deductive logic by its users. Claims or warrants are
quickly transitioned into generalizations due to the manner in which
shared statements are posted and viewed by all. The speed of
communication, breadth, and depth, and ability to see how the words
build a case solicits the use of rhetoric. Induction is frequently used
as a means to validate or authenticate different users’ statements and
words. Rhetoric is an important part of today’s language in social
media.

Social media is not finite: there is not a set number of pages or
hours. The audience can participate in social media by adding comments
or even editing the stories themselves. Content in social media can
take the form of text, graphics, audio, or video. Several formats can
be mixed. Social media is typically available via feeds, enabling users
to subscribe via feed readers, and allowing other publishers to create
mashups.

Social media signifies a broad spectrum of topics and has several
different connotations. In the context of Internet marketing, Social
Media refers to a collective group of web properties that are driven by
users. For example, blogs, discussion boards, vlogs, video sharing
sites and dating sites. Social Media Optimization (SMO) is the process
of trying to get one’s content more widely distributed across multiple
Social Media networks.

Social Media has two important aspects. The first, SMO, refers to
on-page tactics through which a webmaster can improve a website for the
age of social media. Such optimization includes adding links to
services such as Digg, Reddit and Del.icio.us so that their pages can
be easily ‘saved and submitted’ to and for these services.

Social Media Marketing, on the other hand, is an off-page
characteristic of Social Media. This includes writing content that is
remarkable, unique, and newsworthy. This content can then be marketed
by popularizing it or even by creating a “viral” video on YouTube and
other video sites. Social Media is about being social so this off-page
work can include getting involved in other similar blogs, forums, and
niche communities. Search Engine Marketing or SEM involves utilization
of all available Social Networking platforms to brand a product using
Search Engine Optimization or SEO techniques of communication, to the
end consumer.

Note: This article or section may contain original research or unverified claims.

Examples of social media applications include:

Communication

• Microblogs / Presence apps: Twitter and Pownce
• Social networking: Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace and Avatars United
• Events: Upcoming.org

Collaboration

• Wikis: Wikipedia
• Social bookmarking: del.icio.us and StumbleUpon
• Social News Sites: Digg, Mixx and Reddit
• Opinion sites: epinions

Multimedia

• Photo sharing: Flickr and Zooomr
• Video sharing: YouTube and Vimeo
• Livecasting: Ustream and Justin.tv
• Audio and Music Sharing: imeem

Entertainment

• Virtual worlds: Second Life
• Online gaming: World of Warcraft
• Game sharing: Miniclip.com

Other/Specialty

• social ads