SOURCE: Dennis Estopace
MANILA, Philippines - Availability or lack of high-speed broadband access may make a difference in online trading in the Philippines, executives of information technology firm eBay Philippines Inc. said.
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MANILA, Philippines - Availability or lack of high-speed broadband access may make a difference in online trading in the Philippines, executives of information technology firm eBay Philippines Inc. said.
“eCommerce will remain wanting as broadband remains a little low,” business head Abhimanyu Lal told reporters on Thursday. “eCommerce has yet to explode here, but soon, maybe [in] about two to three years,” he added.
Lal, who flew in from Kuala Lumpur, said the Filipinos’ engagement in transacting over the Internet has grown last year, with the whole online trade growing at his estimate of 30% overall.
That is also the percentage amount of growth that Philippines country manager Ambareesh Murty estimated the Internet penetration in the country.
The eBay executives’ announcement followed the inclusion by the United Nations Commission on Trade and Development (Unctad) of the Philippines among the top 20 exporters and importers of information-communications technology (ICT) goods.
The Unctad said on Wednesday that about 36.4% of total exports of ICT goods worth $14 billion came from the Philippines in 2009, the UN agency’s latest summarized data.
The Unctad said the data it released on February 2 from Geneva, Switzerland, “supports recent findings that the global financial crisis has led to significant shifts in world trade of ICT goods towards Asia.”
While ICT exports from most major exporters fell in 2009 as a result of the financial crisis, the Unctad said, the declines in exports experienced by the Philippines, also China, Hong Kong (China), the Republic of Korea, and Thailand, “were relatively modest.”
The data may have boosted eBay’s confidence as Murty told the BusinessMirror after the press briefing they have put up a “small office” to manage the company’s business in the Philippines.
The company said it has over 750,000 registered users in the Philippines that, at any given time, list about 400,000 products and services to trade.
A piece of women’s clothing or a health or beauty product sells every three minutes on eBay Philippines. A woman’s handbag or a piece of jewelry sells every six minutes. Dennis Estopace
The company said more than half of its registered users are women.
Over 3,000 sellers derive income from eBay sales.
As many as 74% of online shoppers bought in the lifestyle vertical followed by the technology sector.
Lal, who flew in from Kuala Lumpur, said the Filipinos’ engagement in transacting over the Internet has grown last year, with the whole online trade growing at his estimate of 30% overall.
That is also the percentage amount of growth that Philippines country manager Ambareesh Murty estimated the Internet penetration in the country.
The eBay executives’ announcement followed the inclusion by the United Nations Commission on Trade and Development (Unctad) of the Philippines among the top 20 exporters and importers of information-communications technology (ICT) goods.
The Unctad said on Wednesday that about 36.4% of total exports of ICT goods worth $14 billion came from the Philippines in 2009, the UN agency’s latest summarized data.
The Unctad said the data it released on February 2 from Geneva, Switzerland, “supports recent findings that the global financial crisis has led to significant shifts in world trade of ICT goods towards Asia.”
While ICT exports from most major exporters fell in 2009 as a result of the financial crisis, the Unctad said, the declines in exports experienced by the Philippines, also China, Hong Kong (China), the Republic of Korea, and Thailand, “were relatively modest.”
The data may have boosted eBay’s confidence as Murty told the BusinessMirror after the press briefing they have put up a “small office” to manage the company’s business in the Philippines.
The company said it has over 750,000 registered users in the Philippines that, at any given time, list about 400,000 products and services to trade.
A piece of women’s clothing or a health or beauty product sells every three minutes on eBay Philippines. A woman’s handbag or a piece of jewelry sells every six minutes. Dennis Estopace
The company said more than half of its registered users are women.
Over 3,000 sellers derive income from eBay sales.
As many as 74% of online shoppers bought in the lifestyle vertical followed by the technology sector.
