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The
Asia-Pacific region is booming with internet activity,
and nowhere has the growth been so explosive. From
the time the industry was deregulated, nearly 15
internet service providers have sprung up in the
space of five years. Accurate statistics on the
total number of internet users in the country are
not readily available and there is no uniformly
agreed measure for market share.
It has been almost 9 years since the Philippines
was officially connected to the Internet, the country
now boasts of over 250 ISPs, mostly resellers, and
based from a recent AC Nielsen Study showed that
in mid-2001, there are about 1.3 million internet
users.
IDC reports that, Internet subscribers have more
than doubled every year since 1995, except during
the 1997-98 period, when growth slowed to 41%. It
is predicted that Internet users will continue to
grow in the Philippines at the rate of 35% (IDC/Garter
Group) per year.
Despite these encouraging figures and the entry
of newer and faster technologies such as ISDN (Integrated
Subscriber Digital network), xDSL (Digital Subscriber
Line), cable and satellite, older problems like
interconnection and network security still persist
and above all, cost of connectivity. The cost of
connectivity in the Philippines represents nearly
about 40% of the gross per capita income of the
average Filipino, compared to say Singapore where
the figure is below 1%.
Example
of a Portal in the Philippines
Yehey
Yehey
is the Philippines No. 1 search engine providing
free online access to a rapidly growing directory
of Philippine web sites and related information.
It is a joint venture company between WS Computer
Publishing, 5 original founders of Yehey and the
Catcha Group of Singapore and iVantage Corp.
Yehey is the Philippines version of Yahoo! A web
advertising driven business. E-commerce would be
the next level from the current model of online
advertising generated revenue. Problem is, just
like its American version, advertising revenues
remain a tenuous source of income. And as PC penetration
continues to be low or slow in growth, the question
of whether Internet can displace traditional media
is doubtful.
It
appears that after several years, Internet ISP subscription
rates have so far been the only revenue stream to
gain critical mass to support long term business
viability
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