Toral: Search tops online activities of Filipinos
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
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LAST Tuesday, I attended the Yahoo Philippines and AC Nielsen Net Index 2010 briefing. The report aims to provide a perspective on how the Internet is evolving in the Philippines. Some of the report highlights include:
Search is the number one online activity for Filipinos. In the past, e-mail was the number one Internet activity of Pinoys.
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This year, that changed. Search is now the number one activity of Filipinos online, growing from 58 percent in 2009 to 76 percent this year. Entertainment-related content is the most searched item at 62 percent, followed by videos at 52 percent, information/research documents at 44 percent, and music/audio clips at 31 percent.
The young and middle-aged (those in the 10 – 39 year-old bracket) are the predominant users, according to the study.
Entertainment consumption increased as music uploading and downloading surged from 25 percent to 41 percent while video grew from 25 percent to 41 percent. Music videos and movie trailers top the list of video content accessed and consumed.
Mobile Internet access has grown from zero in 2009 to 5 percent in 2010. Young adults aged 20-39 top users in this group, at roughly 600,000. The usages are as follows: instant messaging, 77 percent; e-mail, 75 percent; and SMS, 59 percent.
The study also indicated that social media and social networking are changing the way people interact with each other. User interaction through social networks is the most popular activity at 53 percent.
The study said users spent time online staying in touch with friends and family, at 66 percent; sending e-mails, 64 percent; and chatting, 63 percent.
This is followed by creating so-called user-generated content at 30 percent; blogging, seven percent; and interacting in online forums at 11 percent.
With 29.7 million Internet users currently in the Philippines, our Internet environment is indeed bustling with a lot of activities. Businesses have to embrace this space and learn how best to harness it to promote their products and services.
