WHILE the Philippines does not have a city as iconic or as world-dominating as Hollywood is to the film industry, it does very much have a creative capital. It’s Manila.
Manila’s seat as the center of all Filipino art can either be an advantage or a disadvantage—all depending on where one is from. If a person is born in Manila or can afford to move to the city, he is lucky. He has all the resources available to succeed in his chosen aspiration.
Unfortunately, the narrative is bleaker if you’re not already based in Manila and cannot afford to move to the city. Take the case of an aspiring theatre actor living in a remote province. He can have all the talent in the world, but he will be unable to surpass a certain threshold living in his hometown, with its lack of professional plays and shows. All he can ever hope to be is a big fish in a small pond.
Twenty years ago, this problem might have been unsolvable. It would be impossible, after all, to spread the resources in Manila to every city across the archipelago where talent can conceivably be nurtured. But with the rise in smartphone penetration, the decentralization of Filipino arts is beginning to look possible through mobile platforms. One of the most relevant to this discussion is the new livestreaming app called Kumu, which was founded by Roland Ros, Rexy Dorado, Andrew Pineda and Clare Ros last year.
Anyone who has a smartphone can download the app, sign up, and begin livestreaming to an audience of their fellow users. This opportunity is a boon for Filipino talents living outside Metro Manila in the provinces and indeed Filipinos across the world. No longer will they need to save money, uproot their lives, and travel to Manila in the hopes of getting the support they need for their field of art.
Kumu is also launching a tipping feature that will allow fans to digitally tip their favorite artists and content creators with a gift that corresponds to real Philippine pesos. The idea of supporting talents through tipping may strike some Filipinos as strange, but the practice is already par for the course in markets like the United States and China, which boast of a thriving livestreaming ecosystem. Kumu’s four co-founders envision for their platform to enable the same kind of patronage: Filipino talents will be able to thrive through the direct support of their fans.
Kumu is still a nascent community, and has a long way to go before achieving its vision. But there is something reassuring about its mission that sets it apart from the many other tech startups emerging in the Philippines and places wholly within the realm of a social enterprise. If they prevail, Filipino talents across the archipelago and the world will be able to connect with a national and international audience any time they want, develop their fan base, and build their brand. Kumu, in other words, replaces the idea that a hub must be a physical place like Hollywood—it can instead be held in hand, wherever you count home. (PR)