The Inquirer.net has a story about the Cebu-based metaverse development company called Avatrian that is looking to bring Filipino businesses into Second Life. I’m of two minds on this.
On the one hand, the Philippines is largely on the wrong side of the Digital Divide. Looking at ITU statistics from 2007, the Philippines has 2.37 internet subscribers per 100 inhabitants, only 1.1% on broadband. (In comparison, South Korea has 30 subscribers per 100, all of whom are on broadband.) Given the high bandwidth and fast computer requirements of SL, this means that most of the Philippines has no means of entering the metaverse.
On the other hand, at 90 million inhabitants, that is still around a million Filipinos on broadband at home. Meanwhile, there are 11 million Filipinos in the diaspora all around the world, largely in the developed world. These distributed families and clans keep in touch with each other using a variety of means, from telephone, to VOIP, SMS, discussion boards to blogs. During good times and bad — birthdays, funerals, weddings, etc — Flips gather around their kingroups, no matter the distance.
So maybe its not so far-fetched to imagine Filipinos using SL to celebrate their favorite nana’s 80th birthday, or gathering around the parole for pasko, or debating "local" politics as election time comes around. If my recent forays into the Flip presence in SL is any indication, this might indeed be a growth market.
Hi Rik, great article, but allow to me clarify on some points:
First off, Avatrian’s clientele in its 1 year of existence has been 100% outside of the country, and we do not necessarily see a flood of companies in the Philippines wanting Second Life presence. The reason why the interview was conducted was because Avatrian was invited to the Social Networking and eBusiness Conference 2008 (http://socialnetworkphilippines.blogspot.com/) where I delivered a speech on “Doing eCommerce in Games and Virtual Worlds” using an SL Machinima in lieu of a Power Point presentation.
It was probably the first time in the Philippines when SL and its potentials was presented to a large group of people who are directly involved in e-commerce in this country, and thus they were really startled about how Second Life is indeed paving the way towards the concept of the future 3D web. So as you can see, it was only after the talk, where the possibility of actually getting local, Philippine based clients (i.e. those wanting to have presence in SL) arose–but we have never diverted or shifted from our focus–Avatrian LLC IS a global service, and not focused on the Philippine market alone.
Also, the thing about the Philippines is, most people still look towards television as the primary source of entertainment, unlike in developed countries where there is now a significant decline in TV usage. So it’s like a chicken-and-egg thing–you won’t expect bandwidths to increase, and fast computers to become cheaper in a country where people crave for TV. Thus we felt it was part of Avatrian’s task, to help educate the Philippine e-commerce community about virtual worlds and see their role in the future of business and general internet use. Only by doing this will people know and realize the current developments in this frontier of technology, and why there will be a need for faster bandwidths, and more general public access to faster and cheaper computers.
Again thanks and more power!
-Rodion Herrera (a.k.a. RODION RESISTANCE)
Yeah moving people beyond being passive consumers / viewers to the move active engagement that new media and virtual worlds offer is quite a task. It’s something that we practice daily at my group Global Kids with the youth that we work with. but it can be an uphill battle.
All the best, and thanks for the comment.
Hello Rik, it’s been a while since that last gathering, but we are trying to do something bigger for SL5B. Just working on getting enough people to participate, and if there’s enough time to throw something together. We hope to have some more activities that depict Filipino culture and show it just in time also for Independence Day. We’ll see how that works out, the current theme is apt and a great opportunity to show that a Filipino group in SL is alive and well.
I felt really excited that Rodion got to present SL and Avatrian at that conference. It was a chance to show what SL can be, apart from “just a game”. SL can be many things, and I agree with you, Rik, communities in the future will make a move to go to SL for get togethers, cultural exchange and tourism.
Business models in the future can also capitalize on the Pinoy’s need to reach out to fellow Pinoys, and indeed, SL is fertile ground for such businesses.
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