Filipinos see income from using Internet
More Filipinos are starting to see and take advantage of the opportunities that the Internet provides in helping people set up businesses and improve their incomes in ways that were not possible in the past.
A survey by multinational technology firm Ericsson said Filipino Internet users now use Web for more than just viewing videos on YouTube or posting photos on Facebook.
“(Filipino) respondents were particularly aware of the income opportunities using the Internet could bring,” said Vishnu Singh, regional head of Ericsson’s ConsumerLab.
These opportunities can range from the complex creation of new applications for Internet-enabled smartphones to methods as simple as online selling.
The ConsumerLab survey on the Philippine market, which covered 2,900 respondents, said more than half of people asked said the Internet provides opportunities to generate more income. Meanwhile, over 60 percent of respondents said smartphones are now effective business enablers.
“We’ve seen a lot of creativity in Internet users,” Singh said in a recent briefing earlier.
He said this was driven mainly by the high cost of living in the Philippines, relative to average Filipino’s income level.
