Tag: Philippines

The coaching industry, while a booming industry, is still a sector that offers massive room for exploration. Coaching, or which may sometimes look to as therapy – the much stronger household name for many – started out as a service perceived to be a ‘luxury’, where people saw it as a non-essential and a service only requiring additional expense. After all, the success of coaching is dependent on the client’s life ‘struggles’ and it’s easy for prospective clients to dismiss a service which presents itself as a solution to something the client has ‘complete control’ over. 

The global authority on the coaching industry, International Coaching Federation (ICF), defines coaching as “partnering with clients in a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires them to maximize their personal and professional potential.” ICF said that individuals who engage in a coaching relationship can expect to experience fresh perspectives on personal challenges and opportunities, enhanced thinking and decision-making skills, enhanced interpersonal effectiveness, and increased confidence in carrying out their chosen work and life roles.

With the internet culture paving the way for more inclusive conversations in today’s time, people have grown to be more comfortable with ‘sharing’ their life problems and experiences, growing, at the same time, their openness to personal services such as coaching and therapy. 

One coaching firm in the Philippines, Metamorphosis Group, whose services cater to career coaching, does not just aim to leverage the opportunity of a much more accepting consumer, but also the booming industry that still has yet to penetrate the Philippines. 

Of what would later become the company Metamorphosis Group, Danica Octa, the firm’s founder, CEO, and president started her services as a freelance career coach herself in 2019. Eventually forming her core team, the firm today offers services on career education, personal branding, and talent attraction, aside from its flagship career coaching. 

Officially registered as a business at the beginning of covid, Metamorphosis Group couldn’t come at a rightful time with companies cutting costs and implementing employee retrenchments, increasing the number of people thrust into a career limbo.

Metamorphosis Group is truly a consulting agency in the new generation being a digital, remote, and tech-enabled career development and empowerment firm. 

“Our role is to be some kind of learning partner [and to be] an accountability buddy. We help our clients learn new things, not just the technical skills, but also the life skills, and we help them become more accountable to whatever they learn, and to whatever goals they want to achieve,” said Danica in the MARKETECH Spotlight interview. 

Watch the full interview with Danica Octa, the founder, CEO, and president of Metamorphosis Group.

Disrupting the career development industry as an end-to-end employability solution 

Having operated officially as a full-service firm in late 2020, Danica bared in the interview that the biggest challenge for the firm is assuring the guarantee of the service – that clients, after a period of consulting and coaching, have an expectation that they would land a job right after.

Danica said that Metamorphosis Group started out just like any other career coaching firm, which simply “just coached people,” but then every after conclusion of a consulting engagement begs the question, “What’s next?” 

“It’s not really our responsibility if they didn’t use the tools and knowledge that we’ve shared with [clients], but we still feel that there is some level of obligation that we have for them to actually land a job.” 

Danica further shared an observation that most of the time, recruiters’ concern is still on their employers, and that employers have the mindset that job seekers must be prepared already, and that it is only in the last priorities of a recruiter to offer advice just so for them to have the job. 

“I find [this situation] very, very limiting. So I said, why don’t I mix both services into one company. We do the career coaching, but we don’t let them go that easily. We’ll also offer them the opportunity to be connected with employers, that’s why we call ourselves an end-end solution for employability,” said Danica. 

Part of the services that Metamorphosis Group offers now is ‘Talent Attraction’. The firm creates a talent pool of young professionals who are excellent and eligible for opportunities with multiple employers in their industry.

From starting out as a sole freelance career coach to now Metamorphosis Group 

Metamorphosis Group’s humble beginnings can be said that of any other firm achieving success from the ground up – the idea springing from a very personal experience of the CEO. 

Metamorphosis Group is already two years running in the business and its growth story is not one particularly filled with glamor – quite simple with a genuine service at its core, and a close-knit personal network standing as its pioneering team. 

Danica revealed that there was a period in her life where she had difficulty understanding the job market, specifically how employers felt about candidates and even employees, and figured that maybe she could offer a service that could help people out in these kinds of struggles.

With a full-time job as a recruiter back in 2019, Danica started what would be Metamorphosis Group with herself, becoming a freelance career coach on the side. Things changed when the economic consequences of the pandemic unfolded before everyone’s eyes, not sparing Danica of a job loss. From this, she made the decision to finally start her own company, hence, the birth of the Metamorphosis Group. 

In building her team, Danica did not look too distant and roped in people with specific specializations, and with whom she’s established a relationship with. 

Danica says that she figured, “If you have a very big dream, you need a big team.”

And so starting with a partnership with her very own sister, Jillian Octa, who took care of the firm’s design and creatives, she started recruiting more professionals from different backgrounds.

She took in experienced management consultant Ren Madrid who is part of the company’s executive board and who heads Metamorphosis Group’s enterprise solutions. As Danica continuously grew the company and its programs, she found that career coaching is a difficult job in the sense that as a very personal interaction, it’s inevitable for such engagement to take a counseling point of view. She then recruited none other than her university guidance counselor Teya Paulino to help with this matter. Last but not the least, she hired the fifth member of the firm’s core team, Ricson Singson Que, which offers specialty in digital transformation and cybersecurity.

From its official launch in September 2020, Metamorphosis Group has since grown to acquire over 1000 career coaching clients, and not just from the Philippines, but from all over the world, such as in Japan, India, Germany, and the US, among others. The firm has also currently gained over 10,000 followers in its social media, where Metamorphosis Group has been able to share an overflowing stream of content in career development and job-seeking – over 25 webinars, 30 articles, as well as over 10 networking opportunities featuring over 20 subject matter experts and coaches.

And for its biggest achievement yet, it ran an expansive Virtual Career Fair and Digital Transformation Summit last March 2021 which was attended by about 600 participants, featuring 17 industry speakers, over 17 companies and employers, and connecting attendees with over a hundred job openings and 20 career coaching opportunities.

The role of Metamorphosis Group in the Filipino workforce

Ultimately, what is the role of Metamorphosis Group in the entirety of the Filipino workforce? Just like other nations, the Philippines suffered the blow of the pandemic demanding a slow to none operations, rendering the employment force decapitated. According to the Philippine Statistics Authority, as of May 2021, unemployment rate stands at 7.7% which translates to 3.73 million jobless Filipinos. 

Coinciding with the economic downturn, the pandemic has pushed for both employers and job seekers to turn to digital in order to continue recruitment operations, which on the flip side, happens at a timely opportunity where a multitude of digital platforms catered to job seeking has emerged for the job searcher. 

In the MARKETECH Spotlight interview, Danica said that above all, Metamorphosis Group presents itself as a long-time guidance for the professional, a partner that isn’t bound by time. As the career industry continues to evolve, so does Metamorphosis Group, and this is the ultimate contribution of Metamorphosis Group to the Filipino workforce. 

“Our role [in the workforce] is to be some kind of a learning partner [and] an accountability buddy,” said Danica. 

Despite this immersive collaboration with clients, Danica says that ultimately, they want clients to feel that they have the control back over their career direction. 

“We want our clients to decide for themselves, what their lives should be, [and] we don’t wanna decide for them; we just give them all of these options [and] we guide them on the best option for them. And it’s all up to them.”

Most of all, its biggest contribution would be that Metamorphosis Group has the intuition to guide clients to the future as the firm understands the future of work. 

“We are very forward-thinking, we understand the future of work, we as a company is very, very in touch with what’s going to happen 10 years later,” shared Danica. 

“We have the intuition, we can give our market the information they need to succeed moving forward, of course, so that they can upskill and reskill to the appropriate job that they need to have, moving forward. So I think that’s the role that we take here,” she adds.

With an ambitious forecast to the future, it seems Metamorphosis Group is not only aiming to transform the workforce one successful Filipino at a time but to raise the standard of coaching in the country and eventually put the Philippines on the map. 

On future plans, Danica shares, “We are looking at expanding to different markets abroad so that our clients here in the Philippines can have the option to seek opportunities on an international scale. Internally, we’re also looking to grow our team to strengthen our marketing so that we can help even more people” 

Those that are looking to collaborate or partner with Metamorphosis Group may reach out to them at [email protected]. For those who want to explore the possibility of investing on the firm, please reach them out at [email protected].

Manila, Philippines – The pioneering local music channel in the Philippines MYX has once again run their music awards virtually this year, with the official hashtag and title, #MYXAwards2021. 

The Myx Music Awards has been around since 2006, and just like all events during the pandemic, it saw the music brand pivoting its awards event to virtual in 2020. Due to its success last year, MYX once again celebrated Original Filipino Music or OPM virtually with #MYXAwards2021 which is in partnership with Twitter. 

Right off the bat, Filipino music fans flocked to Twitter as the event unfolded on 7 August, tallying over 4.3 million tweets dedicated to the event for this year. According to Twitter Philippines, this was almost the same volume of tweets racked up last year. 

Twitter said the conversation peaked at around 11 pm as everyone watched till the end of the event, which was streamed live across YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook, as well as on MYX’s own website and on kumu. 

As expected, #MYXAwards2021 ruled Twitter trends on the event day as fans expressed their excitement and reactions as it happened. Twitter recorded the top 10 hashtags used by netizens including #bts, #sb19atmyxawards, #myxawards2021, #sb19, and #bgyoonmyxawards2021.

Fans hashtagged around local Filipino five-member boy band, SB19, the most as the group racked up the top awards by MYX such as ‘Music Video of The Year’ for its song ‘Alab’, including the award ‘Song of The Year’ for the same song. SB19 was also named overall ‘The Artist of The Year’. 

Since 2018, Twitter releases a special emoji for the Myx Music Awards. Fans used the official hashtags #MYX, #MYXAwards, and #MYXAwards2021 as they showed their support to their favorite artists and to unlock the special emoji. 

Aside from the special emoji, fans also utilized other emojis to express their sentiments. The most used emojis are the Purple heart, musical notes, the trophy emoji as well as the sparkle, and bawling emojis. 

The most retweeted tweet of the night goes to BTS (@BTS_twt) for winning International Video of the Year for Dynamite, proving the Filipino ARMYs impassioned love for the group.

With this, the K-pop group emerged as the top mentioned celebrity during the event, followed by local music groups SB19, BGYO, Ben&Ben with part of the conversations during the night also centering around Ed Sheeran.

Carl Cheng, head of entertainment partnerships at Twitter for SEA & Greater China, commented, “Apart from the power of music, MYX Awards 2021 also showcased the power of conversations in hyping up the moment and keeping the excitement alive. The energy of music fans and communities here on Twitter is simply compelling, and we are equally excited to bring more of #WhatsHappening in entertainment closer to home using Twitter.”

Other awards by MYX included New Artist of The Year, Mellow Video of The Year, and Rock Video of The Year, among others. 

Manila, Philippines – HUAWEI‘s video streaming platform, HUAWEI Video, has just announced the expansion of its on-demand streaming service, offering a wider array of premium local and international video content for its users in the Philippines.

Through the expansion, HUAWEI Video has added content offerings from various media companies, namely, ABS-CBN, Paramount Video, CJ E&M, and The Explorers, among others.

The new content offering includes Filipino series such as ‘On the Wings of Love’, ‘One More Chance’, and ‘Can’t Help Falling In Love’, as well as ‘My Ex and Whys’, and for avid western movie lovers, the app features titles such as ‘Star Trek’, ‘No Strings Attached’, and ‘Transformers’, as well as ‘A Thousand Words’, among others.

Meanwhile, fans of Korean dramas can now watch ‘What’s Wrong with Secretary Kim’, ‘Reply 1988’; ‘Search WWW’, and ‘Familiar Wife’. They can also enjoy a wide selection of documentaries produced by a team of explorers, media professionals, scientists, and artists.

And lastly, the app has also added Chinese and Cantonese series such as ‘Unforgettable Love’, Use for My Talent’, ‘Stop! Miss Hua’, ‘Healing Hands’, ‘Virtues of Harmony’, and ‘Line Walker’, as well as ‘War and Beauty’, and ‘Triumph in the Skies’.

“HUAWEI’s vision is to bring connectivity to everyone, and we are thrilled to expand our HUAWEI Video offerings in the Philippines, connecting customers to even more quality entertainment and a better viewing experience, all at their fingertips,” said Shane Shan, HUAWEI’s director of consumer cloud service for APAC.

HUAWEI Video has also announced that during the limited period between 8 and 15 August, users will be enjoying the HUAWEI Video+ subscription plan at a discounted price of ₱8 for the first month. Subsequently, they can renew their subscription at ₱210 each month. 

In addition, the platform will be rolling out a ‘Free Movies Weekend’ promotion, which offers a curated list of western and local movies for free over the weekends during the month of August.

Singapore – Following the company’s decision to take down the online course featuring Filipino tattoo artist Apo Whang-od, Nas Academy has finally responded to the allegations that the online course was a ‘scam’ and that the course has been approved by the artist herself.

The issue stemmed from a Facebook post by Kalinga-based tattoo artist Gracia Palicas who is also the grandniece of Apo Whang-od herself, which has since then been deleted, warning people that Apo Whang-od never signed any contract with NAS Academy said online course, which was available for a price of PHP750.

“Some people are taking advantage of our culture. Please help us stop this disrespect to the legacy of Apo Whang-od and the Butbot tribe,” Palicas stated.

Most often referred to as the ‘last’ and oldest ‘mambabatok’ or traditional Kalinga tattoo artist, Whang-od was conferred by the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) the prestigious ‘Dangal ng Haraya’ Award at Tabuk, the capital of Whang-od’s ethnic province of Kalinga, in 2018.

In a Facebook post that included video evidence of Apo Whang-Od inking her right thumb fingerprint into the documents, Nas Academy stated that they have approached her, with the reasoning that the team wanted to share her culture for future generations to appreciate and respect the ancient Kalinga tradition of ‘mambabatok’, a traditional tattoo art form she learned from her father by the age of 15.

Nas Academy added as well that they pitched the idea to her family regarding the creation of the Whang-Od Academy. The post stated as well that she and her family ‘loved this idea’, and have worked with NAS Academy to build it, with Whang-Od teaching herself. As a matter of fact, Whang-Od’s trusted niece, Estella Palangdao, was present and translated the content of the contract prior to Whang-Od affixing her thumbprint, signifying her full consent to the project.

“Everybody was compensated for their time, and for every sale the Whang-Od Academy generates, most of it went directly to her and her family. We just provided the technology and the marketing,” the company stated.

No photo description available.
An image of Apo Whang-od (Courtesy of Apo Whang-od Facebook page)

Nas Academy was founded in 2020 by Arab-Israeli vlogger Nuseir Yassin, most commonly known online as ‘Nas Daily’ where he made 1,000 daily one-minute-long videos on Facebook. Said online education platform aims to empower creators to share their knowledge, built on the concept of the modern creator, supporting them with curriculum development, marketing, and community management.

https://twitter.com/Dreinanigan/status/1423155244792311809

With said issue being publicized, there has been growing sentiment among Filipino netizens that foreign influencers are banking on Filipino culture for their own benefit and profit.

In response, a spokesperson from Nas Academy told MARKETECH APAC, “Nas Academy’s mission is to help creators become the next generation of educators. All the Academies are built directly with the creators themselves, and the majority of the sales goes to them. We just provide the technology and the marketing. Nas Academy is proud to support Filipino creators to share their knowledge and culture both within the Philippines and around the world.”

The company also added in their Facebook post, “We care deeply about the Philippines and respect the many cultures and traditions that exist across the country. And we have all come together to make the world a better place.”

Manila, Philippines – With the goal of continuing to further tech-up Filipino businesses, UBX, the fintech unit by UnionBank that provides opportunities and access for all by building digital financial solutions for individuals and SMEs, has just recently launched ‘Sentro Build’, to enable the growing community of merchants that gather in well-known marketplaces. 

‘Sentro Build’ is the latest version of UBX’s ‘Sentro’. ‘Sentro’ is an online shop builder for entrepreneurs and MSMEs, while the new ‘Sentro Build’ provides marketplace owners, organizers, and their communities an easily customizable online marketplace.

Merchants can join the ‘Sentro Build’ via an invite to the marketplace from the marketplace owner or by applying to become a seller to the marketplace, while customers can simply visit the marketplace website to look through the merchandise.

Through ‘Sentro Build’, marketplace owners have full control over the appearance and branding of their marketplace through the platform’s easy-to-use administration features. It has a built-in payment gateway powered by Bux providing multiple payment options via over 50,000 over-the-counter channels, online banking, and e-wallets, as well as debit, and credit card payments. In addition, it has pre-integrated delivery services powered by MrSpeedy.

“There are many industries affected by the pandemic. Those severely impacted include the events, expo, and bazaar segments. Traditionally, this industry required physical gatherings which might not be happening any time soon. We have the technology that can now empower companies to create their own online marketplaces,” said Bjorn Pardo, UBX’s head for SME Ventures and Sentro’s lead for Venture.

According to UBX, the events industry was one of the hardest hit during the pandemic, and traditionally requiring mass physical attendance, events, and expos have been severely restricted.

With this, ‘Sentro Build’ has kicked off with Themes & Motifs last 24 July 2021. Behind the launch are the organizers of The Wedding Inspirations Co. and the original Philippine Wedding Expo. The virtual Bridal Fair national roadshow and its online mall dedicated to the wedding industry is called ‘The Bridal Marketplace’.

When asked by MARKETECH APAC how ‘Sentro Build’ helped Themes & Motifs transition virtually, Pardo said, “Themes & Motifs events are primarily done physically in malls and convention centers. Now with their marketplace up and running, they can virtually conduct their own bridal fair from anywhere in the Philippines. Also because of the marketplace we’ve built, customers can easily view and check out their purchases within the marketplace.”

Meanwhile, Sharon Fabian, the managing director of Themes & Motifs, shared that ‘Sentro Build’ allowed them to quickly establish TheBridalMarketplace.com, a comprehensive online mall for soon-to-weds that capitalizes on Themes & Motifs long-standing partnership with big and reputable names in the local wedding industry.

“It provided us with full integration to pandemic-friendly payment methods and a seamless connection to a product delivery system. Also, its easy-to-use e-commerce platform is perfect for our online bridal fair roadshow which showcases different wedding suppliers in different regions of the Philippines,” said Fabian.

Aside from ‘Sentro’ and ‘Sentro Build’, UnionBank’s UBX has also launched other digital platforms, namely, digital transformation package ‘i2i’, end-to-end payment platform ‘Bux’, online lending marketplace ‘SeekCap’, and technologies for visionaries ‘Q Lab’.

Manila, Philippines – In line with the upcoming 8.8 Mega Flash Sale, Shopee has launched the new ‘Livestream Flash Sale’ and ‘In-app Business Insights’, features that aim to help sellers gain more viewers and boost their sales during streaming sessions on Shopee Live, the e-commerce’s dedicated in-app live streaming feature where merchants promote their shops and products directly to shoppers.

For the consumers, the new ‘Livestream Flash Sale’ in-app feature enables bargain hunters to land more deals and real-time discounts offered by shoppers online. On the seller side, they can now easily view their live stream data to acquire useful insights to help them strategize and further enhance their live streams. 

In addition, the new ‘In-app Business Insights’ feature allows live streamers to view their live stream data to acquire useful insights to help them strategize and further enhance their live streams. It also lets streamers gauge what their viewers like and what the best-selling products are, so sellers can cater their product selection to viewers’ preferences and achieve better sales.

Shopee Philippines’ Director, Martin Yu, was quoted “We will continue to support them by providing the necessary tools to help them engage with their customers more. Shopee will continue to offer Filipinos a fun and interactive experience.” 

Shopee said that the newly launched features are just two of the many things users can look forward to the nearing 8.8 Mega Flash Sale. Until 8 August, users can also get free shipping vouchers, enjoy daily flash promos, and exclusive deals when checking out using in-app e-wallet ShopeePay.

Manila, Philippines – More consumers are now relying on e-commerce platforms for their daily needs amid the pandemic, and with this, RUSH, Globe’s 917Ventures loyalty and e-commerce solutions provider, has partnered with GrabExpress, to be its logistics partner for the merchant deliveries.

RUSH enables SMEs to grow their presence in the digital space by providing customized and easy-to-use programs. According to RUSH, its white-label apps and services are utilized by over 100 companies with 27 million registered users. In addition, RUSH’s eStore allows merchant partners to do more than just selling and engaging customers, as it also looks for proactive solutions to improve business’ operational processes including logistics.

The partnership entails that GrabExpress will now be integrated into the RUSH eStore platform, allowing businesses to book a delivery partner, meet orders, and do cash-on-delivery (COD) – which is still the most preferred mode of payment in the Philippines. 

According to RUSH, one of the features of its RUSH eStore is the ability of merchant partners to expand or reduce their kilometer radius coverage with just one click. This allows businesses to reach more customers and gauge their distance, giving merchants control over coverage and delivery pricing. The new partnership will be amplifying this important feature since Grab deems to have the widest reach in Metro Manila and key cities all over the country.

Paolo Castaneda, RUSH’s chief operating officer, shared that RUSH understands how the last mile delivery experience can highly affect one’s repeat purchase behavior, and logistics is not just a nice-to-have, but a must for businesses going digital.

“Our partnership with Grab is a testament to our commitment to ensuring that our merchant partners meet their on-demand orders and keep their customers happy,” said Castaneda.

Meanwhile, Stephanie Kubota, the CEO of RUSH, said, “RUSH remains steadfast in helping businesses enter the e-commerce field easily by providing the best-in-class technology and impactful synergies, at a fair price point against the market. With Grab on the RUSH eStore, we are making it seamless for our merchant partners to manage last-mile delivery.”

Jacqueline Maye Lim, Grab’s head of GrabExpress for the Philippines, commented that the partnership with RUSH is a clear expression of their long-term commitment to supporting the growth of many businesses, while providing meaningful livelihood opportunities to many delivery partners. 

“We are grateful for the trust and the opportunity to work alongside RUSH in this meaningful endeavor and we look forward to continuing supporting many Filipinos towards the recovery of our community and our economy,” said Lim.

Manila, Philippines – In its ongoing mission of helping micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in the Philippines reach more markets, local-based export platform 1Export plans to export products to 60 countries by the end of 2022. 

With the help of its business-to-business-to-consumer venture, Caravan, 1Export is ready to take on the world and empower more Filipinos to resell products proudly made in the Philippines to other markets.

The tech-enabled exporting company has distributed a total of 3,000 tonnes of products to 23 different countries, generating around US$500k or ₱25m in export sales as of June 2021.

Moreover, 1Export offers all-around exporting services, covering compliance documentation, product labeling, logistics, export facilitation, and marketing services. The company also provides its clients with intensive business matching services to determine which of their products fit certain markets. By doing so, local businesses can seamlessly expand abroad, boost their brand awareness, reach their target market, and grow their sales.

“It goes without saying that the pandemic has and continues to significantly affect the Philippine economy. But as we move forward and accept the business landscape in the new normal, 1Export is happy to contribute to the country’s recovery by circulating business transactions through exports and helping businesses expand their horizons,” said Mel Nava, founder and CEO of 1Export.

Founded in 2016, 1Export promises to help MSMEs in the Philippines to grow their business and expand in different countries using digital tools and platforms. The company currently has markets in the US, Australia, Canada, UAE, Kuwait, UK, and more.

Part of its unique features that sets it apart from either an e-commerce or logistics platform is that it takes third-party exporting to the next level by vetting local products to be cross-border compliant, allowing local businesses to follow the laws of the market they want to explore or expand to.

“When you’re a business owner, you want to be working ‘on’ your business rather than ‘in’ your business as the saying goes. We enable Filipino entrepreneurs to achieve just that―instead of spending so much time and effort learning about the complexities of importing in different countries, they can focus on the core business activities that will enable them to scale,” Nava added.

On another hand, Caravan by 1Export provides aspiring Filipinos entrepreneurs living or working abroad a catalog of unique and authentic Filipino products―ranging from food to clothing to beauty products―which they can choose from to start their own business where they are. If entrepreneurs want to sell items not available on the catalog, Caravan by 1Export is ready to assist them in finding their preferred goods, as long as they’re export-compliant.

1Export and Caravan provides Filipino entrepreneurs various opportunities to expand their business in new markets, as well as spread and empower the Filipino culture across the world. Entrepreneurs need only to sign up on 1Export’s website as a supplier partner to start their business journey.

Manila, Philippines – The nation’s central bank, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), has issued a statement requesting the suspension of operations of Lyka, a Hong Kong-owned social media platform, as well as inviting them to be registered with the central bank as an Operator of Payment System (OPS).

Lyka operates under the premise of allowing its users to purchase, exchange, and use gift cards in electronic mode or ‘GEMs’ as payment for goods and services.Said platform is designed for both individuals and businesses that encourage engagement and content creation by compensating users for time and creativity.

Based on these premises, BSP has ascertained that these activities make Lyka an OPS and is thus required to register with the BSP, which is needed before it is allowed to continue with its OPS activities.

In response, Lyka has expressed their willingness in registering as an OPS, BSP confirms.

As a word of reminder, BSP reminds entities operating a payment system to comply with the requirement under the National Payment Systems Act (NPSA) and BSP Circular No. 1049 to register with the BSP. Said central bank circular provides for the rules and regulations on the registration of Operators of Payment System. Registration of an OPS allows the BSP to have oversight of the payment system it operates to ensure that it functions safely, efficiently, and reliably by itself, consistent with the central bank’s objectives of consumer protection and financial stability.

In addition, OPS that are required to register, but are found to be operating without registration, shall be directed to comply with the Circular’s registration requirements. Those that fail to comply may be ordered to stop operations until immediate action is taken to register with the BSP.

“This is without prejudice to other enforcement actions that may be taken against the OPS and its directors/officer and/or employees in accordance with the BSP’s authority over payment systems under RA No. 7653, as amended (The New Central Bank Act) and the NPSA,” the central bank said in a press statement.

The BSP also reminds the public to transact only with BSP-registered OPS that are listed in the BSP’s website. According to them, an OPS may be cash-in service providers, bills payment service providers, and entities such as payment gateways, platform providers, payment facilitators and merchant acquirers that enable sellers of goods and services to accept payments, in cash or digital form.

Manila, Philippines – Zilingo in the Philippines, the technology platform that powers brands, wholesalers, and distributors, as well as retailers, and factories, has announced its latest partnership with the country’s Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), in order to strengthen the MSME industry in the country by taking part in the latter’s ‘CTRL+ BIZ Reboot Now Zoom Shows’ initiative – a series of online lectures, webinars, and masterclasses.

The ‘CTRL + BIZ Reboot Now Regional Zoom’ webinar series has already started last June and will run until September 2021, targeting specific regions of the Philippines. Through the sessions with enabling partners across the entire e-commerce ecosystem, local entrepreneurs will learn to take advantage of the digital space.

Zilingo said that it recognizes the continuous growth of the local e-commerce industry, and with this partnership, it aims to provide services to further help the local Filipino businesses to expand their reach and revenue, as well as to help them be competitive in the market.

Shiela Mauricio, Zilingo Philippines’ country manager, shared that Zilingo would like to help solidify the stature of the MSME industry in the country to provide a sensible measure for Filipinos to earn a living through the usage of digital and online platforms like theirs.

“At Zilingo, we want to dedicate our expertise by providing our target audience a wide array of goods and services from a business-to-business standpoint. May it be through sourcing quality goods for their online business, Financial Technology assistance, or even Marketing services, Zilingo is here to help our local MSME grow their business exponentially,” said Mauricio.

Aside from Mauricio, the webinar session was also attended by Zilingo’s Business Development Head Heintji Tobias, who introduced and presented the benefits of the Zilingo platform for all the attendees from several regions of the country. 

The platform’s PR and Influencer Marketing Manager Edryan Lorenzo have also shared his expertise through a masterclass session, where he discussed the basics of digital marketing and how it will help online businesses.

During his masterclass session, Lorenzo said, “Guided by your passion and goals, as a business owner, you must learn how to identify, engage, and assess the proper ways to touch base with your customers and convert your efforts into leads generation and sales.”

Interested partners and participants may connect with their local DTI office to learn more about the program.