Tag: Philippines

Manila, Philippines – ShopeePay, Shopee’s in-app digital wallet, will be running its cashless festival for the second time, this time, for its 4.4 platform sale. 

The special sale, called ‘ShopeePay Cashless Festival’, aims to encourage Filipino app users to shop, buy load, and pay bills through the digital wallet. The previously held cashless festival by Shopee was in February, while the currently ongoing festival will run up to 25 March.

All Shopee users who will pay via ShopeePay during the event will get to enjoy free shipping for a minimum spend of ₱149 on various categories. There will be sitewide free shipping vouchers redeemable for today for a minimum spend of ₱199, which will be released throughout the day in limited quantities. Meanwhile, there will be another all-day sitewide free shipping slated on 4 April. 

ShopeePay users can also enjoy exclusive ₱1 deals and different offers from local fast food brands, such as Jollibee, McDonald’s, and Dunkin’ Donuts, as well as Domino’s. Furthermore, on the festival’s slated last day 25 March, there will be flash deals for load buying throughout the day. Shoppers can get ₱20 load for only ₱10, and ₱50 load for only ₱37.

By using ShopeePay, shoppers can earn more coins cashback that they can use to get discounts on their next shopping spree.

Manila, Philippines – Philippine telecommunications company Smart Communications (Smart) has partnered anew with Moonton, a Chinese video game developer and publisher, to be its official telco associate for the upcoming season of Mobile Legends: Bang Bang Professional League (MPL), which is the largest mobile esports league in the Philippines.

The MPL Season 7 will see 10 of the country’s top Mobile Legends esports teams compete, namely Aura PH, Onic PH, and Cignal Ultra, as well as Smart Omega Esports, and the defending champion Bren Esports, among others.

The teams will battle in a round-robin format for a chance to win the coveted championship title and a US$120K cash prize.

The telco company will stream the matches live on its Facebook page. Smart subscribers and esports fans are encouraged to watch the live stream for a chance to win exciting prizes, as well as receive exclusive updates, and freebies throughout the season.

Smart has previously partnered with Moonton, where the telco hosted events and gaming treats for Mobile Legends fans in 2017. Earlier this year, Smart has also supported Moonton’s M2 World Championship, where Filipino team Bren Esports won the top prize.

Singapore – All-in-one global business accelerator and venture capital firm, Plug and Play, in APAC, has announced the launch of its inaugural Global Innovation Alliance (GIA) Tech Showcase program in Manila, an event enabling startups and SMEs to connect with overseas businesses and tech communities. This is in partnership with Singapore government agency Enterprise Singapore.

Through the Tech Showcase, startups and SMEs will have the chance to pitch their solutions to different business difficulties provided by Plug and Play APAC’s network of corporates. The program will include business matching across the span of a month. 

Furthermore, the Tech Showcase will have a panel session on the topic of ‘Financial Inclusion’ and ‘Fintech landscape in Manila’. The panelists invited for the session are senior executives from Filinvest Development Corporation, and the Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation, as well as start-ups from both Singapore and the Philippines. 

The event will also be graced by the Singapore Minister of State, Alvin Tan, and the Philippines Undersecretary of Competitiveness and Innovation Group at the Department of Trade and Industry, Dr. Rafaelita Aldaba.

Rachael Sum, regional director of Enterprise Singapore in Manila Overseas Center, commented that they look forward to working with Plug and Play in the Global Innovation Alliance (GIA) program in Manila. 

“Through the GIA program, we will help plug Singapore SMEs and startups into the Philippines’ vibrant innovation ecosystem. This will create opportunities for Singapore and the Philippines enterprises to work together and co-innovate,” said Sam.

Meanwhile, Jojo Flores, co-founder of Plug and Play, also shared, “The fintech trends for 2021 are continuously gaining momentum and we have yet to see how these smart technologies will transform the finance industry as we face the recovery phase of the global crisis. I am excited to hear from the startups that are pitching at the event, how their product can offer innovative solutions in areas such as financial inclusion here in the Philippines.” 

The GIA Tech Showcase program in Manila will be held virtually on 24 March 2021, from 2:00 pm SGT to 4:00 pm SGT.

Manila, Philippines – MoveUp.app, a local startup dedicated in creating an online platform for team training and onboarding, has won under the category ‘BEST New StartUp’ during the ASEAN StartUp Awards this month.

The startup, which has bested over 20 other startup finalists in Southeast Asia, aims to create a conducive work environment in a remote and virtual set-up, a direct response to the difficulty of welcoming new hires online, continuously training them, and connecting with internal teams.

Founded by Filipino entrepreneur Paul Espinas, MoveUp.app aims to make learning among online teams in the long run, accessible, fun, and effective.

“It is crucial for me that what we are doing is, first and foremost, accessible because I know first-hand how difficult access to education is,” Espinas stated.

Currently based in Vietnam, Espinas also added that the platform’s vision is rooted from “a way of giving back and enabling young professionals to continuously ‘move up’ through accessible and relevant training content.”

The award-giving body which is under the Global StartUp Awards, is an annual spotlight in technology, entrepreneurship, and startup industries, recognizing the industry’s greatest development over the last year based on growth, innovation, and impact.

Manila, Philippines – As more Filipinos adopt cashless payment methods, ShopeePay, Shopee’s in-app digital wallet, has partnered with local automated payment services provider, TouchPay, to add more options for shoppers to top up their e-wallets. 

With over 600 locations in the Philippines, ShopeePay users can add to their balance through TouchPay’s automated payment machines (APM). 

The partnership with TouchPay aims to strengthen Shopee’s digital payments ecosystem to meet the rising digital adoption, where through TouchPay, those that remain unbanked and uncarded can top up their mobile wallets using cash.

To top up ShopeePay via TouchPay, users only need to go to any TouchPay APM, following the selection of TouchPay as their payment method. After paying with cash, users will then receive a receipt for confirmation with the top-up amount to be credited to ShopeePay within 24 hours.

TouchPay machines can be found in known establishments such as Ayala Malls, SMDC, and Watsons, as well as Mercury Drug branches, among others.

Martin Yu, the director of Shopee Philippines, said, “ShopeePay is excited for this opportunity to better serve our users. As users increasingly embrace digital payments, ShopeePay aims to enable consumers to transact more conveniently with us. We are committed to excellent service and will continue to provide the best online shopping experience to our customers this 2021.”

Other available ShopeePay top-up channels are GCash, 7-Eleven CliQQ, and ECPay, as well as Bayad Center, and LBC Bills Payment, among others. Shopee users with bank accounts are also able to top up using online banking and over-the-counter.

Makati, Philippines – Filipino creative agency BBDO Guerrero has launched an open-source re-design of traditional shampoo packaging, called ‘The Dissolving Bottle’, giving it an eco-friendly makeover.

The Dissolving Bottle aims to make shampoo bars more intuitive by giving them a shape similar to small bottles used in hotels. The shampoo uses zero plastic, which is a great way to reduce wastes.

Each bar is equal to a 90ml bottle of shampoo, weighs 130 grams, and is made with all-organic ingredients by local Filipino manufacturer, The Naturale Market. The partner brands also got a chance to customize their own versions of The Dissolving Bottle.

According to the agency, the product has already been tested with some hotels in the Boracay island and had received great feedback.

David Guerrero, chairman of BBDO Guerrero Creative, said, “We have long been involved with campaigns to fight plastic waste. And with The Dissolving Bottle we have a solution that can clean your hair without a bottle.”

The agency is also offering to supply the molds at cost to artisanal producers for community livelihood projects. Interested parties can inquire at The Dissolving Bottle website.

Manila, Philippines – Filipino consumer behavior during the pandemic has shifted to frequent use of e-commerce platforms and cashless payments systems, a new report from financial services Visa shows.

In the Philippine-centric report, Visa noted that 52% of Filipinos shopped online through apps and websites for the first time during the pandemic and 43% of them made their first online purchase using social media channels.

Online shopping activity behavior also rose within the period of past year, as the report showed close to 9 in 10 Filipinos have increased their online shopping activities on websites or apps, whilst 7 in 10 are shopping more on social media channels. 

More than half of the consumers are also more inclined to shop from large online marketplaces (53%) and home-based businesses (61%). These new shopping preferences might turn into habits that last beyond the pandemic.

As part of the growing behavior of online purchases, food deliveries also rose, as more than 9 in 10 Filipinos used home delivery in the Philippines and 67% of them increased their use of home delivery services during the pandemic. This can be attributed to the existing quarantine and lockdown restrictions being implemented by the government in the country.

“The pandemic has transformed the way Filipinos shop and pay. Based on the latest highlights from our annual study, we see adoption of new consumer behaviors including more Filipinos using digital commerce platforms and helping to accelerate the usage of digital payments in the country. We see double digit growth for e-commerce transactions for purchases on marketplaces and digital goods,” said Dan Wolbert, country manager for the Philippines and Guam at Visa.

Wolbert also noted that some of the initial purchases made by first-time online consumers include food and groceries, bill payments as well as pharmaceutical products.

Using physical cash as payment has dwindled by the offset of the pandemic, as best compared to pre-pandemic consumers averaged to 7 out of 10 payments made in cash, compared to mid-pandemic consumers who only averaged to 5 out of 10 payments made in cash.

Filipinos cited using more contactless payments (73%), perceiving cash as unsafe because of the potential spread of infection (54%) and more places adopting digital payments (50%) as the top reasons for carrying less cash. In addition, Filipinos see bill payments (81%), grocery shopping (71%), and overseas travel (68%) as the top categories where they would likely go completely cashless in future.

The study also showed that contactless payments had 66% increase in usage amongst current users due to the pandemic. In addition, 88% of Filipinos who had not used contactless payments stated interest in using this payment method in the future. Top benefits perceived by Filipinos for usage of contactless cards include not having to carry cash with them (88%), feeling safe from infection (75%) and being an innovative payment method (68%).

“We believe that contactless payments will continue to grow as Filipinos appreciate the benefits of contactless payments, including perceiving this payment method to be more hygienic due to the absence of physical interaction at point-of-sale. Even though we’ve made progress in digital payments adoption, there remains huge opportunities for us to encourage more Filipinos to embrace digital payments as we look to expand digital payments acceptance across the country,” Dan added.

The study was conducted on 1,014 Filipinos aged 18-65 years of age across key cities in Manila, and in several provinces.

Manila, Philippines – As contactless payments have emerged as an essential solution for businesses during the pandemic, online payment platform for SMEs in the Philippines, JazzyPay, has partnered with one of the leading commercial banks in the country, UnionBank, enabling its onboarded businesses to reach a wider audience and thus to attract new users.

JazzyPay enables various businesses to accept cashless payments across credit and debit cards, e-wallets, and online baking, as well as over-the-counter cash deposits. The platform now has a total of 27 payment methods including UnionBank.

Through the partnership, JazzyPay customers can settle their payments using their UnionBank accounts, while UnionBank Online users can now pay for local and essential businesses registered with JazzyPay.

Aside from being a unified online payment platform, JazzyPay will also enable businesses to send online invoices to their customers without having to use third-party invoicing services. 

According to Edwin Bautista, the president and chief executive officer of UnionBank, transactions done through the bank’s mobile app rose from 40,000 in January 2020 to nearly 1 million by December 2020. As a part of its ‘Tech up, Pilipinas’ advocacy, UnionBank also recently launched its mobile banking app for SMEs, becoming the first SME-focused banking app in the Philippines.

Meanwhile, Kathleen Acosta, the co-founder and chief operating officer of JazzyPay, believes that UnionBank’s constant efforts in providing excellent financial services especially to SMEs have been evident through their recent projects. 

“As a payment platform that aims to empower more local businesses in the Philippines, JazzyPay is honored to be able to partner with an innovative company that shares the same vision of growth for SMEs and underserved businesses,” said Acosta.

Manila, Philippines – The Philippine arm of adtech Moving Walls has teamed up with the Media Specialists Association of the Philippines (MSAP) to create measurements, transparency, and accountability strategies for the growing out-of-home (OOH) industry in the Philippines.

The partnership will utilize Moving Wall’s OOH programmatic platform ‘Moving Audiences’, allowing member-agencies of MSAP to plan static and digital OOH (DOOH) campaigns more holistically while adopting a data-first approach to its programmatic campaigns in this new currency for OOH.

First introduced in 2019 at the MSAP M-Possible media congress in the Philippines, the platform enables the collection of location intelligence data for both static and digital outdoor media sites, which builds a strong foundation of measurement and accountability. Media planners and buyers will be able to plan ‘outernet’ campaigns in an automated manner, gaining insights from around 35,000 sites globally while measuring campaign effectiveness in real-time.

“Both organizations recognize the current media landscape as well as the challenges faced by the industry, which include fragmentation of OOH and its perceived difficulty to prove ROI like its online counterpart. To address these challenges, automation & data, now considered the ‘push factor’ is needed to build a future-proofed outdoor industry,” both parties said in a press statement.

Furthermore, the programmatic OOH platform is capable of dynamic ad-content serving, audience retargeting, use of various triggers such as weather and time-belting.

According to Norman Davadilla, CEO of Moving Walls Philippines, the partnership is part of the company’s commitment to creating a ‘common currency’ for outdoor media planning and buying in the Philippine market, where OOH planning and buying have continued to be siloed.

“Our tech stack provides MSAP member-agencies with quick access to location data, plan and execute campaigns and provide their clients with post-campaign reports hopefully bridging the gap that should result in transparency and accountability of outdoor media spends. Ultimately, MSAP and Moving Walls are future-proofing a key media channel in the Philippines,” Davadilla stated.

“Our partners’ digital screens are strategically located in Metro Manila and key cities having a combined inventory of 244 digital screens, on average serving 500,000 impressions per screen,” added Davadilla.

Meanwhile, Moving Walls Philippines is in discussion to extend its supply-side subsidiary platform to outdoor media owners who are members of the Out of Home Advertising Association of the Philippines (OHAAP). The Moving Audience Registry and Moving Audience Content, both used to onboard media owner sites and automate their content management system (CMS) will ensure OOH inventories are available to MSAP member-agencies.

“The MSAP Board is delighted to partner with Moving Walls Philippines to accelerate the adoption of new technologies that ensure not just measurement and accountability but also automation. Many clients have been looking forward to newer ways of planning and buying OOH media and incorporating audience location data is truly an innovation for the industry,” said Michael De Castro, president of MSAP.