Mediaboss Marketing

by Cong B. Corrales

Sunday, June 9th, 2013

Last of Two Parts

WHEN MEDIA marketing giant Universal McCann declared the Philippines the social networking capital in the world in 2009, it sounded as if every Tomas, Ricardo, and Mario was pounding away or chatting on the Internet.

But they werent and they still arent.

The McCann study, entitled Power to the People, showed that 81.3 percent of Filipinos surveyed belonged to social networking sites, the highest among 29 other countries polled. Filipinos were also said to be the worlds top photo uploaders and video viewers.

The data seem fascinating, until one realizes that many Filipinos have never seen a computer, much less gone on Facebook. There are still many barangays in the country that dont even have electricity, much less Internet connection. And there are many other Filipinos who would rather try to carve a living than gather likes and followers on social media.

What many fail to notice is that such studies and surveys are conducted on those who are already online, and not the general public, which is mostly unconnected. What this means is that while Filipinos who are online are very active in social media, most Filipinos are not even online to begin with.

Juned Sonido, a blogger and emerging media consultant, makes the case that the Digital Divide in the Philippines remains a gaping chasm between those who are online and those who are not, between those who can engage on social networks, and those who couldnt afford to care. Sonido says the hard truth is that less than three out of every Filipinos have access to the Net, citing a report from the Broadband Commission and the United Nations called The State of Broadband 2012: Achieving Digital Connection for All.

This means around 70 percent of the Philippines are not using the Internet, Sonido says. Only three out of 10 Filipinos use Internet. At the same time this must be tempered by the fact that in terms of global social network penetration, among a set of countries the Philippines has the highest at around 75 percent plus or minus of active Internet users.

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Social media & the elections: Still preaching to the choir?