Voyager Innovations Inc. President Orlando Vea encouraged marketers and digital players to spread the benefits of digital to as many Filipinos as possible and help close the digital gap in the Philippines.
“Shatter the digital divide, spread the digital dividend,” Vea said on October 20 at the recently concluded conference organized by the Internet and Mobile Marketing Association of the Philippines (Immap). “It all starts with solving pain points and how technology-powered solutions can enable the unserved and underserved to participate in the mainstream economy and society.” In his keynote address for the conference, Vea added: “The power of digital can only be truly harnessed if everyone has equal access to opportunities and there’s no more digital divide.”
He said there are plenty of opportunities where brands and companies can develop products and services that can help close the digital gap, the same way many of Voyager’s products in the market today promote digital and financial inclusion for every Filipino.
“At the first instance, we are solving the digital-payments challenge with PayMaya, a card for the uncarded,” said Vea, who is also an executive of PayMaya Philippines Inc. (formerly Smart eMoney Inc.). “But beyond that, we are also addressing the pain points of convenience, affordability, and security. It’s all about enjoying the benefits of the digital life.”
Meanwhile, Dindo Marzan, managing director of Voyager, said for a nascent digital market, like the Philippines, new and innovative efforts need to focus on bridging the offline and online worlds. This should take into account that at least half of the population are still beyond the reach of Internet connectivity, he added.
“To boost the reach of digital, marketers must aim to solve a problem by providing value to their target markets,” Marzan said.
For retailers, the outright benefits of going digital are very apparent: they are able to tap into far-flung markets not easily reached by traditional brick-and-mortar stores, and get better insights, too, about their customers through data generated from their online stores, according to Mitch Padua, a managing director at Voyager.
“Businesses need to bring their brand online or get left behind, because there will be new players that will launch purely online, and will be more aggressive and affordable than them,” Padua said.
Padua added that firms only need to try and get their feet wet with digital because the various ecosystem elements are already in place in order to help them succeed.