Unicorns
This 2015 there
was a rapid rise of high technology start ups in the Philippines. These so
called “unicorns” have grown to a valuation of more than a billion dollars.
This year there were about 30 unicorns produced by the fertile ground for these
start-ups and it is expected that the grow at all costs narrative will be
replaced by a flight to capital efficiency and profitability.
The Philippines
is currently regarded as the second fastest growing economy in the world. Its
Business Process Outsourcing industry employing over a million workers is expected
to earn US$25 billion by 2016. This is significant in relation to the US$270
billion GDP of the country. The reason for this growth in the BPO industry is
its technology driven services and sectors with the highest growth demand
services for high-level skills that includes data analytics and app development
for mobile, there is also demand for mid-level skills such as financial
analysis, video production and copywriting.
Aside from the
lower labor costs, the Philippines has a young educated labor pool and is the
fifth largest English-Speaking population in the world. This makes for an
advantage for American companies wherein the available labor pool will have no
difficulty in relating to the market since it is familiar with American culture
owing to the past status as an American colony for almost 50 years. This makes
for a startup friendly environment.
This workforce
has a median age of 24 with over 130,000 graduates in information technology
and engineering churned out by local colleges and universities. The skill level
ranges from programming languages, developing Android and iOS apps and website
development.
The rise of
technology driven infrastructure such as cloud computing enables building a
flexible and distributed workforce able to meet the growth requirements of any
startup company, this ability for a virtual access, set-up and on-demand
workforce enables a startup company to scale up its operations much easier,
faster and more efficiently that previous structures that have geographical
limitations.
Paradigm Shift
Now, Filipino BPO worker is different from a BPO
worker of 10 years ago. The exposure to international modes of industry,
culture and entrepreneurship has changed the mindset of the BPO worker that
sees the advantages of innovation-driven and mission-focused companies as the
next professional evolutionary step. Thus, start-ups are the wave of the future.
Now, the Filipino startup entrepreneur that has a venture capital backing is
the new status symbol. The competitors are no longer local family owned conglomerates
but international tech companies that comes in the Philippines owing to
business advantages inherent in the country. The local tech start-ups are now
geared towards competing by developing and building new products and services.
The battle is now at the frontlines and not backroom services support.
The next level
in Filipino tech start-ups will be to be strategic partners and be recipients
of venture capital investments. The Philippines owing to the ubiquitous use of
the English language can exploit opportunities to enter new markets in
Southeast Asia. Owing to its relatively common ethnicity with the rest of
Southeast Asia, the Philippines can serve as the entry point to the huge
Southeast Asian market with the advantage of being culturally the most
westernized. This will prove that the Filipinos can offer to be partners in the
growing startup industry globally.
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