Here’s the official press release:

The DigitalFilipino.com Club is organizing a networking event where e-business and e-commerce industry players can catch up and exchange updates in the industry.

Who can attend?
Anyone interested in e-commerce or e-business (entrepreneurs, business/ technical decision makers, ad agencies, media advertisers, Internet marketers, payment gateway service providers, bloggers, web developers, web designers, Internet and e-commerce trainers / instructors) are more than welcome to attend.

Why attend?
Meeting local e-commerce entrepreneurs, enthusiasts, service providers, online movers and shakers. Let’s network for fun and professional purposes. Talk about developments in the industry. Any excuse to meet like-minded people on a Wednesday late afternoon.

If you’re interested to know more of the digital world and e-commerce, join us! For more information, please send me a message via my contact form, or leave a comment here.

I have yet to implement the PayPal shopping cart and payment gateway on one of my sites, but after reading through the documentation, I’m confident that PayPal can offer Filipinos a myriad opportunities for doing business online. What’s more, the basic system is practically free — except for the minimal transaction charges, there aren’t any setup fees or recurring monthly charges. Credit card purchases made on your site, for example, carry a minimum 2.5% charge, plus a US$0.30 fee per transaction.

I wonder what precipitated this. What has recently transpired that prompted PayPal to finally allow Filipinos to accept incoming online fund transfers? Has our overall credit rating increased? Have our banking and government financial policies improved to the point of being on a par with international standards? Whatever the reason, the results will certainly be hopeful for the Philippines. For one, PayPal’s move could signal to the world that the Philippines has now come of age, in terms of our standing in the global e-commerce arena.

Janette Toral, acclaimed as the mother of e-commerce in the Philippines, has raised this concern in light of this PayPal development: ‘What will happen to existing Philippine-based payment gateway facilities?‘

Well, I anticipate that such services will necessarily become competitive. Filipino e-commerce providers, such as YES Payments and Your One Stop Shopping Network, will have to shape up or ship out. Presently, these companies offer similar payment systems, but at rather prohibitive rates, on top of stringent restrictions. I expect that much streamlining and repackaging will come into effect as a result of the PayPal initiative.

Funds received via PayPal can be withdrawn to a debit card, such as UnionBank’s EON card. If you’re an EON account holder, it will be very easy for you to start setting up a PayPal account. See www.unionbankph.com for more details.

Davao Exchange was built from the ground up by Marc Javellana, a netrepreneur who staunchly believes in the power of the Internet as a springboard for emerging businesses. Marc is blessed with a solid background in computer programming, plus an acute sense for online commerce.

Despite Marc’s humble protestations to the contrary, Davao Exchange has become a venue for commercial exchange. People are actually making use of this online resource for buying and selling. For example, there was one site member who was able to sell a multi-million-peso residential property via DavaoExchange.com.

The Exchange features diverse products and services for sale or lease: from the expected electronics items, to perishables, to pets, to heavy equipment. The idea is, if you have anything to sell in Davao, DavaoExchange.com is your best bet.

Registration is free-of-charge. And so is all activities on the website: posting your ads, participating in the various fora, and browsing through the ads categories.

Another online project by Marc is the Davao Directory Online (http://dir.davaoexchange.com). This is an ambitious undertaking that has the useful purpose of collecting and publishing contact information of Davao’s business community, akin to the erstwhile Yellow Pages. Companies and professionals can submit phone numbers, along with brick-and-mortar address, e-mail address, and even a description of the business.

Entries in the Directory are organized according to types of commercial activity. Again, submissions are free.

The Directory is relatively new, but it is fast becoming an invaluable service to the business community. It is yet another free way of advertising as well.

The next step after going online via the Internet is making money online. In order to accomplish this effectively, your company must be able to conduct financial transactions online. Consider this service: the ability to accept credit cards in the Philippines with email billing. Click on the link to find out more!

The main topic during the 5th Kapehan was the Mindanao ICT Congress, which is now definitely scheduled from 23 to 27 October 2007. The Davao Chamber explained that the reason for the delay in the announcement of the event’s particulars was the negotiations with the BIMP-Eaga, whose leadership had apparently expressed an intent to take part in the MICT Congress, but could not firmly commit to a November schedule, hence the need for further negotiations.

Finally, it was decided that the MICT Congress would coincide with the BIMP-Eaga SOMM here in October. It was also decided that the 1st BIMP-Eaga ICT Conference be established and conducted during the Congress.

Also in time with the MICT Congress is the 1st Mindanao Bloggers Summit. This is the brainchild of Councilor Pete Laviña, and will be organized by the same people who put together the Davao Bloggers Party last 17 March. The upcoming summit will focus on the business aspect of blogging, community-building, as well as technical topics. (More details on this event in the very near future.)

Yet another I.T. event, but happening earlier, is the Mindanao FOSS and C.C. Conference. This will be held from 27 to 29 September 2007, and is being organized by DabaweGNU, the FOSS advocacy group in Davao. The conference, according to Nathaniel Jayme, is going to feature trends in intellectual property (IP) practices in the music industry.

The MICT Congress and the BIMP-Eaga ICT Confab aims to explore the possibilities of synergizing the ICT initiatives of the Eaga member nations. At present, ICT is not a top priority industry of this 4-member regional aggrupation. Still, it does identify ICT as one of its preferred areas of development. Since its inception in the early 90s, however, no significant advances have been accomplished within the BIMP-Eaga in terms of ICT. In fact, the committee on ICT of the Eaga is reportedly dormant.

Holding the 1st BIMP-Eaga ICT Confab during the MICT Congress hopes to amend this. It would also be a good opportunity for Mindanao ICT players to get to know their counterparts in Sabah, North Sulawesi, Brunei, and other areas covered by the Eaga.

The working theme of the 6th congress is “Borderless ICT Collaboration on human resources, infrastructure and technology innovation.” This coincides with the Eaga SOMM’s discussion points: developing ICT infrastructure; strategic business development via e-commerce; human capital development; and e-governance. The Congress will be held at the NCCC Mall convention center, where there will be a trade expo, seminars and plenary sessions. In order to drum up participation, the organizers plan to conduct a nationwide roadshow. Planned missions to Brunei, Indonesia and Malaysia are also on the drawing board.

Just as agreements and treaties on agriculture and other industries among Eaga member-nations have been successfully established, hopefully the same will happen for the ICT industries of the East ASEAN countries.

In light of the existence of the Damosa I.T. Park, and because of my keen interest in these developments, I tried to setup an interview with Debbie Go, SM City’s mall manager. However, I was informed that SM is still in the process of applying for the project’s accreditation. In other words, no matter how much I’d grill them for information, there simply wouldn’t be any available data yet.

Rest assured, however, that as soon as SM City is prepared to make their plans known, I.T. Talks! will be there to find out more.

So far, what we know is that the 3-hectare property behind SM City in Ecoland is the target area for the second upcoming I.T. park in Davao. What facilities they’ll put up and what kind of locators they’re aiming for are some of the information I’m anticipating.

In the Mall of Asia, an SM executive has told me that their e-commerce building is already nearing completion. It is planned to house high-tech companies that are geared for commerce and trade via the Internet, as well as for call centers. I can just imagine how technologically advanced this building will be. If the planned SM I.T. park in Davao would only be even half that e-commerce building….

I hope too that what SM is planning for Davao will run along the same lines as the one for the Mall of Asia. You see, when you say “e-commerce facility,” there is a presupposition that the target businesses are high-value-added industries. There is that idea that the investments won’t only be in contact centers, but in I.T. development as well.

Contact center investments, while considerable, aren’t really contributing a whole lot to the local economy. Yes, call centers do provide thousands of jobs. But they do not add value. Simply put, they aren’t manufacturers, so their output doesn’t affect our GNP or GDP all that much.

What we should be aspiring for in the I.T. industry is an increase in software development and animation providers. These types of businesses provide employment (at higher salaries) and deliver high-value goods and services, the income of which are infused into the local economy.

Personally, I have benefitted from being a member. I’ve been able to get a couple of huge projects through club get-togethers and introductions.

It was rather disappointing, though, that there were only a handful of us during this eyeball. Still, I believe it was productive in the sense that those of us who were present were able to acquire useful information.

Aileen Apolo of Google Philippines did a presentation on Google AdWords. For those of you who are not yet familiar with Google’s advertising products, AdWords is the service that accepts your ad placements and allows them to be propagated on the Web. Simply put, it’s targeted towards companies and businesses that are looking into marketing their products/services via the Internet. AdSense, on the other hand, is the service that allows website owners to monetize their websites by publishing the ads.

Aileen also indicated that Google is looking at investing into tech companies in the Philippines, including Davao. She said that it won’t have to be an acquisition (or buy-out), but a joint-venture sort of arrangement. It doesn’t even have to be a very large requirement — something as small as US$5,000 might even be possible, she said. Google, in its drive to help propagate technology, is interested in software applications that involve search, imaging, SNS or community-building services, and mobile applications.

If you’re interested to pursue this or inquire into this, please e-mail me: robillo[at]gmail[.]com.

Only in a few very short years, Davao has seen a dramatic rise in the number of people armed with laptops, notebooks, even wireless-IP-capable handhelds, hanging out in, say, coffee shops. I can imagine Internet providers must be scratching their heads now — Why oh why didn’t we capitalize on this?? But on the other hand, it’s good for Davaoeños that most of the wifi hotspots here are free-of-charge. It will spur the growth of Internet-based services, which is evident, for example, in a website that I’ve been keeping tabs on: DavaoSale.com.

DavaoSale is no super high-tech web service, but it’s effective! What’s important is, they are able to deliver what they set out to deliver. Personally, I’m impressed with them because, for one thing, I’ve been able to get clients off of their bulletin-board ads. As of presstime, they have 9,832 registered users, buying and selling all sorts of things from cars to computer parts to all sorts of services.

With the rise of Internet usage in Davao, I expect there to be more success stories as this. Coupled with the lowering of computer hardware prices, the Internet-based marketplace is now a lot more accessible to a larger population. Hopefully this will soon translate to a viable and vibrant e-commerce community in Davao.

Recently I came across a website that tickled my fancy. I heard about it over 105.9 MixFM, and being always on the lookout for Davao-related websites, I surfed on over. DavaoSale.com. It’s a Web-based buy-and-sell service that’s available to virtually anyone who’s looking for second-hand or even brand new items. As a member of the site, you can post your products or services and receive notification if your ad gets a hit. Registration is free for most of the services; but for the ridiculously low price of P300 a year, members get premium services such as sticky ads and images hosting.

This Internet site is an alternative to physical shop space. As a registered member, you can tell the online public about what you can deliver. You can describe your company (or your backyard if that’s where you’re doing business from) to your heart’s content, and post as many products or services as you like.

I interviewed the founders of DavaoSale.com sometime ago, and it turns out they’re all young Dabawenyos who’ve found better ways to spend their online time. The site administrator, Mark Wendell dela Cruz, relates that, during their college days, they’d put up ChatX, one of the most popular chat zones in Davao. I guess that, early on, these young web warriors have long realized the power of community-building, and that the Internet is one powerful medium that can achieve this.

And DavaoSale.com is indeed turning out to be quite a community. Already the website has hundreds (probably thousands) of avid users, and gets 5,000 hits per day. And as if that weren’t impressive enough, DavaoSale.com also averages 300 to 500 posts per day. That means that these registered users are in fact actively participating in the various fora within the site.

The website is built around a web bulletin board (making use of phpBB2), and the site’s admin team have put up various fora for discussions, advertising, and actual selling. The majority of items up for grabs are computer-related stuff, according to Hermes Dionela Jr. But there are lots of other items as well, even second-hand cars. I found it funny when they told me that they even have a member who’s advertising fresh tilapia for delivery!

Wait a minute. Why the heck not??

When asked if the website is actually working as intended, Mark and his colleagues vigorously answered "Yes!" He even commented that he thinks some of the registered users are already making a business out of the website’s services. But they sounded really proud of that. Mark revealed that DavaoSale.com is their humble helping hand to Davao’s micro-entrepreneurs. Talk about genuine community service (and true long-term thinking, I might add).

I also found a member who proposes to be a middle man: he offers to do the product searching for you. With the site growing bigger each day, it would probably take a bit more time to find the item you want, so this guy advertises that he’ll do the job for you. Interesting development, don’t you think?

The whole movement towards online trading and Internet-based transactions is a positive trend. And DavaoSale.com, no matter how modest an endeavor, is contributing hugely to this. I’m truly proud of the efforts of the people behind DavaoSale.com.

Another wifi hotspot is up: Holiday Spa, the one on F. Torres Street. If you’re the type who can’t seem to stay offline, even while working out, then pack your laptop along with your boxing gloves or your swimsuit. There’s even a bonus that I find so very titillating: the food at the coffee shop is simply superb, and surprisingly inexpensive. And the wifi is free, by the way (and I hope it stays that way).

In my wifi column three weeks ago, I gave the wrong name for one of the establishments. It’s supposed to be Formula Pete’s Café & Ice Cream Bar. And I failed to mention that the Internet connectivity is provided in-house. Yes, it’s free!

And my search for more wifi hotspots in Davao continues…