Digital Lifestyle
by Wilson Ng
Wired Desktop
SunStar Daily Cebu

I just returned from Manila after attending the Software Innovations show, which is sponsored by Microsoft.

It was a great experience, and it was a good time to hear from industry experts, as well as watch the exhibits. One of the most memorable and pleasant experiences I had was going through the digital lifestyle pavilion, which shows some concepts about what a smart home should be.

At the digital lifestyle pavilion, one is able to look at air condition equipment that is connected to the Internet. With this setup, you can actually check from your computer in the office whether the aircon at home is on or off. On your way home, you can turn it on so that when you arrive, the room will be at a temperature you desire.

You can also have an Internet-enabled refrigerator that will allow you to keep track of your food stock. Before heading home from your workplace, you can check online if you still have milk.

Technological innovation also gave birth to a multimedia computer where you can program and record movies or TV shows, even while you are watching another.

Other than being entertained, there were actually a lot of new things we learned.

Among them are:

a) There are venture capital firms that are looking for ICT (information and communications technology) companies to invest in. Actual investments have been made already. For instance, Narra Ventures, a venture capital company headed by Paco Andejas with funds from Dado Banatao—one of the most successful ICT entrepreneurs from the Philippines who made it big in Silicon Valley—just recently invested in a company called Stratpoint. There were some venture capitalists, who were in business match sessions. From the buzz, they actually did connect with some companies.

b) One of the most informative and detailed report came from Jetro by Shinochiro Kato, an IT expert assigned to Cebu to help people learn Japanese and understand and pass the Japanese IT certification.

According to his report, there are more than 7,000 IT services company in Japan hiring a total of over 560,000 employees. The IT companies have total sales of over 14 trillion yen, or $140 billion, a huge market. About half of the IT services is actually customized software development, so you are looking at a potential market of over $70 billion.

c) A very small portion of the Japanese software is currently outsourced. The Philippines is the sixth largest country where some of these outsourced projects are made. China is leading with approximately $33 million. Next is the United States followed India, Australia and the United Kingdom. Outsourced services by Japanese firms to the Philippines is worth only $2 million while South Korea has a little over $ 1 million.

d) According to a survey, Japanese software companies, however, prefer to outsource software development to China, India, South Korea and Vietnam. The Philippines is only 10th in terms of choice or preference.

We need to build up our own marketing with Japanese IT companies. However, I am more inclined to agree with another speaker from Australia who gave his own inputs. He said everybody says that the Philippines is suffering from a bad image brought about by political instability, and peace and order, “but I say that the Philippines suffer from no image at all.”

Most people simply haven’t heard about the Philippines and our ICT capabilities. I think the speaker has a point, therefore, we must continue making noise and informing people about our ICT aspirations.