MANILA, Philippines - It’s a fact: Pinoys love online social networking, with the most popular network in the Philippines being Friendster, hands down. The Friendster boom led to Filipinos creating accounts on other international social networking sites such as 
Almost all Internet users in the Philippines have a Friendster account. A study released by Universal McCann entitled “Power To The People—Wave3” established the Philippines as “the social networking capital of the world,” with 83 percent of the Filipinos surveyed reporting that they are members of a social network. They are also regarded as the top photo uploaders and web video viewers, and second in number of blog readers and video uploaders.
Filipinos have chosen certain online communities in addition to Friendster for a variety of reasons. Some have gravitated to MySpace because of the customizability of the pages. Others use Multiply to easily display and share photo albums with friends and family. Facebook is the fastest growing online social network in the Philippines. Filipinos who want to engage in a primarily Filipino social network with localized content are moving towards GrooveNet. Many Filipinos maintain accounts on these networks simultaneously and update them regularly.
This has also heralded the rise of online 3D virtual worlds, considered a more unique and even faster way to meet people and socialize online in real-time. Among the 3D virtual worlds, Second Life and There have caught the attention of Filipinos.
Second Life started out of California and opened its online world in 2003. A free client program, which can be downloaded from the Second Life website, enables users to interact with each other through avatars, virtual representatives of yourself in this 3D world, and engage in all sorts of activities, including commerce. Since its launch, Second Life has had over 15 million sign-ups and is currently the world’s overall most popular virtual world. However, it is difficult to say if there are more Filipinos in Second Life or in There.
Also founded in California around the same time as Second Life, There was launched locally by GrooveNet. There is also a free 3D virtual online community where members use their personal customizable avatar to chat with friends, meet new people and explore a massive online 3D world. In addition to chatting, It has various games, including paintball matches, buggy races, trivia and other contests.
There also has a dynamic in-world economy where members can design, trade and sell clothes, vehicles, furniture and any other 3D virtual items in its online virtual world. It provides a medium for users to show off their vast artistic and design talents, as they create virtual clothing, cars, even houses. There’s even a Developer Program for new and experienced designers, but any beginner can customize their online avatars to match their appearance, with over 500 customizable options for facial, body, and skin tone characteristics.
One of the most compelling features of both There and Second Life is the Voice Chat which enables the user to engage in Voice Chat with other members. As you speak, your avatar’s mouth, arms and hands move, giving you a more realistic experience while expressing yourself. Second Life and There are both connecting their avatars to their members’ profile pages, which ties in the traditional concept of online social networking to the virtual world. Each member’s profile page will not only represent that individual, but his or her avatar inside of There and Second Life. Once in-world, simply click on another member’s avatar and a web browser launches his profile page.
Both There and Second Life have Filipinos developing digital content for these virtual worlds. There is even a Cebu-based company called Avatrian which designs and develops products and services for 3D online digital worlds, with Second Life in focus. Avatrian primarily offers content creation services for companies and individuals seeking to establish a presence in Second Life. Avatrian believes virtual worlds and the activities within them are another form of reality, a new form that redefines the very concept.
This dynamic approach has earned Avatrian an innovative reputation, and these Filipino developers at Avatrian actually make real money aside from having a good creative experience.
“What started off as a just a group of Filipinos curiously tinkering around and exploring this virtual world grew into a serious and profitable venture which not only allows the Avatrian team to explore the creative potentials of this new environment, but also to actually earn a real living from it,” Avatrian Creative Director, Rodion Herrera, explains. “What we’ve done in the past 16 months has, in turn, also enhanced our ‘real selves,’ because the nature of immersing one’s self in a virtual world gives a creator or artist an additional unique vantage point of looking at creativity and its future, as the digital world of the internet and metaverse expands.”
Second Life may have more global members than There, and possibly more virtual objects created by Filipinos. There has its own virtual island called There Philippines, where one finds a lot of Filipino members putting up virtual houses, property and other objects while chatting away in Tagalog and Bisaya. Together, GrooveNet, There and its Pinoy community have literally put the Philippines on the “virtual map.”
Whether on Friendster, Facebook, Second Life or There, Pinoys continue to engage and thrive in online communities. The presence of Filipinos in online virtual worlds such as There and Second Life continues to grow, with Pinoys demonstrating their passion for the internet, online communication, sharing content and their artistic abilities, even by creating digital content.
Gregory Kittelson is an American national who has been living in the Philippines for six years. Gregory helped build two local start-up IT companies in Manila, FBM Software and FBM e-Services. In addition, he co-founded two Internet companies in the Philippines, Digital Media Exchange (Mobius) and GrooveNet. He now has a consulting company, Kittelson & Carpo Consulting focused on assisting foreign companies setting up outsourcing businesses in the Philippines.
2 comments:
Filipinos are some of the most passionate people (and careless too) when it comes to social networking. Friendster, Myspace, Multiply, Facebook etc. they're hording there. Typically very friendly, we Filipinos usually have this very bad habit of collecting stranger friends in their networking sites like collecting stamps but they unwittingly put themselves and other people's security at risk. I myself keep an friendster account just for my very closest friends and family, but aside from friendster there's nothing else, and I know how to make my PC safe. I read this from tech yahoo a couple of days ago about a new worm that haunt Facebook:
"the worm's agenda is to transform the victim's computer into a zombie and form botnets for malicious purposes. Koobface attempts to do this by composing a message and sending it to the user's friends. The message contains a link to a Web site where a copy of the worm can be downloaded by unsuspecting friends. And the cycle repeats itself. "
"Many computer users have been conditioned not to open an attachment from an e-mail or click a link found within, but won't think twice about checking out a hot new video linked to by a trusted friend on Facebook,"
I don't know if security issues is also part of your thesis but every Filipino should be addressed extensively regarding this. It is a critical one.
Regards,
-Desmond Catolos
Far Eastern University
Bachelor of Fine Arts-Advertising (2000)
Security issues and privacy policies are not part of my thesis.. but i read lots of articles about this in case my juror asks questions about this. thanks for sharing your thoughts this is very helpful to me and to other people interested in the internet and social networking.
Thanks!
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