Everything Digital

This one’s not good news to online marketers. According to the latest research conducted by Chitika ad network, only two in 100 people who browse the internet click on advertisements that fund websites. The rest simply ignore the screaming ads place strategically all over the place. You think this research is right?

I do, absolutely. I myself have been prowling countless internet sites for the past ten years, reading content, doing school research, watching videos and listening to music but never made a single purchase in any of the products I see on the sites I visited. It was only late this year that I did an actual purchase online. Not that I was not interested. Ever since I learned that buying stuff on the internet became possible years ago, I wanted to jump into the bandwagon right away. The problem was that it was nearly impossible to do so in our area for the following reasons:

1. The first problem was the method of payment. Credit cards are not easy to come by for middle class Filipinos. Just a few years back, only those who really had money can have credit cards.

2. Lack of bank support. In the past years, our local banks were not really that inclined to support internet buying. Even today, many years after the internet was introduced to Filipinos, only one local bank has a program specifically designed for Internet shopping. All the rest simply offer general credit cards.

3. Currency conversion. Even with the advent of Paypal Philippines, buying online was still a bit difficult due to currency conversion problems. It was only this November 2009 when Paypal finally supported Philippine Peso.

4. Not many merchants are willing to do business in Philippine online market. Even iTunes, one of the biggest internet music retail store in the world, doesn’t sell music in the country.I don’t understand why.

5. Many Filipinos don’t really consider the internet as a shopping alternative. If anecdotal evidence is any indicator, I think I’ve heard lots of times that Filipinos spend more time on Friendster and Facebook than actually do anything else online.

I’m sure there are still many other factors why the internet remains an untapped potential in Philippine market. Whatever they are, they are part of the reasons why some advertisement companies in the US places a lower value in clicks and site visits from Philippine internet users.