I just thought of sharing a few tidbits of what I know about the internet vis a vis mobile…

The Numbers:

Absolute numbers don’t lie: Mobile is king in the Philippines and if we’re to look at current data and reports, this is consistent with what’s happening globally.  We’re tracking 90M++ Filipinos (including our overseas brethren ) and almost 70M of us have mobile phones.  Compare this to “access to the internet” which only tracks about 25M of our population, and is expected to grow to 30M come election time.

Growth of Mobile has been tremendous. I still recall that celebratory print-ad of Smart some 10 years ago, reporting 400,000 users.  Do you remember the almost monthly ads of Smart (Celebr8 etc…) every time they gain an additional million?

This was in contrast to the slow growth of the Internet (alongside it’s evolution.) Internet became mainstream when dial-up became accessible (Shame on you, Pacific internet for charging us over a thousand bucks for 60 hours of consumable monthly internet!) but then costs were prohibitive.

Technology and why internet took so long to catch up:

The moment mobile became commoditized, it was easy to see how it would grow.  You had a product, that didn’t need to be produced, that didn’t require raw materials, and can be consumed anytime, anywhere.  And with e-loading, you can buy credits from anyone.

Compare that to the internet - you needed a PC (costing 20,000 bucks) and a land line (hello billy, remember the zero backlog campaign?) and then you had to buy a USRobotics modem, then you had to subscribe to pacific, infocom, skyinet or impact.

Internet only really caught up when three things happened:

• cost of access went down - from over 2000 bucks for consumable dial up, to 899 for unlimited broadband
• Proliferation of internet cafes - you don’t need to own a computer, nor have a line.
• Online Experiences became compelling - thanks to social networks and user generated content.

an adjunct to this would be our brave OFW’s connecting more via online, because it was a much cheaper way to communicate vis a vis mobile.

From a model that penalized consumers for wanting better speeds or longer experiences, to one that democratized connectivity - somewhere along the way, economies of scale started working for the internet.

Next up… convergence - as they predicted 10 years ago, to what convergence is now.  Plus the real effect of broadband on the Pinoy internet user. And no, it’s not just about videos on demand.