 | Smaller, hand-made goods and crafts will be at the forefront of a new wave of business in the Philippines |
We’ve all read and felt the effect of the internet on people’s decision making and ultimately, their buying behaviour. The result: industries such as travel and entertainment have had to change their business models.
But underneath this is an even bigger underground economy driven by budding entrepreneurs who are finding means to commercialize their hobbies and passions into future enterprises. Once in a while they surface from their virtual shop to participate in bazaars or holiday markets to showcase their goods but 365 days of the year exist profitably on the net. In the Philippines, the Multiply site was the technology that enabled this.
While this site was envisioned to compete with Friendster years ago, our young opportunistic entrepreneurs decided otherwise. The facility to put pictures on the site made it a virtual store front for young entrepreneurs. Today, Multiply has accepted that while this is not their vision, it is nonetheless a very relevant space that they own and can be source of revenue.
What I find exciting about this phenomenon is that these are the businesses of the future and clients of the future. What is their idea of marketing communications? Should we start developing models around their business models? I believe that understanding how they think and how their customers think is imperative for many categories that we work on like mobile phone, banking, schools, and even food. Convincing our clients . . . well, that’s another story all together.
http://vivavintage.multiply.com/
http://digitaltraincase.multiply.com/