Google just announce that they’ve formally opened their local office in the Philippines. Google Philippines Country Manager Narciso Reyes, along with Google Southeast Asia Director Julian Persaud announced this at their special event in Blue Leaf, Taguig.
The Philippines is a key country in Southeast Asia in terms of its digital economy and tech-savvy population. This new office will allow us better engage with our local users, partners and advertisers. Over 33 million Filipinos access the internet regularly to study, shop, search for ideas, opportunities, create news businesses, and connect to each other. And internet use in the Philippines is set to grow exponentially. Research indicates that the number of Filipinos online will have nearly doubled by 2016.
Google Philippines will open new positions in the coming days. Check out www.google.com.ph/about/jobs/
Read more for the Full Press Release
Google is committed to the Philippines
Google’s office in the Philippines is a key part of Google’s efforts to develop a wide range of products and services to serve Filipinos better. At Google, we have a wide pool of talent from different backgrounds to continuously give us fresh perspectives on hot topics and issues. Our team of experts from engineering to marketing are constantly working hard to make sure our products are useful and relevant to the Filipino market and people.
Google also sees the Philippines as a key part of our Southeast Asia operations, and the appointment of Narciso Reyes as our Country Head and the establishment of a local office reflect our continued commitment to the Philippines.
Make life easier
Google helps millions of Filipinos connect with information, customers, audiences, colleagues and friends in the Philippines and throughout the world. Making the world’s information universally accessible and useful brings greater choice, new freedoms and ultimately more power for people.
In 2011, we launched Google Maps with a Filipino user interface, allowing Filipinos around the country to better access the search platform and find local geographic information -- from online maps to satellite imagery and even driving directions -- on their PCs and mobile phones.
In the same year, we also partnered with the Ayala Museum to bring the museum’s popular ‘Diorama Experience’ exhibition -- a collection of 3D models portraying significant moments from Philippine history -- online with Art Project powered by Google. This project allows people around the world to access the museum’s collection, just as Filipinos could now enjoy works by masters like Monet and Van Gogh in high resolution from their homes.
Crisis response
Google Maps were also useful in helping us coordinate crisis response efforts natural disasters. In the aftermaths of typhoons Ondoy, Sendong, Pablo and the 2012 monsoon floods, Filipino volunteers added crucial updates to the maps, including information about missing people, road conditions, developing news and locations on where to donate relief supplies.
Helping Filipino creators
We launched the Chrome Web Store in 2011, giving Filipinos greater access locally relevant and developed apps and information, and allowing local developers to easily build and distribute their apps to the 310 million people around the world who already use Chrome.
Likewise, in 2011 we also launched YouTube Philippines, a new online space for the national community to engage with content relevant to Filipinos and to give Pinoy creators the opportunity to increase their reach also allow them to generate revenue from their work.
Other local initiatives
In 2012, the Department of Education made the leap on to the cloud with Google Apps for Education, improving the ability of over 600,000 educators across the nation to stay connected using a common email, chat and calendar and to collaborate on the cloud with tools like Google Docs, Google Sites and Google Groups. Since DepEd’s launch, major Filipino universities -- Ateneo de Manila University, De La Salle University and University of Zamboanga -- have also ‘Gone Google’, connecting a total of over 50,000 students usings Google Apps.
We also developed Free Zone powered by Google and worked with one of the largest telecom operators in the country to give people access to the World Wide Web through their mobile phones. The service extends basic Google services (Google Search, Gmail and Google+) on Internet-enabled feature phones without a data charge.
Philippines Internet Statistics & Metrics
● There are over 33 million Internet users and 1.5 million broadband subscribers (ADMA 2012)
● This marks the Philippines as the 2nd top Internet user in Southeast Asia, 6th in Asia, 17th in the world (Internet World Stats)
● Filipinos spend nearly a day, or an average of 21.5 hours per week on the Internet (ADMA 2012)
● Mobile penetration is high with 106 million mobile subscribers, representing a mobile penetration rate of 111% and around 2/3rd of mobile users possess Internet-enabled devices (ADMA 2012)
● At 64%, ownership of Internet capable mobile phones is nearly equal to desktop ownership (68%) and exceeds notebook computer ownership (58%) (Nielsen Southeast Asia Digital Consumer Report, 2011)
● The Philippines is the fastest-growing smartphone market for Southeast Asia. Smartphones account for 30% (or 1 in 3 phones sold) of all mobile phones sold in the country (GfK Asia, 2012)
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Julian Persaud, Managing Director, Google Southeast Asia
Julian Persaud is the Managing Director of Southeast Asia at Google overseeing sales, marketing and partnership development in the region. Prior to moving to Singapore, Julian was based in Google’s Sydney office as the Head of Online for Google Australia, managing Google's efforts to help small and medium sized Australian businesses take advantage of online advertising.
He was previously Head of Business Development at Google Australia, and has spent his entire career working in online businesses, including roles at Yahoo! Search Marketing and UK auction house QXL.
Narciso Reyes, Country Head, Google Philippines
Narciso Reyes is the Country Manager for Google Philippines. Prior to joining Google, he was Regional Sales Director for Social at Komli. Narciso is an Internet veteran with over 16 years of digital experience in Asian and US markets. He worked with Internet companies like DoubleClick, LycosAsia, Wired and Friendster and has extensive knowledge in rich media, display, search engine marketing and technology sales, as well as a deep understanding of online media performance.
Before catching the Internet bug, he worked as a trader with All Asia Securities where he handled market orders for foreign brokerages such as Morgan Stanley, HSBC and Deutsche Bank.
Narciso has a degree in International Relations from Syracuse University in New York.