MANILA -- The Philippines remains an important market for video streaming giant YouTube, which highlighted the rise of e-commerce as well as Filipino entertainment shows which are being watched worldwide.
Sapna Chadha, Google Asia Pacific Vice President for Southeast Asia and South Asia Frontier, visited Manila for a YouTube Shopping event, where she said that there has been a significant growth in YouTube views on TV from 2020 to 2024. Many viewers, she said, shifted their TV viewing habits to online streaming platforms.
“People looking at their catch-up TV shows from 'Pinoy Big Brother' or 'Batang Quiapo,' which actually is watched across the world. It’s not just watched here or by overseas Filipinos. It is watched across segments across the world, which is fantastic,” she said referring to top rated Filipino TV programs which are also live-streamed on YouTube.
Aside from "Batang Quiapo," she also said viewers also like watching clips of PBA on YouTube and many other shows.
“Across the world, people are watching Filipino dramas. We’re seeing that they can spend over four hours watching connected TV in a day,” she added.
Because of this trend, the platform is also expanding the e-commerce segment. It launched YouTube Shopping with Shopee a few months ago. Chadha said the feature has been very popular because online shopping is huge in the Philippines. She said the world looks at this part of the region to know trends in e-commerce.
“Philippines is one of the markets where we see a very high percentage of e-commerce growth being on video. 20 percent of e-commerce is video. We almost see the future here,” she said.
This is not only good for consumers, but content creators as well. With the new YouTube Shopping, Filipino creators can now earn through the affiliate program of YouTube and Shopee.
“We are really committed to support and invest in the growth of YouTube Shopping… We have a suite of programs designed to help the affiliates and our content creators grow,” said Jack Ng, Head of Commercial at Shopee Philippines.
YouTube will continue to expand its services in the Philippines where over 650 channels already have over one million subscribers each. It added that 9 out of 10 Filipinos use YouTube.