On eBay & Paypal's presence in the Philippines » YugaTech

On eBay & Paypal’s presence in the Philippines

Yesterday, I had a short 15-minute one-on-one interview with reps from eBay South East Asia who flew in from their regional headquarters in Singapore to answer some questions for the media on eBay’s expansion in the Philippines.

Although I was expecting somebody who is in-the-know about Paypal, eBay’s VP for Emerging Markets Dan Neary diligently tried to answer some of my questions on that front. Eunice Lim, PR Manager, and Jean Ow-Yeong, Consumer PR & Community Specialist for eBay Southeast Asia were glad to share some interesting information about eBay Philippines as well.

As for Paypal in the Philippines, I have yet to get some really concrete and detailed answers but most of the fees and banking questions I asked were addressed and categorized under “regulatory issues”. I was assured that eBay is working really hard to sort out Paypal’s development in the country especially with offering local (Philippine Peso) currency.

Currently, Paypal transactions are still in US dollar currency and transfers or withdrawals are heavily affected because of foreign exchange rates (I earlier discussed about the difference in exchange rates here). Once Paypal opens up and introduces the Philippine Peso currency, transactional forex expenses will become more consumer friendly. For the meantime, let’s just all be glad we now have direct access to hundreds of millions of Paypal users in the network.

Details of my interview are posted on PTB.

Abe Olandres

Abe is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of YugaTech with over 20 years of experience in the technology industry. He is one of the pioneers of blogging in the country and considered by many as the Father of Tech Blogging in the Philippines. He is also a technology consultant, a tech columnist with several national publications, resource speaker and mentor/advisor to several start-up companies.

https://www.yugatech.com

15 Comments

unique says:

17 years ago

I’ve heard a rumor that Auction.ph is talking with sulit.com.ph for a possible partnership (pwedeng tsismis kasi nanggaling from a friend of a friend). Do you think Auction + sulit combined can compete with Ebay Philippines?

Since alexa was used at the post at PTB, here is an updated (but not to be trusted) stats:
http://tinyurl.com/39tut3
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BrianB says:

17 years ago

http://www.maccomplainer.com/news/upgraded-macbook-and-macbook-pro/

Time to buy a macbook. But Apple Remote costs $19!
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jhay says:

17 years ago

PayPal opening up to Philippine Peso is a welcomed development. I wonder though how it would affect those money delivery services like Xooom.com, Western Union or M. Lhuillier pawnshops etc?
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Pinoy Beader says:

17 years ago

Unless there is a really convenient and safe way to transact and pay online, eBay will remain a shopping window for Filipinos.
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blozoom! says:

17 years ago

I am bit surprised that eBay.ph is still looking at Bidshot.com to check the metrics. Yeah, eBay can make comparisons vs Auction.ph but to Bidshot? I think eBay.ph should not limit itself in looking at site stats compared to other â€œauctionâ€ sites. Rather generally, look at buy and sell websites in the Philippines. Filipinos online buy & sell site users look at these sites not only to really to do auction and wait per se, but to do quick sell as well. eBay should not look the other way and must do an Alexa chart comparing another Phiippine online marketplace, Sulit.com.ph to that of eBay (As posted by UNIQUE above). Moreover, eBay.ph says, over 36,000 users since the November 2007 re-launch of the site. That would be equivalent to â€œonlyâ€ 300 new users per day. Compared that to sulit that gets 500 to 600 users per day. That dwarfs eBayâ€™s 300 new users a day considering eBay.ph is run by, well, EBAY! Donâ€™t get me wrong, I am not picking sites, err, sides. I want eBay.oh to flousirish for the good of mankind (filipino net sellers), but clearly, eBay has to contend with the one-man show of Sulit.com.ph.
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Albert Hallado says:

17 years ago

Hi Guys,

I’m planning to move back home in the Philippines and just want to know if Paypal is actually available now in PI and how this thing works is it the same thing here in the US that you can simply pull money out of your debit card. Yuga more info Pls.

Thanks’
Albert Hallado
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SlackeR says:

17 years ago

Well

1.Sulit.com.ph does not charge people to sell.
2.Sulit.com.ph has this thing called site currency to be used to let users buy special site functions like buying to have your add posted in front of their site (which is cool since you get points by being active on their website and promoting their site, which means it does not cost a penny)
3.Other action/selling sites allow ANY kind of good and services (not sure if they allow bride to order or escort services hehe)

“Asked whether they have plans of putting up a local office in the Philippines, Neary comments that they work on a centralized system but have actually been doing global customer support from the Philippines (outside Metro Manila) for some time now. Though they would not specify which BPO or location, my guess is that it could be one of the call centers in Cebu.”

— 1 or 2 BPO’s in manila support ebay —

“eBay Philippines has also recently announced partnership with Globe GCash to support mobile payments.”

— Hope they have good security for this alot of scammers actually use GCASH to scam people off their money —
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Ralph says:

17 years ago

yuga, i hope you can post more info regarding with their expansion here in phil.
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Gloria Karlos says:

17 years ago

Some people are using this site for a scam. One thing that an e-bay shopper should avoid is paying via electronic money transfer like G-Cash, Western Union, LBC, and the likes. This payment methods are very unsafe.
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Sagada Igorot says:

17 years ago

I love the eBay concept – still, those with more resources get to have access to lower prices. Hope the field in the Philippines will be a more level one.
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