Youth-driven consumption to boost PH digital economy

The Department of Finance expects youth-driven domestic consumption to be the biggest contributor to economic growth as digital marketing firm Truelogic sees social media with short videos headlined by influencers getting “bigger than ever” in business.

Truelogic said in a report the shift to digital has changed the way business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) companies operated as people’s behaviors changed from brick and mortar to online.

“From research, review, all the way to purchase, the Philippine audience quickly transitioned to digital,” said Ibarra Villaseran, client services director at Truelogic.

“Digital marketing services became widely used by businesses to adapt to the changes caused by the pandemic and adoption to digital channels grew from websites, Facebook pages, YouTube channels and even TikTok,” Villaseran said.

Truelogic data show that there are now more than half of the country’s population, or at least 76 million that are internet users who spend a daily average of 10 hours and 27 minutes online.

The number increased by 2.1 million users between 2021 and 2022, which means an internet penetration rate of 68 percent of the total population.