PayPal4PH Updates
Thursday
Jul 27, 2006
It’s been several weeks since I published PayPal: One Great Way to Improve the Philippine Economy. Quite a number of people have expressed support and interest. A few have provided their insights and inputs into the matter. Others even have dissenting opinions, or at least don’t think that having PayPal would be helpful enough.
Links to these other posts and news items are available here. Reader fedeback can be found on the comment thread.
Things haven’t been quite slow these past days. I guess everyone’s busy. But here are milestones, so far.
* We’ve registered a domain, www.paypal4ph.com and even set-up an update blog at www.paypal4ph.com/blog (thanks to my colleague “J4s0n”:http://j4s0n.com ).
* We asked uber-cool designer Ia (who also works with us at Enthropia) to create some artwork for the site.
* J4s0n is coding a cool sign-up sheet with an equally cool frontpage (Enthropia is the team behind iBox, which I think is really cool). We can probably ride on the existing signature campaign on petition spot launched last year, which has 812 signatures to date. However, I think it would be good to start fresh (and so everyone who would sign up actually knows what the issues are).
* Mainstream media update: Joey Alarilla (journalist, problogger, father, and Palanca awardee) has written about the *PayPal for the Philippines initiative on CNet Asia*. Joey also writes for Inq7.net and I do hope we make it there, too, one of these days. His fellow Inq7.net journalist Erwin Oliva has also expressed interest in the advocacy, and I do hope we get the much needed mainstream-media mileage.
Other ideas:
* We’re likely to move the advocacy site to a .com.ph domain to support the use.com.ph campaign (and since it’s for the Philippines, anyway!).
Open Source / Collaboration
Sad to say, running an advocacy is not that easy. Firstly, I’m quite rusty as an economist, and after all, being a jack-of-all-trades makes one a master of none. So I’m not your expert on tech and e-commerce either, but I do try to make the most out of what information I can digest from other sources. And one of the things I’ve been a big fan of is OpenSource.
The most important thing I learned from the Open Source movement is that collaboration is key to producing great ideas and great output. Hence, with this in mind, I think it’s best to move forward with the PayPal for the Philippines advocacy as a collaborative activity. We are already doing this, as various people are contributing to advancing the cause in their own ways. However, we need to come up with a more defined and focused output. We need to get our facts and figures straight. We need to be able to talk to the right people (and at the right time).
For one, we need to come up with a whitepaper, as Migs suggested on the original blog post. We need a more solid argument to support our cause, and to help convince the right people (i.e., those in government, the banking sector, and even eBay/PayPal management itself) and in this regard, I think collaborative work is the way to go.
So here’s what our next step would be. I’m hoping for inputs and suggestions on how we can go about with it. For now, we shall be setting up a Wiki on the advocacy page to get started on a draft whitepaper (link later). Any inputs and help (with the appropiate sources and citations needed, of course) would be much appreciated.
J. Angelo Racoma is a technology journalist and blogger. See more of his blog posts here at racoma.com.ph, commentaries at racoma.net, and Twitter feed at @jangelo.
Comments
taorist
July 27th, 2006 at 5:52 pm
For Wikis maybe you can try out tiddlyspot.com, it has password protection, Dreamhost servers, no problem with installations.
jhay
July 27th, 2006 at 7:06 pm
I’m all out for PayPal for Philippines and the open-source principles of collaboration is just brilliant.
rubber
August 3rd, 2006 at 9:30 am
hey! I feel the same way as you. I feel that Paypal should be made available to our country. I have a full-time job in the day, but I am also developing a business on the side, and I feel that Paypal would greatly benefit my business. The internet can really open up borders, and Paypal is one of the key tools for the internet.
John V N
August 3rd, 2006 at 3:56 pm
I fully support the need for Paypal in the Philippines. But the problem is some of the countrymen are not too honest, having been done twice, using Storm, after using ebay I have paid via Storm, but the goods never turned up from the Philippines, and Storm will not investigate???
Good luck.
I married a Filipina and we are in the process of retireing there, so I am not biased, but past experiance….
So if I wish purchase when in the Philippines, I have to keep my UK bank details live; and then the next problem will be how make sure my ordered goods are not stolen prior to delivery
Fabian
August 3rd, 2006 at 6:59 pm
Hi Angelo, your fellow atenean and batchmate Fabian here. I was lead to your blog ‘coz you’ve been covered by the Inquirer w/c I read online. But anyway. . .I am encouraged that you are trying to get PayPal into the Philippines. I think it would be a great benefit to us all if this system worked well here.
Not to be a wet blanket, but I get worried about PayPal’s reported unilateral power to freeze your account. Prior to getting here I had serendipitously stumbled into sites critical of Paypal, like paypalsucks.com. There are a lot of scary stories and I do wonder what your take is on these issues. Paypal has been given free rein to run through an American regulatory environment, and there have been problems.
anyway good luck and hope to hear from you
jeremiah
August 3rd, 2006 at 8:40 pm
hi, just happened to see your blog site…Paypal is good and i believe many outsourcing firms such as the company i’m working with, will benefit much..
Also, your blog site is nice. Keep up the good work. I’lll be checking this site very often.
Xoom user
August 3rd, 2006 at 11:06 pm
Paypal already has a presence in the Philippines and we’ve been receiving paypal payments already.
Just click XOOM.COM. it’s Paypal’s exclusive affiliate in the Philippines, and it’s tied up with Equitable PCI Bank (EPCI) and Cebuana Lhuiller pawnshops.
we’ve been receiving overseas payments through this facility for about two years already. it’s easy and convenient.
instant receipt of funds. to claim, your choice of over the counter at EPCI or Cebuana Lhuiller, or delivery right at your doorstop (at a premium).
rates are almost same as “direct Paypal”–USD6 or so last we checked.
just FYI, no offense intended, peace.
rubber
August 3rd, 2006 at 11:26 pm
hi. I was just wondering about that thing with xoom. actually, I emailed an inquiry to the website of paypal and they responded that they dont have anything in the philippines. maybe the guy who responded didnt know about xoom. perhaps their arrangement with xoom is not really legal? hope I am not opening a can of worms here.
Anna
August 4th, 2006 at 1:53 am
I, too, am all out for bringing the PayPal service to the Philippines. Other Asian countries have it, so why can’t we? There are so many people here who need it and will greatly benefit from using PayPal.
cyberbaguioboy
August 4th, 2006 at 12:19 pm
hi angelo,
here’s what I got from one source (who had direct contact with paypal in the US). Southeast Asia is not in their radar. Too fragmented, they say. I really don’t know what they mean by that but if you want this campaign to move forward, aim for Paypal (eBay now owns it). I believe Joey was in contact with them before but he also got the same reception. so from the perspective of an economist, we don’t have the critical mass to convince them that they can get their ROI quickly if they invest here.
Alex R Adamos
August 6th, 2006 at 6:04 pm
The long wait is over, Paychest.com is here:
PayChestâ„¢ http://www.paychest.com
Comment truncated. Link would suffice.
JP
August 9th, 2006 at 6:08 pm
To the one who “started” this all:
I agree with you that indeed we need to have PayPal in the Philippines.
I was in San Francisco last May and had a meeting with a few PayPal guys. More than the technical questions, I inquired about their plans of introducing PayPal in the country. I gave them tons of reasons why they should do it NOW.
Fortunately, they mentioned that there are already plans for expansion in the Philippines and they are currently carefully studying this move. Target: early 2007. Be patient. It will come!
J. Angelo Racoma
August 10th, 2006 at 3:03 am
@Taorist, thanks for the lead. You’re our resident GTD expert, heheh.
@Jhay, thanks for sharing my sentiments about open-sourcing this initiative.
@Rubber, thanks for the support. I guess PayPal would also encourage entrepreneurship among us Pinoys. Sadly this is one thing lacking in our educational system–we teach people to be good employees, but not to strike out on their own with great ideas. Sigh. This merits another (long) blogpost altogether (haven’t I written something about this before?) so I’ll stop rambling now.
@John, sorry for your troubles. Perhaps an escrow service would be best, in your case.
@Fabian, hi. You’re an A-boy, right?
Anyway, as for unilateral freezing, see my response here “http://www.technopinoy.com/?p=192#comment-370at TechnoPinoy”:http://www.technopinoy.com/?p=192 (“at the comment thread”:http://www.technopinoy.com/?p=192#comment-370 ). I’m quoting it here.
@Jeremiah, thanks for visiting. You know, we’re looking for companies who are also interested in seeing PayPal operate here in the country, particularly those foreign companies with a Philippine presence, who would find it easy to transfer funds to their staff here.
@Xoom user, I do use Xoom sometimes, and it is fast. My only gripe is that people who send me money have to sign up for their own Xoom accounts. I think this added requirement is quite cumbersome especially for people who have dozens to send funds to and only one Angelo Racoma to sign up a Xoom account for (view it from a usability perspective).
@Rubber, perhpas they’re just not aware. I would think Xoom serves as a middleman in the transactions.
@Anna, thanks for the support. I hear the problem with other Asian countries is the lack of support from their respective banking systems.
@Erwin (cyberbaguioboy), that’s too bad. Well, perhaps we can cite the OFW remittance figures, then. Heheh.
@Alex, are you from Paychest? I’ll have to cut your comment short. Links would have sufficed. Thanks for the info, anyway. Still, we’re interested in something direct and something that our clients wouldn’t have to register extra/new accounts for.
@JP, that is good news. I hope someone can confirm this.
Alex R Adamos
August 26th, 2006 at 7:27 pm
Im not from paychest, anyway, Im going to promote this site: http://www.paypal4ph.com/blog to show my support to this initiative.. Gud luck
J. Angelo Racoma
August 27th, 2006 at 3:18 am
Thanks, Alex. I hope you understand the need to truncate the comment. At any rate, I’ve discovered several third-party solutions in the course of the PayPal for the Philippines campaign. Still, a direct solution is best.
Alex R Adamos
August 27th, 2006 at 12:28 pm
I moved to a new server last week and we have 75 gig webspace and 1100 Monthly traffic and we have 129 contries visitors on my site. malaking tulong yon pag promote ng http://www.paypal4ph.com/blog at ilalagay ko na yon banner ng paypal philippines after 3 days, Maraming salamat.
Clarise
August 30th, 2006 at 1:05 am
JP: “Fortunately, they mentioned that there are already plans for expansion in the Philippines and they are currently carefully studying this move. Target: early 2007.”
That is good news, indeed! Is there anything from paypal.com that might support this?
jayvee
August 31st, 2006 at 12:30 am
ill see what we can do on the side of Mobile Philippines and PC Mag Philippines.
dandee
January 4th, 2007 at 11:39 am
hi! gud am. i am dandee also an economics graduate and im into blogging and IT, just like you. please update me also about internet blogging, website development or aything about IT where your are knowledgeable. thanks…
my email add: dandeejonathan@yahoo.com
dandee
archie
February 13th, 2007 at 10:57 am
hi! any update on the paypal receiving in the country? i am into online teaching and wonder if there are some development to it. had few students requested me to pay via paypal but told them that we cant still receive at paypal. so wonder if you guys have any info regarding this? thanks!
J. Angelo Racoma
February 13th, 2007 at 10:31 pm
@Dandee, thanks for the post. If you’re interested with blogging or writing for a living, then I would be glad to help out.
@Archie, from what I’ve been hearing, it’s a mixed bag. Some say they’re getting ready to opening up receive features here within the year. Some would say it’s never gonna happen.
For now, I’m still using Xoom. A bit more expensive, but at least the infrastructure is there. Or as an alternative, I usually ask colleagues with accounts based in supported countries (US, UK, etc.) to receive on my behalf.
Cris
July 23rd, 2007 at 2:32 pm
myLot.com pays members by paypal. If funds can not still be drawn from paypal affiliates in some places, how can we get them do it?
Andy Immotna
September 30th, 2007 at 7:19 pm
Check out!
We now can withdraw funds from Paypal Philippines!
Andy
+++++++
http://www.inf-o-asis.com
Your source for an oasis of info and infoproducts!
Greg Yalong
October 2nd, 2007 at 10:31 am
BE AMAZED, THE NEW PAYPAL PHILS. FEATURE
Send: Send funds without sharing your financial information.
Receive: Receive funds quickly from anyone with an email address in the 190 countries and regions that accept PayPal.
Withdraw: Withdraw funds from your PayPal account:
* To your credit, debit, or prepaid card.
* To your US bank account.
Make and receive payments in the currency you select. PayPal supports 16 currencies.
mike
October 12th, 2007 at 11:18 am
Paypal Philippines withdrawal to UnionBank’s EON is still problematic.
Some are reporting close to 2 weeks from withdrawal date, still no money received upto now.
Toto
October 12th, 2007 at 2:24 pm
I won a contest for a sattelite TV Ad which awarded $1,000 prize money thru paypal. I now have the funds in my paypal account, the problem is I dont’ own a credit card. I have added a US bank(my sister’s) for verification(it was accepted) yet my account still says UNVERIFIED unless I verified using a credit card.
I am limited to sending up to $100 each month to other accounts and withdrawal to bank is still disabled. What happens if I won’t be able to get credit card? Would Paypal just freeze my money?