Philippines: This business is thriving in Manila's heavy traffic

Philippines: This business is thriving in Manila's heavy traffic

In a briefing last week, Globaltronics chairman William Guido said the company plans to roll out 200-300 more digital billboards nationwide, particularly in “heavy traffic sites” in the next five years.

The company plans to spend P5-6 million per digital billboard. At present, it has 100 digital billboards nationwide.

Guido said the "sought after sites" for digital billboards are those "heavily traffic" areas such as Edsa and C5.

"When you’re stuck up in the middle of the traffic you have no choice but to look at the screen so there's a captive audience," Guido said, adding that 80 percent of the people are on the road.

"These are the decision makers," he said. Guido said the company also plans to expand its business outside the Philippines, looking to Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Myanmar and Indonesia.

The company will spend P50 million to roll out digital billboards in Malaysia in the second half, and another P300-400 million in Indonesia in the fourth quarter of the year, he said. "Indonesia is a big market with over 250 millionGuido said. His company also provides digital media solutions in Singapore.

Guido, who is LED sector head for the Outdoor Advertising Association of the Philippines, expects the revenue of the industry to reach P300 million this year, up from P150 million last year. Growth would come from the expansion of digital billboards in more sites and partnerships with several big players, particularly in the static billboard segment.

"There will be more strategic locations that would be converted to digital which is everywhere now. Major cities are going digital and the Philippines is catching up. More sites will be installed nationwide, there will be also LGUs that will be partnering with us like Laguna and Bacoor to provide them with digital LED display to announce their public information campaign," Guido said.

The OAAP is organizing on May 29-31 a Digital Asia Expo and Conference titled One Digital Asean in preparation for the Asean Integration in 2015.