Pinoys spend Noche Buena on Facebook

The Philippines has long been known as the texting capital of the world, and local telcos have traditionally come to expect high traffic from well-wishers during the yuletide season. However, the past year has seen the growth of Facebook and other social media as challengers to SMS. Still, Facebook's popularity hasn't prevented people from using SMS to its fullest potential. Filipinos have been known to be very creative with their use of SMS, even using the platform for graphics. There were the usual Christmas trees:        ,*,     Merry     ,*'@'*,   Xmas!   ,*'@*@'*, """""U""""" Hope that I'm the first person to put a christmas tree on your phone.. And some very personal ones, like this message from an airplane crash survivor:            -l-           :"": ---¤=:((*)):=¤---          ö ö I'm sending thru this flight: A plane load of LOVE, HOPE, JOY and PEACE 4 u n ur loved ones. Merry Christmas! However, an informal survey conducted by GMA News showed that, as of 1:30am on Christmas day, 78 percent of respondents said they would rather use Facebook, Twitter, or other social media to send Christmas greetings to their loved ones. Only 12 percent said they would use SMS for the same purpose. Even a year ago in 2009, before Facebook had become such a huge hit with Filipinos, social networks were already eating away at the dominance of SMS for delivering yuletide greetings. "I remember waking up on the 25th to hundreds of text messages with greetings of Merry Christmas. Today, I still get tons of greetings but this time it’s on Facebook and Twitter. It’s a shift in the communication trends — Facebook updates and Tweeting is replacing the good old SMS," tech pundit Abe Olandres wrote on his blog. He also warned that the phenomenon "could translate [into] millions or tens of millions of lost revenues for [telecommunications companies]." According to Australia-based telecommunications research firm BuddeComm, as of June 2010, the penetration rate for mobile phones in the Philippines was 92 percent -some 85 million mobile phone subscribers out of a population of 92 million. In contrast, Facebook metrics company Socialbakers.com says that the Philippines has just under 19 million Facebook users as of November, accounting for just 19 percent of the country's population. Despite this, a growing number of people are choosing Facebook over SMS in an effort to avoid the hassle of congested mobile networks over the holidays. "Hirap mag send ng mga txts ngaun kaya Facebook na lang para lahat magi-greet ko, lalo na ung mga nasa abroad kong kamag-anak at family. Unlimited greetings pa nagagawa ko, kaya Ok na OK," explained Rachelle Bernardino. (It's difficult to send SMS right now, so I'll use Facebook instead so I can greet everyone, especially my relatives and family abroad. I can even send unlimited greetings, so it's really OK.) "Traffic na sa mga (mobile) network, buti pa sa Facebook OK. Kaya babatiin ko lahat ng friends ko s Facebook," added Esther Villanueva Boringot. (There's a lot of traffic on the mobile networks, but Facebook is better off. So I'm going to greet all my friends via Facebook.) "May mas effective pa ba [sa Facebook]? Libre. [At] one click lang, worldwide pa," said Zoilo Roco. (What's more effective than Facebook? It's free. It's just as easy as a click, and it's worldwide too.) The novel use of SMS, coupled with the emergence of Facebook and other social media, has had a negative impact on the PHilippine postal service, which has been losing money on account of the phenomenon. "We used to receive volumes of love letters (and) greeting cards. We still (get) about one million pieces of mail daily (but) technology has really overtaken the post," Philippine Postal Corporation (PhilPost) Assistant Postmaster General for Marketing Luis Carlos told GMANews.TV. Carlos said the demand for snail mail service began its decline in the 2000 when mobile phones and now broadband became the rage, encouraging consumers to send their greetings through text, e-mail, or online social networking sites. You may get in touch with the author via Twitter at @tjdimacali -GMANews.TV