PHL vies for 'most networked country' in the world

More than a decade ago, the Philippines was well-known for being the "texting capital of the world."

Just recently, the country earned the "social networking capital of the world" moniker for having the highest Facebook penetration rate, with approximately 94 percent of Filipino Internet users registered on the social network.

This year, the country is once again gearing up to clinch another title as the "world's most globally networked country," through an online application developed by payment and remittance service provider Western Union.

"Western Union is currently the world's most globally connected company. With this [application], we are giving people the chance to see their own personal global connections in an exciting new way," said Patricia Zamora-Riingen, senior vice president for the Pacific and Indochina at the Western Union Co.

Users interested to join in on the campaign simply have to log on to the Western Union World website and use the app which will get data from their Facebook account in order to calculate one's World Index.

Steve Peregrino, marketing director at Western Union, said that the World Index is computed by the total number of countries one has a connection to multiplied by a person's number of international connections.

Famous professional and technology blogger Abe Olandres, author of the blog YugaTech.com, for example, has a World Index of well over 15,000, with friends in about 48 countries.

Each individual score will contribute to the score of the respective country, which will provide the ranking of the most geographically connected nations.

Riingen said that given the Philippines' social networking stature coupled with the more than 2 million overseas Filipino workers spread across the globe, the country stands a chance against other countries in clinching the title.

"Filipinos have come a long way, venturing out into strange lands, building their networks and immersing themselves in new cultures whilst maintaining strong ties with their family and friends back home," Riingen said.

Aside from the visually appealing application for discovering one's global connections, the site also features interesting facts about the country's international money movement relations.

Using information from the World Bank, data such as Gross Domestic Product, Direct Foreign Aid, Remittances, Foreign Investments and Population can be visualized using the intuitive application.

By ticking the "Remittances" box, for example, users can view how worldwide remittances grew for the period between 1980 and 2009.

The Philippines ranks fourth in terms of current money transfers received by Filipinos in the country, next only to Mexico, India and China, data from the website show.

Clicking on a country would give the users more specific information about that country, as well as "remittance corridors" which shows where country remittances are originating from or leading to.

Western Union officials refused to disclose the volume of remittances to the Philippines they have processed in the first half of the year, but data from the World Bank indicate that, amid escalating inflation rates, remittances to the Philippines remain the fourth highest in the world, with $21.4 billion in remittances.  TJD, GMA News