How a Foreigner Broke into the Philippine Mobile Market
When Yosuke Fukada first came to the Philippines in July 2012, he didn’t understand any English word. A foreigner whose vision was to disrupt the mobile industry in emerging markets, Fukada moved from Japan to Cebu to learn English and to understand problems common in Southeast Asian countries.
“The Philippines is the most popular country to study English,” he said. “Our users — Philippine users — can understand English very well, so it is easier to get users’ feedback directly than in other countries like Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam.”
Fukada, the founder of mobile technology firm YOYO Holdings and creator of mobile rewards platform PopSlide, will be hosting “Starting Up in the Philippines and Hacking Your Fundraising” tomorrow evening at the IdeaSpace office and share his experiences with aspiring Filipino technopreneurs.
Since launching PopSlide in 2014, Fukada and his team have amassed over one million users, won global tech competitions and expanded to Indonesia and Vietnam.
With PopSlide, users are able to receive free mobile load by swiping on lock screen ads. Ads on a user’s phone correspond to certain reward points, which users can accumulate and use to redeem mobile airtime.
The idea behind PopSlide first came about when Fukada learned about ‘Pasaload,’ which allows users to send prepaid load to other users, when he first moved to the Philippines. It was technology had never encountered in Japan before, he said.
“I felt that ‘Pasaload’ had a big potential to provide small incentives to many people without detailed information,” Fukada said.
Late-2012, Fukada participated in Startup Weekend Cebu to test his idea out. Although his team didn’t win, he was able to validate the concept of a mobile rewards platform. After fundraising, YOYO Holdings launched its first product, Candy, which allows users to get free load on their pre-paid mobile phone by completing ‘missions’ such as taking surveys.
Fukada and his team continued to join expositions and tech summits including Rising Expo and Echelon throughout 2013 and 2014, reiterating their ideas and product before coming up with PopSlide.
“The Philippines is a really different market compared to Japan, but I adjusted,” Fukada said.
He said it was important not to rely on the successes he had in Japan. Although he had confidence in his business skills, he realized the Philippine environment is different and he shouldn’t rely on knowledge, methods and frameworks from previous experiences.
“I tried to forget everything, and start from zero,” he said. “Everything is my teacher here.”
Fukada said he thinks the biggest problem with the Philippine tech ecosystem is that most developers don’t create their own product because the popular model here is business process outsourcing (BPO).
“Developers just follow the project manager decision, or client decision,” he said. “Their responsibilities are making product based on system specifications. They don’t have any opportunities to create Internet businesses by themselves.”
He believes the prevalence of the BPO industry lessens the chances for many Filipinos to understand internet businesses and think about key performance indicators (KPI). He added that “good talent goes abroad as OFWs, [so] it is hard to find good mentors, developers, and entrepreneurs.”
Fukada gave advice to aspiring technopreneurs and said they should set goals and break down daily tasks. They should understand the market they’re working in, and find the right people to work with. Hiring is the most important first step, he said.
Beyond that, communication is key.
“In our company, we have six nationalities,” Fukada said. “Everyone uses English, but I often say our common language is not English. Our common language is logic. Without any fact and logic, we can’t understand each other well.”
Watch the livestream of the IdeaSpace’s second funding talk, “Starting Up in the Philippines and Hacking Your Fundraising” tomorrow at 7pm! With Yosuke Fukada, we will cover and learn more about the fundraising landscape for Philippine-based startups and how to prepare your business plan to attract investors.
