Retail News CRM

Tag: Philipines

  • Philippines imposes 12% VAT on digital services by tech giants

    Philippines imposes 12% VAT on digital services by tech giants

    The Philippines will impose a 12% value-added tax on digital services offered by tech giants such as Amazon, Netflix, Disney, and Alphabet, in a move that aims to level the playing field with domestic players, the country’s Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) announced on Wednesday.

    Previously, on Tuesday, President of the Philippines Ferdinand Marcos Jr signed into law the imposition of VAT on non-resident providers of digital services such as streaming services and online search engines.

    Only domestic digital service providers are currently subject to the 12% VAT, BIR said.

    BIR Commissioner Romeo Lumagui said in a statement that the taxation will promote fair competition amongst businesses that are profiting from consumers in the Philippines. A level playing field produces better products and services.

    Tech companies like Netflix, Disney, Google and Amazon have not made any comments.

    The Philippines aims to collect 105 billion PHP (US$1.9 billion) from the VAT between 2025 and 2029. It plans to allocate 5% of this revenue to fund projects for creative industries, the presidential communications office noted.

    According to BIR, digital services provided by foreign firms are considered rendered in the Philippines if the services are consumed in the Southeast Asian nation.

    Since the Covid-19 pandemic, tech giants have experienced higher usage in Southeast Asia, but they also face increasingly stringent fiscal tax regimes.

    Lees ook:

  • Jollibee Group brings two Singaporean chains to the Philippines

    Jollibee Group brings two Singaporean chains to the Philippines

    Jollibee Foods Corporation (JFC) has formed a joint venture company with Singapore-based Food Collective Pte. Ltd. (FCPL) to launch Common Man Coffee Roasters and Tiong Bahru Bakery in the Philippines.

    The joint venture company will franchise the café chains in the country, with JFC owning 60% of the business and FCPL the remaining 40%. JFC will also take the lead in the management and operations of the joint venture, with both companies committing up to P250m ($4.5m) in the partnership

    Founded in 2013, café concept and coffee roaster Common Man Coffee Roasters currently operates five outlets in Singapore alongside a single site in Malaysia.
    JFC expects to open at least one Common Man Coffee Roasters in the Philippines this year. However, the joint venture remains subject to regulatory approval.

    Tiong Bahru Bakery currently operates 16 cafés across Singapore.

    “We are excited to enter this joint venture with FCPL to own and operate the Tiong Bahru Bakery and Common Man Coffee Roasters in the Philippines. These brands will be a strong addition to JFC’s foreign franchised brands and will allow JFC to capture an even greater opportunity and strengthen JFC’s position for further growth in the Philippine market,” said Ernesto Tanmantiong, CEO, JFC.

    Based in Singapore, FCPL is a majority-owned subsidiary of Titan Lifestyle Holdings Pte. Ltd., a division of Titan Dining LP, in which JFC has a 90% participating interest. Common Man Coffee Roasters and Tiong Bahru Bakery are its primary brands.

    JFC operates more than 6,500 outlets globally across its 16-strong food and beverage portfolio, which includes its eponymous fast-food restaurant chain Jollibee and coffee chains Highlands Coffee and The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf.

  • Spotify targets Gen Z Filipino and Indonesian listeners with local artists in new brand film

    Spotify targets Gen Z Filipino and Indonesian listeners with local artists in new brand film

    Spotify aims to connect with their Gen Z Filipino and Indonesian listeners through their new “Music That Finds You” campaign that illustrates the streaming platform’s personalized music discovery services.

    The campaign, which stars Pinoy hip-hop artists Nik Makino and Flow G and Indonesian rock band NOAH, will span across film, television, OOH, and digital assets.

    “Gen Z are voracious consumers of Spotify’s library of audio content,” said Jan-Paul Jeffrey, SEA head of marketing, Spotify.

    “They play more than 578 billion minutes of music in Indonesia and the Philippines and are more engaged with digital audio than any other generation,” he continued.

    The brand film which features Nik Makino and Flow G for the Philippines begins with an individual struggling to study for her college entrance exams. When she presses play on the Discover Weekly personalized playlist, a light, reminiscent of a bat signal, shines from her bedroom window

    The hip hop duo then ziplines through the city from the party they were at to the protagonist’s house to perform for her as she resumes her studying while bopping along with them.

    The brand film brings the magic of Spotify to life and showcases the cultural influence Spotify has on Gen Z listeners that witness how niche homegrown artists are able to amass streams on Spotify, according to a statement by the brand.

    “As the world’s largest global music streaming service, Spotify has the unique ability to reach youths plugged into culture and provide them with an avenue to foster more meaningful connections with artists and podcasters they love,” added Jeffrey.

    Similarly, the advertisement for Indonesia begins with an individual playing their Discover Weekly playlist before starting their morning when members from NOAH parachute out of an airplane filled with other artists.

    As NOAH rocks out with the protagonist in his front yard, the advertisement emphasizes the playlist’s capabilities to provide listeners with personalized music that will make their day better.

    Along with Discover Weekly, Spotify has Daily Mixes and their Time Capsule which are both tailored specifically to each individual listener, while features such as BLEND offer a social experience for any two listeners with a shared playlist.

    As Spotify improves its services for their listeners, last month the streaming platform announced that it would be conducting another round of layoffs, just a few months after its previous wave of job cuts.

    This particular wave affects the podcast division, wherein approximately 2% of Spotify’s workforce in this division will be let go.

    According to Spotify in a statement, it is expanding its partnership efforts with leading podcasters from across the globe, with a tailored approach optimized for each show and creator which marks a fundamental pivot for Spotify in order to support the creator community better.

  • World’s largest FamilyMart opening in Manila

    World’s largest FamilyMart opening in Manila

    The world’s largest FamilyMart is to open in Manila.

    The 400sqm outlet will launch in Bonifacio Global City, Taguig, on the ground floor of the Udenna Towers, operated by Philippine FamilyMart CVS. The store will be designed to appeal to “a youthful and vibrant market,” with a food counter as the store’s centrepiece.

    “We are aiming to be more relevant to the market we believe needs to be served,” said Philippine FamilyMart GM Bernard Suiza. “This is the pivot to food that we are embarking on here in the Philippines – going back to the essence of what konbini is, which is hearty, home-cooked meals”.

    The food-focused strategy will see the firm focusing on key, densely populated urban areas in the Philippines, and will be supported by PFM owner Udenna’s F&B holdings and supply chains.

    FamilyMart will also launch its own signature coffee brand with Japanese firm UCC in the near future.

    Lees ook:

    Lees ook:

    Lees ook:

  • John Herrera made debut in the Philippines

    John Herrera made debut in the Philippines

    Fashion designer John Herrera has opened his first boutique in the Philippines, at Shangri-La Plaza mall.

    Executive VP and GM of the mall Lala Fojas said: “We are very happy to have John open his home in the Philippines with us. It is an honor…You can always assure yourself that you will have a unique, one-of-a-kind piece and Shangri-La is very much a prime mover when it comes to art and culture.”

    Herrera, who has professed a profound fondness for Shangri-La Plaza, noted: “Before, the Philippines was very centered around made-to-order, made-to-measure clothes but then I saw a trend wherein foreign companies are coming here, creating off-the-rack bridal collections (and selling them) and I realized that it’s perfect for my business now to do both things – to make clothes and sell them in London and in the Philippines because both businesses have become aligned now. I couldn’t pass it up.”

    The London-based designer is best known for evening and bridal wear.

    Lees ook:

  • Globe deploys Amdocs’ Revenue Guard

    Globe deploys Amdocs’ Revenue Guard

    The Philippines’ Globe Telecom will deploy a revenue assurance platform from Amdocs to help minimize revenue leakage risks.

    Globe has selected the Amdocs Revenue Guard service, which provides automated and analytics-driven revenue assurance.

    The service uses technology developed by cVidya, which Amdocs acquired for $30 million earlier this year. It combines revenue assurance and fraud management software tools with professional services including risk analysis consulting, business analytics, training and IT operations.

    Globe will use the service across its line of business, and plans to take advantage of the consulting and training services provided.

    Revenue Guard can be deployed on-premise or as a cloud services under a variety of operating models, including SaaS, revenue share and KPI models.

    “The entry of a company of Amdocs’ magnitude to the revenue assurance space with its acquisition of cVidya is yet another proof of the increased importance of this domain for the industry as the world becomes increasingly digital,” Globe CFO Rizza Maniego-Eala commented.

    “By integrating the Amdocs Revenue Guard service into our data lake, we will be able to centrally analyze and effectively share data across the different parts of our business, optimizing revenue while keeping operational costs to the absolute minimum. We see this as an additional milestone in our transformation to become a digital service provider.”

    Lees ook: