August 20, 2008

Rise of the Filipino Web Innovator

It was almost 20 years ago when, as a Computer Science student, I listened to Philippine President, Corazon Aquino, address a packed amphitheater at the University of California at Berkeley. In her speech, President Aquino called for Filipinos to return home to help rebuild the country. I didn't realize then that I would have the potential to heed that call a few years later when setting up the Philippine subsidiary of another global technology firm, and now with Yahoo!, while reiterating that same message to our Pinoy developer community.

Since joining Yahoo! a year ago, I often get questioned about the meaning of being a platform company. I have to reiterate that Yahoo! is not just a platform company, we are working on being an open platform company. This provides great potential for any Pinoy developer who now has an opportunity to leverage the Yahoo! infrastructure and technology and catalyze the Internet economy in the Philippines to help drive the country forward.

Yahoo! is the leading internet brand in the Philippines, and our platform provides the scale to make developers’ creations stand out. Although we have only just started our developer initiatives in the Philippines, I believe that our Hack Day at the University of the Philippines last year and our more recent Yahoo! Developer Network meet-up at TGI Fridays in Makati City last week – will help drive local innovation on the web.

It was good meeting the 80 Pinoy developers who braved the thunderstorm to attend our event. All their feedback will go a long way as we create new initiatives to support the develop community in the Philippines.

We know there are lots of talented Pinoys out there and we want the world to know that there's more to the Philippines than SMS, Boracay and the Love Bug virus. If you are a developer from the Philippines, I would like to invite you to submit your application form by 5p.m. 22 August for a life-changing trip to the Yahoo! HQ in Sunnyvale, California, and represent the Pinoy developer community. Click here for details and good luck!

Lastly, congratulations to Christine Amarra who won our lucky draw and walked away with an iPod.

Onward and upward in the Philippines!

Jojo A. Anonuevo
General Manager, Yahoo! Philippines

Posted at August 20, 2008 4:07 AM

Comments

Posted by: Melvin Dave Vivas at August 23, 2008 8:05 AM

Posted by: Arthur Abogadil at August 31, 2008 2:44 AM