Bitcoin is ripe for mass adoption in the Philippines, but only after some major hurdles can be addressed. Some of these are:
- Most Filipinos earn about PHP300 or less for a full day's work.
- Smart phones (Android & iPhone) ownership is not that prevalent with Filipinos, however it is slowly growing as their purchase price drops. Now you can get a second-hand one for about 3 to 5 days salary.
- Internet access costs PHP5 (about 10 minutes labour) per 15 minutes.
- Free WiFi is not readily available except in very limited locations in major cities.
- Most Filipinos are un-banked (cash is king) and do not trust/respect banks.
- Very few Filipinos have access to or have a credit/debit card, although those with a bank account do normally have an ATM card linked to their account(s).
- There are very few businesses in the Philippines that accept bitcoin as payment. Those few that do are mainly in Manila.
Most Filipinos are familiar with (and many use) pera padala (money remittance) businesses within the Philippines to send money between family and friends in the Philippines. Every major town and almost every small town has at least one pera padala business. These businesses accept cash, charge a fee of about 2% to 3%, and have cash available for the receiver to collect within a few minutes. Most of these remittance amounts are usually well below PHP5000 (about USD100).
The Philippines, with a population of over 100 million, is currently served by two major local bitcoin exchange businesses; coins.ph and BuyBitcoin. Both appear to be well operated, economical, and offer normal exchange services as well as some value-added services. When exchanging bitcoin into PHP, both offer bank deposits (free) and pick-up through pera padala businesses (for fee a little above what they are charged by the para padala business).
For the short-term future, I see the main use of bitcoin in the Philippines to be for remittances into and out of the country. Intra-country use will not develop until the Filipino can see an advantage in its use over cash.
It's true that most of the businesses that accept bitcoin are only distributed along the confines of the metros. Also, slow internet connection with such a ludicrous fee (I'm paying $50 for a 3Mbps turtle) is another hurdle when it comes to using bitcoin, given that the network runs through the internet. SMS, on the other hand, is very active within the Filipinos. If only they can make a wallet SMS-ready or transactions can be made through SMS, many Filipinos would consider using bitcoins as well. Also, the main thing that I see people here would use bitcoins is mainly for remittances. I experienced one time when my uncle sent money from Canada to Manila, it took 2 days for the process to complete (which is nuts, because I need the money that same day), whereas in bitcoin, you don't need to wait for that long because transactions are made within a span of minutes from anywhere in the world. That's a +1 for me because I have relatives in other parts of the world that often send money to us.
Exchanges here on the other hand, do little promotion and advertising. Coins.ph do the same promotion in Facebook among others, and tbh, coins.ph is a nice exchange because they really deliver their customers' needs. They also have great customer service that replies instantly and helps you with your problems. Some other exchanges, I'm not familiar with, but I haven't heard a single time in which they do some sh*t over their customers.