Open Access Marketing and the Philippines


A Brief History

Since 2001, the Philippines has seen the proliferation of call centers and business process outsourcing companies setup shop and employ thousands of Filipinos. As a result, the Philippines has replaced India as the preferred destination for many offshore call centers that provide services to American and other western markets. While India is still the preferred destination for American companies seeking to outsource more sophistacated tasks such as engineering and programming, many companies have come to the Philippines seeking cheaper alternatives for more basic services.

Natural Advantages

For the call center industry, the Philippine has one natural advantage that is the most appealing: English. A long history with the West and specifically America, has led to strong cultural ties that allow Filipinos to communicate and engage easily with their foreign counterparts.

One of the major reasons that the Philippines has become the natural destination for call center services is because the Philippines has the highest English literacy rate in Asia (93.8%). In fact, the Philippines is the world's third largest English-speaking country, behind only the United States and Great Britain. Filipinos are also considered to have one of the easiest to understand accents which are more neutral and easily understood by natural American English speakers. In addition to this, Filipinos learn the American accent within a few months of working in a call center.

A University Country

The Philippines graduates more than 440,000 students each year, with more than 2.4 million students enrolled in university studies every year. With the the lure of high paying jobs fresh out of college, students from all backgrounds are eschewing the tradional career path and becoming call center agents.

The Philippines has many top universities which are world renowned including the University of the Philippines, Ateneo de Manila University, De La Salle University, the Asian Institute of Management and the oldest university in Asia, the University of Santo Tomas. With an educational system similar to that of the United States, students from more than 70 countries go to the Philippines for English-based university studies.

Strong western ties and a developed university system are two of the primary reasons why Open Access Marketing chose the Philippines as its primary offshore center to serve its clients around the world.

Looking Towards The Future

The future for the Philippines looks bright as ever. With a burgeoning middle class buoyed by new jobs, the Philippines will continue to take an ever increasing share of the worldwide call center market. More advanced services such as digital animation, accounting and legal services are already beginning to augment the Philippine call center industry. We believe in the future Philippines and believe it is the best place to serve our clients.