By Justine Irish D. Tabile, Reporter
FILIPINO creators who use the short video application TikTok as a source of income earn more than the minimum wage, a regional study said.
In TikTok’s Southeast Asia Socio-Economic Report 2023, around 40% of polled creators in the Philippines reported having been earning more than the minimum wage.
The minimum wage in the Philippines is P570 a day in Metro Manila and P341 a day in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.
In Southeast Asia, 80% of TikTok creators said that they boosted their incomes through multiple avenues like TikTok LIVE and working with brands through paid sponsorships.
Meanwhile, small- and medium-sized businesses in the region saw a nearly 50% increase in revenues after using TikTok to sell products and services.
“We’ve empowered businesses to shift from traditionally offline marketing channels to meet new customers online,” TikTok Chief Executive Officer Shou Zi Chew said at TikTok’s Southeast Asia Impact Forum 2023 on Thursday in Jakarta, Indonesia.
The survey, which ran from August to September 2022, showed that 79% of businesses said the platform had helped them to transition from offline to online marketing channels, while 93% said TikTok provided them a platform to monetize their skills and experience.
“We have the privilege of providing a platform for over 15 million small businesses in Southeast Asia, helping them to grow and thrive,” Mr. Chew said.
The report showed that 93% of the surveyed creators reached their right target audience, while 94% thought that TikTok helped in increasing engagement with their target audiences.
To further boost this growth, TikTok committed to investing $12.2 million in Southeast Asia, in which it has around 325 million monthly active users.
“I think it is really important that we continue to invest, to foster these local entrepreneurs and to make sure that we are benefiting the local economies that we are operating in,” Mr. Chew said.
He said TikTok lowers the friction and barrier for brands to reach their customers and feed information to the users of the platform.
“Because TikTok is special in the way that we allow people to discover, because of the way we provide recommendation feed, if you have good content, you can be easily discovered on TikTok. That discovery has helped many entrepreneurs to build their businesses on our platform,” he added.
Nina Ellaine Dizon-Cabrera, chief executive officer of cosmetics brand Colourette, said that TikTok helped in increasing brand awareness and public engagement.
“It really did help us in more ways than one, from increasing our brand awareness… and to increasing views and engagement, which also translated into sales,” she said.
She said the brand was able to reach record-breaking sales during a sale in March through the platform.
“Now with the TikTok shop, we are making record-breaking sales. In 3.3 sale in March, we made 26,700 orders in a span of four hours. So, that is really something TikTok was able to do with us because we are able to build a community on the platform and around the brand,” she added.
Ms. Dizon-Cabrera is among the Filipino delegates at TikTok’s Southeast Asia forum.