ABSTRACT
This chapter describes how the Philippine market remains to be constrained by several factors but particularly in the poor quality of Internet access and payment system. It provides an overview of the development of e-commerce in the Philippines and summarises the key features of the online market. The chapter explains the country’s readiness for a digital economy, and reviews the government’s efforts in providing legal and institutional support to promote e-connectivity for e-commerce. Collection of e-commerce statistics is fairly recent, and generally has been undertaken by private entities of e-commerce stakeholders. Compared with the e-commerce markets of selected countries in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the market in the Philippines is the smallest. The key features of the e-commerce environment in the Philippines are important to understand the market’s performance. The Philippines has the second slowest Internet connection among Asia-Pacific countries, and it is the lowest among ASEAN countries in terms of facilitating businesses.
