A Philippine call center

When it comes to e-commerce adoption, all may not be well in the Philippines, a corporate darling for information and communications technology outsourcing. A recent PIDS study reports the country lags behind its Southeast Asian neighbors, reports The Daily Tribune.

The Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS) reported that e-commerce adoption rates in the Philippines rank lower in some areas than Indonesia or Thailand, which introduced the Internet to their populations around the same time or later.

PIDS Senior Research Fellow Gloria Pasadilla and associate April Lacson reported, "only 25 percent of an Internet population of 11 million [are] able to buy products and services on-line, and most of these from e-retailers based in the US such as Amazon and eBay."

In the Philippines, e-commerce law lacks visible protection for domain names and intellectual property rights, in addition to other security issues. The high cost of building an e-commerce Web site in the Philippine is also a common problem for small and mid-sized businesses. And many Philippine consumers simply do not trust credit cards, thus confining payment options to CODs or cash.

Finally, a means of measuring usage, readiness and impact of e-commerce in the Philippines has not been presented.

Pasadilla and Lacson recommend that the country improve access to telecommunications infrastructure for its population and fill gaps in the legal and regulatory framework. Only then can it "achieve its vision of becoming Asia’s knowledge center and e-services hub."

Image courtesy of CBS.com.