What should businesses and professionals in the Philippines expect in the second half of 2022? As part of a new series, YCP Solidiance will be releasing several in-depth articles that revisit previously analyzed emerging business trends in the Philippines, guided by research and analysis from our team of professionals in the country. Read the first issue here.
Read the second installment below to learn more about how industries in the Philippines are digitalizing and what this development means for the future of business during the second half of 2022 and early 2023. To read future installments of this series, subscribe to our newsletter here.
With the last quarter of 2022 and early 2023 quickly approaching, the healthcare and food & beverage (F&B) sectors in the Philippines are trending as emerging industries that will undergo accelerated digitalization.
Online Telemedicine in the Philippines
The healthcare industry has evolved significantly throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. With hospitals and medical services in high demand, the industry turned to digitalization to meet the growing needs of consumers. As a result, telemedicine has been trending as evidenced by its emergence in countries like Indonesia, Malaysia, and Vietnam, to name a few in SEA. Following closely behind, the Philippine healthcare sector is expected to do the same as several players are bolstering telemedicine efforts via digitalization.
For instance, the largest online telemedicine provider in the Philippines, KonsultaMD, is quickly growing, having exceeded the one-million-member mark. The company employs an omnichannel approach to capitalize on such growth, with plans to relaunch as a comprehensive super app in the works. On top of its primary function of offering online consultations, KonsultaMD will offer additional services like fitness coaching, nutritional counseling, and same-day medicine delivery. Further, KonsultaMD has also sought partnerships with online retailers like Lazada, Shopee, and Foodpanda to maximize its reach on online platforms.
In the latter half of 2022, the digitalization of the healthcare industry in the Philippines is expected to continue with companies proactively working to sustain its rapid growth. In doing so, stakeholders should expect an increase in partnerships between both foreign and domestic entities operating within the Philippine healthcare sector. For example, one of the leading telemedicine providers in Singapore, Doctor Anywhere, has recently renewed a partnership with Filipino-founded health insurance provider Maxicare. In the coming years, ventures like KonsultaMD’s super app and partnerships like that of Doctor Anywhere and Maxicare will help enable the digitalization of the healthcare industry, while also facilitating the arrival of new market entrants.
Digitalization in the Food and Beverage Industry
Another relevant industry currently undergoing heavy digitalization in the Philippines is the food and beverage sector. Over the pandemic, instances of successful digitalization in the Philippine F&B industry have already been seen, most notably through the accelerated popularity of online deliveries via applications like Grab and Foodpanda.
Thus, local businesses are now leveraging digitalization to establish cloud kitchens– a concept wherein commercial kitchens focus solely on food delivery and take-out with no dine-in customers. This offers several advantages like minimizing cost, but most importantly, flexibility in terms of being able to fulfill orders and maintain profitability while also housing several brands under one roof. In the Philippines, some notable examples of cloud kitchen operators who are exclusively available via food delivery applications include Kraver’s Kitchen, MadEats, and CloudEats.
Future of Digitalization of Industries
Given the current success being achieved by the healthcare and F&B industries, other sectors may use this as a blueprint to help guide their own accelerated digitalization efforts. Thus, with several industries increasing digitalization efforts in the Philippines during Q3 and Q4 of 2022, it is likely that digitalization will continue to trend well into 2023. Considering that both the private and public sectors in the Philippines are emphasizing digitalization, expect other industries to follow a similar trajectory to the healthcare and F&B sectors.
To get more insight into other emerging trends across several industries in the Philippines, subscribe to our newsletter here and check out these reports:
- Capturing Esports Success in the Philippines: A Case Study
- Accelerating the Philippine Construction Industry via Digital Transformation
- Building Smart Cities in the Philippines
- Growing the Philippines’ MSMEs Through E-Commerce
