Dire straits and tech’s saving grace?

There are two big tech-centric events that are being talked about today. The first and more obvious one is Pax Silica. The second is the upcoming listing of GCash into the local stock market. Although these two events are by themselves a big deal on their own merit, I would not have framed them to be potentially the next driver and framework of the Philippine economy. Our section has covered the Pax Silica initiative with a lot of editorials, so this is another feather in the cap. Filipinos are a silly bunch. On one end, there are aspirations to become ‘like Taiwan’ or ‘like Singapore’ but there seems to be a disconnect with the methods on how to get there.

My contributor Carl Lamiel has written about how Pax Silica is not a data center project. I’ve also written about how these data centers are not all created equal. In fact, in an interview I did with Equinix, the existing data centers here aren’t of that sort: the ones you see consuming tremendous amounts of water are used by hyperscalers to train large language models for AI. While there are AI-ready data centers here in the Philippines, none of them are being used for training frontier AI models like the latest versions of Gemini or Claude. On the front of natural resources, we are already exporting these raw materials to other countries. It makes sense to build technological know-how to process these and have us moon shot into the silicon age. Because if not us, there’s a long line of eager takers.

Fintech is for the young

The Philippines is still considered a young economy – powered by the young, and recent openings of local offices of Salesforce, the implementation of Google Wallet’s Tap-to-Pay, and the Apple Pay launch are signs of this. All this resides in the cloud. The cloud is a data center. Every Facebook update, every TikTok video upload, every GCash transaction – these use up a varied amount of resources.

Speaking of GCash, I have spoken to sources within the Ayala conglomerate and have confirmed that after the IPO scheduled sometime in October, all 49 million verified GCash subscribers will be able to buy GCash stock using the GStocks feature. We’ve all seen the bleak numbers of foreign investors pulling out due to the numerous corruption scandals and global oil crisis. Maybe it’s time to look inward? Imagine if your 49 million users – from the farmer to the street vendor could own a piece of GCash, the largest local unicorn in tech. Frankly, I haven’t seen this much hype and criticism for a tech company since the IPO speculations for Xurpas way back in 2014. We all know how that went. The main difference is that the former was a VASP service provider while GCash is a platform. 

Platforms are usually the more resilient beast. The GCash option may provide a blueprint for future listers to turn inward because 49 million is no joke. Quite frankly I’m not even paying attention to the price yet because it will take some time to get the average joe up to speed with the reality that they can invest.

I’ve read and watched all angles of criticism towards both the GCash IPO and the Pax Silica initiatives. My differences in opinion is tempered by seeing many different sides, from both stakeholders and naysayers. One thing is true though: we are in dire straits. To have at least these two chances to uplift the economy – I welcome them.