PH digital economy grows

Philippines digital economy expands by 7.7 percent in 2023

Story by Louella Desiderio
Philstar Global
26 April 2024

MANILA, Philippines — The value of the Philippine digital sector went up by 7.7 percent to P2.05 trillion in 2023 from P1.9 trillion in 2022, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority.

However, preliminary data released by the PSA showed the contribution of the sector to the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) declined slightly to 8.4 percent in 2023 from 8.6 percent in 2022.

The digital economy is composed of digital transactions covering digital-enabling infrastructure, e-commerce, digital media or content and government digital services.

According to the PSA, the government digital services component is the newest addition to those being tracked.

Digital-enabling infrastructure accounted for the bulk of the digital economy amounting to P1.7 trillion in 2023, up by 6.3 percent from P1.6 trillion in 2022.

Under the digital-enabling infrastructure component, the top three contributors were telecommunication services with 32.9 percent, followed by professional and business services with 30.1 percent, as well as computer, electronic and optical products with 17.1 percent.

E-commerce accounted for 14 percent of the digital economy amounting to P286.67 billion in 2023, up by 18.5 percent from P241.86 billion in 2022.

Digital media or content accounted for a 2.9 percent share valued at P60.21 billion, up by 4.8 percent from P57.44 billion in 2022.

Government digital services had a 0.2 percent share amounting to P4.16 billion, down by 5.6 percent from P4.41 billion in 2022.

There were 9.68 million individuals employed in the digital economy in the country in 2023.

E-commerce had the highest share in employment in the digital economy with 87.3 percent, followed by digital-enabling infrastructure with 11.5 percent, digital media or content with 1.1 percent and government digital services with 0.1 percent.