With just a tap, swipe, or a click of a button, digital products and services are marketed and delivered to consumers worldwide. In this day and age, where almost anything is at everyone’s fingertips, businesses, including those in the UAE, are looking at this Filipino to help them engage with their socially connected audience.
With more than a decade in the e-commerce industry in the Philippines, Mannix Pabalan is considered as one of the leading experts of the country, serving as the general manager for online buy and sell website ayosdito.ph from 2008 to 2011.
Pabalan went into digital marketing while working for e-commerce sites Lazada and Zalora. In 2012, he founded his own digital marketing company, Hashtag Digital FZ LLC, helping both local and international clients reach a worldwide audience.
Expanding overseas was the next step for Pabalan’s growing company and in 2014, he opened up a branch in the Middle East.
With 99 percent of UAE residents using the Internet, according to the Digital in 2017 Global Overview report by digital and social media agencies We Are Social and Hootsuite, Pabalan aimed to penetrate the GCC Market and set up Hashtag Digital’s Dubai branch.
Photo credit: wearesocial.com
Three years into the business, Hashtag Digital has built up an impressive list of clientele in the UAE including Hawthorn Suites, Al Sharq Hospital, Oceanic Khorfakkan Resort and Spa, Ramada, and many more.
“I have seen so many Filipinos in the UAE, but only a few of us own businesses. The thought of exporting a Filipino company, and not just sending talent abroad, challenged me,” Khaleej Times quoted Pabalan as saying.
With this in mind, Pabalan hopes to change the image of migrant Filipino workers and demonstrate how Filipinos are helping build and shape different industries in the UAE and around the world.
“I thought of championing the cause and inspiring OFWs (overseas Filipino workers) to become entrepreneurs too,” he added.
Source: Khaleej Times
Photo credit: staticflickr.com
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Giant UAE-based company eyes to bring new businesses to PH
A giant international company headquartered in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) shared interest in bringing its businesses to the Philippines.
Mohammed Khammas, CEO of the Al Ahli Holding Group (AAHG), told the Philippine Star in an interview that the Philippines is an attractive destination for investment among foreign conglomerates.
“We’re into infrastructure, retail, consumer, real estate, social media, entertainment and events. These are the kinds of things we want to expand into and bring over here…The Philippines is a stable market. The Philippines isn’t volatile at all and quite tested no matter how hard the times get,” The Philippine Star has quoted Khammas in the Asia Pop Comincon Manila.
The conglomerate currently holds the exclusive largest franchise rights to US-based Gold’s Gym International in the MENA region. It has also established Al Ahli Plastics, one of Middle East’s largest plastic manufacturing companies.
The company is also building a Fox-branded theme park and resort in Dubai and has strategic alliances with Fox Studios, Marvel-Disney, Sony Pictures Warner Bros and other leading Hollywood studios across its multi-entertainment based platforms, said the report.
Khammas also said in the report that AAHG wants to bring innovative businesses that are yet to be introduced in the country.
“The (Philippine) government is now very committed to foreign investments so we’re looking heavily at different possibilities on how we can contribute and put something that is not yet here,” Khammas said.
AAHG brought the recently concluded Asia Pop Comicon Manila, the largest pop culture convention in the Asian region. Khammas said that their group chose the Philippines as the host country for the event because of the Filipino’s wide interest for pop culture.
Source: Philippine Star
Photo credit: Al Ahli Holding Group
Related Article: Zark’s Burger owner is former OFW
Zark’s Burger made headlines on August 28 after its video went viral because of massive crowd wanting to avail their P8 burger promo.
But before its owner Zark Espina Varona offered innovative burgers in the Philippines, did you know that he was an overseas Filipino worker (OFW) cook in a cruise line.
A hotel and restaurant management graduate from the Philippine Women’s University, Varona decided to apply as a seafarer on board Carnival Cruise Lines at the age of 21.
Although he has the advantage of being young OFW, Varona admitted that he struggled from being separated from his family.
“Ang challenge doon syempre 21 years old lang ako at that time, yung malayo ka sa mga kaibigan mo, sa family mo… In terms of trabaho, walang problema kasi ‘yun talaga ang gusto ko from the start— cook,” ABS-CBN quoted Varona.
Despite the struggle, he said that there being a seafarer has its own perks as well.
“Yung maka-travel ka sa ibang bansa. Kaso nga lang ‘di buong mundo yung naikot ko pero ok na — States, Mexico and Caribbean—paikot-ikot lang. Yung lang yung masasabi kong perks, ‘yung makapunta sa ibang bansa nang libre,” Varona said.
Photo credit: Zark’s Burger/Facebook
Varona’s main goal in working overseas is to gain experience and save money for his dream and not to send money back to his family.
He stayed in his job for two contracts, with the first one lasted for nine months and the second one lasted to seven months, before he decided to come back home and fulfill his dream: starting a restaurant.
With all the money he saved from being a seafarer, he used it to open a food cart business in Tutuban. Unfortunately, it only lasted for six months.
But it turns out to be a blessing in disguise because he then found out that there is a small space in Taft in front of La Salle.
Photo credit: Zark’s Burger/Facebook
“Nagkataon lang din wala pang masyadong ganung market at that time dito sa atin five years ago, mga better burger joints kung tawagin hindi mga fastfood,”
Five years ago, it attracted students with its delicious, yet affordable burger. Today, Zark’s Burger has 32 branches nationwide, with four branches in Visayas.
And no one could stop Varona’s success. Eight more branches will soon open, including in Davao and Cagayan de Oro.
Source: ABS-CBN News, Manila Standard, Philippine Star
Photo credit: Zark Varona/Facebook
