by Gregorio G. Deligero
Information and Communication Technology (ICT) industry stakeholders in Davao City are pushing for a “Silicon Gulf” brand for the sector.
Eriberto”Bert” Barriga, executive vice president of ICT Davao. Inc., said the group is finalizing the details of Silicon Gulf as the brand for the Davao IT industry. He added that it would mean packaging the IT industry and putting it into one geographical lump–the Davao Region. It was inspired by Silicon Valley, which is a cluster of high-tech industries located in the San Francisco Bay area in northern California.
The term Silicon Gulf was first used in 2006 during the launching of ICT Davao to describe the growing number of IT and IT-enabled industries sprouting and operating in Davao like call centers, BPO companies, start-up firms and IT schools.
Barriga said that aside from infrastructure, Silicon Valley also includes people, particularly those with ideas that can revolutionize thinking.
Part of the branding is developing start-up companies through incubation centers. Barriga said one of these incubation centers is at Brokenshire College where there are 4-5 container vans converted into small offices with internet connectivity ideal for start-up companies.
He said ICT Davao players recently participated in the finals of the ON3 Pitching Competition at the SMX Mall of Asia where of the four regional finalists from the Davao region, two made it to the top five winners.
“It is possible that the two will very likely be named among the top three winners and will be incubated in Silicon Valley on four funding missions for three months,” he said.
“Our partners in Silicon Valley promised they will select three of the five (winners) to incubate for three months in Silicon Valley,” said lawyer Samuel Matunog, president of the Davao Software Industry and vice president of ICT Davao.
Incubation
“Incubation means that during a three–month period in Silicon Valley they will be utilized by our entrepreneurs there to get acquainted. They will be further trained on how to pitch their products to venture capitalists and during that period also, yung ating partners will pre-select venture capitalists to whom our entrepreneurs can present their products and I understand that the previous years’ winners have been able to obtain capital for their ventures,” Matunog said.
“So, we hope that with these two initial success stories natin, we can really build on this achievement and hopefully next year, there will be 100 or 200 pitchers,” he added. Only 12 pitchers from the region joined the competition this year.
Matunog said they hope to invite more venture capitalists and angel investors into pouring their capital in the Silicon Gulf.
“Instead of us pitching our ideas to China and Silicon Valley why don’t they come here?” Matunog said.
“Venture capitalists” are people on the look-out for promising business ideas into which they will infuse capital entrusted to them while “angel investors” are people who simply invest money on people with very bright ideas.
Matunog said venture capitalists usually pour in a minimum of $5-million on a start-up business with a product which can be marketed around the world.
Piclyf, an online photo-diary application made by Dabawenyo software developers and Pyro-Clave, a clean water-based incinerator for hospital wastes, are among the nventions being seriously explored by Silicon Valley-based venture capitalists and angel investors, according to Matunog, who heads Segworks, a software company.
Social network
Erick Su, the designer of Piclyf, explained that his product is a social network around picture diaries.
“The problem we were trying to solve was that there was no on-line service or platform that really gets you updated with your close friends or family about their lives. (Although) there are (already) several (social networks) like Facebook and Twitter, their kind doesn’t have a narrative and has a lot of noise. By noise I mean, frivolous updates or yung mga mababaw na updates together with games or videos or funny things,” he said.
“So, we created (Piclyf) to really have a place where we can discuss the moments in our lives. So that platform is available everywhere we can post thru e-mail, post to the site and even post through an android and other gadgets. It’s really a globally competitive produce and we aim to really make it easier for people to share and to remember life better,” Su added.
At present, Su said Piclyf is “on an invite only data,” as they still continue to build the network.
“We have around 21,000 people on the system and next week we can release our major features like built-in photo editor and real time commenting system. We joined the pitching competition to showcase the product’s edge,” he said.
One thing unique about peak life, Su said, is that “it arouses” you to add text and outdoor picture with the basic information like date, time, location and caption “that you can easily add notes, tag faces and things and then in the future you can tag brands.”
“In the future everyone becomes a product endorser in the platform and get rewards from brands,” he said.
Incinerator
Ricky Dayot, the inventor who owns RAD Solutions that produces Pyro-Clave, said the water-based incinerator is designed to address the problem of disposing medical wastes.
“Our company is in the business of improving lives by developing technologies that are, first, socially acceptable and environmentally-friendly and, of course, economically viable. Without those three you can never say that a project is sustainable,” he said.
Dayot said they made the product in answer to the challenge coming from the World Health Organization that at present there are still no environmentally-friendly and low-cost options when it comes to safe disposal of medical wastes.
“Pyroclave is a low cost and environmentally-friendly solution for disposing medical wastes. Right now in the Philippines, and Davao City in particular, most of our medical wastes are being disposed of improperly. When we say improperly, some use chemical disinfection, some simply bury the wastes any place and minsan nilalagay nila sa common garbage, which is very dangerous, very contagious,” he said.
Pyroclave, he said, not only sterilizes the medical wastes but also “reduces it to a safe and disposable charcoal.”
“So lahat ng medical wastes you put in the pyroclave magiging charcoal.
The reason why we made it an entry into the ON3 pitching competition is because of its potential. It’s potential to hit the global market. And of course aside from having good technology, you must have a good business model. The business model will kick, will accelerate the time of technology to move forward globally. Pyroclave is the next thing. The next way for dealing with your garbage,” he added.
ICT hub
For his part, Barriga said they believe Davao should be the hub for ICT “because of the kind of research and development we are doing with our own capacity we are able to generate this kind of product without much help from the rest of the world.
“We’re doing this on our own merit and yet we’re able to generate quality products and services. Because of the synergy that we are enjoying here, the strong private-public partnership enjoyed by the industry and by the city, we now see the incubation process taking place not just as an initial engagement for a potential business start-up,” he said.
“But now the businesses or business start-ups. will avail of our potential sources of funding. It may be from the city, it may be from the private sector, it may be from a venture capitalist based in Silicon Valley or somewhere else in China or Europe. We need to keep doing what we are doing right now,” he added.
Barriga said incubation will help jumpstart recognition of Davao’s potentials.
“That’s why we’re pushing for an incubation facility and hopefully that can happen in Silicon Gulf and. who knows, Brokenshire could be a potential provider for the Silicon Gulf facility as an incubation facility,” he said.
Silicon Gulf
Matunog said coming up with the Silicon Gulf brand will put more emphasis on the local ICT industry.
“Like Silicon Valley, this is just a description of an ecosystem where a certain type of industry thrives or exists. That is what we are trying to replicate. according to our partners in Silicon Valley. We can never copy what they have there because our situation in Davao and the region is unique,” he said.
“We have to develop the ecosystem ourselves and adapt it to our realities. But still the basic elements are already there. We are trying to promote the idea of trying to give a name to this ecosystem. And we would like to call it Silicon Gulf. [With PIA-11/Rudolph Ian G. Alama]
