MANILA, PHILIPPINES — Society Pass Incorporated (SoPa) (Nasdaq: “SOPA”), a leading Southeast Asia’s loyalty and ecommerce ecosystem is amplifying its operations across its key VIP (Vietnam, Indonesia, Philippines) markets and today announced the opening of its office in Manila along with the appointment of a new Country Head – Arbie Pagdaganan.
Strategically located in the central business district of Makati, Metro Manila, this is SoPa’s second office in its “VIP” priority markets and employs over 20 staff in Philippines with an aim to grow this figure to over 100 by the end of 2022.
Dennis Nguyen, Society Pass Founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, said, “Philippines is a cornerstone of SoPa’s VIP (Vietnam, Indonesia, and Philippines) acquisition strategy. I am proud to appoint our VP of Product Design, Arbie Pagdaganan, as our Country Manager in the Philippines and look forward to her expert leadership in steering our operations to greater heights. Also, this new office is part of our business strategy during this critical period of economic transformation for the Philippines. As we grow our Philippines business, we are confident that the SoPa ecosystem will nurture and accelerate the growing portfolio of brands.”
SoPa aims to encourage an inclusive and hybrid work culture to support people across the country. A passionate advocate of women empowerment with over half of its team strength comprising of women, SoPa walks the talk with its policy on diversity.
As Philippines Country Manager, Arbie manages the country operations with P&L responsibility while coordinating regional finance, operations, and technology teams to conduct due diligence on future acquisitions in the country. Arbie brings with her a rich background of over a decade of experience in visual design, branding, user interaction (UI, UX), and product design across leading organisations including SoPa’s Leflair. In her dual role as VP of Product Development she will be spearheading an organisation-wide transformation of design systems and front-end apps of all business units.
Sharing her excitement and a joint growth vision for the Philippines and SoPa, Arbie Pandanganan, Group VP, Product Development and Group GM Philippines, said, “Given the immense potential of the Philippines market, I am looking forward to herald the next e-commerce revolution in the country with SoPa’s unique modus operandi and look forward to taking my team along in this successful journey.”
SoPa also recently acquired Pushkart.ph, a leading online grocery delivery service in the Philippines to kick-start its expansion into the country. Leveraging on SoPa’s capital, Pushkart.ph now focuses on dramatically expanding on-demand grocery shopping services to more consumers and more retailers, while empowering grocery stores and restaurants to transform business models and further tap into online markets.
Arbie will lead SoPa’s aggressive new plans for Pushkart.ph which include adding more hubs in key cities and regions and increasing its manpower. SoPa aims to expand Pushkart.ph’s technology offering, phenomenally increasing registered users to more than double to over 300,000 and driving app downloads to over 150,000 in 2022. Philippine consumers will be able to use Pushkart.ph app across 19 cities in Metro Manila with a guaranteed next day delivery service.
Philippines have been one of the most dynamic economies in Southeast Asia. With increasing urbanisation, a growing middle class, and a large and young population, the country’s economic dynamism is rooted in strong consumer demand supported by a vibrant labour market and robust inflow of capital. Philippine’s internet penetration rate reached 74% in 2021 and is expected to climb to 77% by 2025. This steep increase in the internet economy is underpinned by a 132% growth in e-commerce with the industry expected to reach US$40 billion in 2025.
Society Pass is leveraging technology to provide a more personalised experience for customers in their purchase journey, and helps to transform the entire retail value chain in Southeast Asia. Through the acquisition of market-leading companies and partnership with visionary entrepreneurs in five distinct verticals: loyalty, lifestyle, travel, food & beverage, and merchant software, the company expects to meet the region’s growing demand for better and more convenient services.
