2010 has been a great year for the Business Process Outsourcing industry in the Philippines. Metro Cebu has finally landed a spot in Tholons’ Top 100 outsourcing cities for 2010, together with Metro Manila, which ranked fourth. Cebu has been one of emerging cities in the past two years and this is the first year that it has been recognized as an emerged destination.
Four of our Next Wave Cities namely, Davao; Sta. Rosa, Laguna or Metro Laguna; Iloilo; and Bacolod were also part of the Top 100 cities tagged as emerging locations. In December of 2010, the Philippines overtook India as the call center capital of the world, and now employs over 350,000 employees in the local call center industry, compared to India’s 330,000, this according to data from the Call Center Association of the Philippines. Philippine business process outsourcing call centers generated roughly $6.3 billion in revenues in the year 2010, with the association estimating a 15-20% increase by 2011, as more and more multinational companies continue to set-up outsourcing operations inside the country.
Investments were poured into the construction of high-rise buildings and premium facilities to accommodate booming BPO businesses, not just in Metro Manila but in the Next Wave Cities as well. The recent growth spurt in the outsourcing industry in the Philippines has been fueled by the higher-end outsourcing or knowledge process outsourcing or KPO. Though call center in the Philippines still comprises the largest part of the BPO sector, it has begun leveraging its creative design talent pool, vast amount of lawyers, and its CPAs or general accountants. No wonder, the Sunshine industry will definitely shine even brighter this year.