If you have been noticing lately a constant stream of Philippine-themed BuzzFeed stories on your newsfeeds, your mind is not playing tricks on you.
Let’s see. There was the 19 reasons the Philippines should be the next country you visit the Department of Tourism should be happy about.
The compelling 37 reasons Sam Milby is the dashing Pinoy prince you deserve.
And that hilarious video of four Americans trying Pinoy snacks like Hansel Mocha Sandwich and Oishi’s Kirei Yummy Flakes for the first time.
It’s a fact: the website that popularized cat memes and listicles is digging its claws into the Philippine market.
“Generally speaking, we’re doing a test by pursuing a social media publishing strategy in the Philippines right now,” Scott Lamb, VP of BuzzFeed International, tells Coconuts Manila.
Last week the website, known for its near-infallibility in creating viral content, launched accounts on Twitter.com/buzzfeedPH (348 followers) and Facebook.com/BuzzFeedPhilippines (1,310 fans). “We recently started a similar experiment in Canada,” says Lamb.
BuzzFeed, founded in 2006 in New York City, currently has six editions outside of the United States: UK, Australia, Brazil, Spain, France and India. In August, it received an additional $50 million in funding from venture capitalist firm Andreessen Horowitz.
Helping the media company keep its finger on the Philippine market’s pulse is Matthew Manahan Ortile, “who’s running the accounts and doing the lion’s share of the posting about the Philippines,” says Lamb.
Ortile, originally from Manila, moved to Las Vegas when he was 12 years old. He studied college at Vassar (BA Media Studies ’14), interned at Town & Country and Out, and once worked as a model at an Abercrombie & Fitch store, according to his LinkedIn account. He also wrote this confessional about coming out in America. He is 22 years old.
“We had some natural organic interest in writing about the Philippines from our editorial staff,” says Lamb. “We’ve no set number we’re aiming for, the publishing rate is really going to be based on Matt’s interest. We want this to be a fun, lightweight experiment.”
The main reason why BuzzFeed picked the Philippines is because everyone here seems to be sharing stories on Facebook all the time—despite the hilariously slow Internet connection in the country.
A quick check on Facebook Advertising promises a potential reach of 38-million male and female users between the ages of 13 and 64.
“The social web in the Philippines is incredibly powerful. Facebook sharing is massive there, and as a media company focused on the social web, it seems like a natural place for us to be,” says Lamb. “I think there’s also a general cultural sensibility that meshes well with the editorial point of view of BuzzFeed.
So what kind of Philippine-centric stories can we expect from BuzzFeed? If it’s any indication, a post in July by Matt Ortile about “21 Annoying Comments Filipinos Are Tired Of Hearing” is the most popular so far among his pieces, with 889,595 views.
The shares were strong on both sides of the Pacific—in the Philippines and in America, Ortile tells Coconuts Manila via FB chat.
“It’s been a really fun process coming up with content targeted towards the Philippines. My general rule of thumb has been to take the formats and frames that are consistently successful across all BuzzFeed editions and spinning that to be more specific to a Pinoy audience.”
That Pinoy audience isn’t limited to those residing in the Philippines, of course. According to a 2012 Commission on Filipino Overseas report, there are 10.5-million Pinoys living overseas. That doesn’t include second-generation or half-Filipinos.
“The Filipino diaspora is so widespread that it’s also important to think about the Filipinos in the UK, Canada, Australia, and everywhere else we’ve reached,” says Ortile. “As a Filipino-American, I’m always proud to see something that’s about my culture and heritage. And I think non-Filipinos get a great takeaway from reading pieces on tourism or food.”
According to Lamb, the website’s editorial team has three divisions: BuzzFeed News, BuzzFeed Life, and BuzzTeam (focused on things like list and quizzes).
“For our international experiments and editions, we like to start with a BuzzTeam approach, to help us learn as much as we can about the types of things people in other countries like to share,” he says.
So is BuzzFeed eventually thinking of creating a Philippine edition? “It’s certainly a possibility, though for now we don’t have any concrete plans. The first Asean edition of BuzzFeed will likely be in Japan, where we hope to go later this year,” Lamb reveals.
Photo: Screengrab from a BuzzFeed video on YouTube
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