April 30, 2025
The Philippines’ digital economy grew to P2.25 trillion in 2024, contributing 8.5% to the GDP.
The 2024 figure, which is still preliminary, represents a 7.6% increase over the 2023 gross value added of P2.09 trillion, confirming the continued growth of digital economic activities nationwide.
Components of the Philippine Digital Economy:
The Philippine Statistics Authority indicated that the domestic digital economy consists of four main components:
Enabling Digital Infrastructure
Digital Content and Media
E-Commerce
Digital Government Services.
Among these components, enabling digital infrastructure topped the list with a total value of P1.88 trillion, representing a share of over 83%.
Professional and business support services accounted for the largest share of this component, representing 32.7%, followed by telecommunications services at 24.0%, and ICT manufacturing at 16.3%.
E-commerce ranked second in value contribution, accounting for 13.5% of the digital economy, while digital content and media accounted for 2.4%. Government digital services contributed only 0.3%.
Digital Jobs and Employment:
In terms of employment, the digital economy employed 11.30 million workers in 2024, a 4.8% increase from 10.78 million in the previous year. This represented 23.1% of the total national workforce, confirming the sector’s pivotal role in job creation.
The e-commerce sector topped the list of employers, accounting for 77.9% of the total digital workforce. This was followed by the digitally enabled infrastructure sector (21.4%), the digital media and content sector (0.7%), and the government digital services sector (0.1%).
Actual figures for the digital economy:
The data for the Philippine Digital Economy Account were provided in a pilot study conducted by the Philippine Digital Economy Sub-Account, which aimed to monitor the scope of digital activities and their contribution to the economy. The Statistics Authority explained that the methodology is still being refined and is subject to further improvements.
Researchers’ views:
Commenting on the growth of the digital economy, John Paulo Rivera, senior researcher at the Philippine Institute for Development Studies, emphasized that the strong growth of the digital economy demonstrates its importance in driving the country’s growth.
He added that digital industries now constitute a significant portion of the economy, reflecting the digital advancements the Philippines is experiencing.
He explained that “in the future, growth in this sector is likely to remain strong, driven by e-commerce, digital finance, healthcare technology, artificial intelligence applications, and remote services, although digital infrastructure bottlenecks and regulatory challenges must be addressed to unleash its full potential.”
