MANILA – Amid a coronavirus blockage in the Philippine capital, Grace Lagaday had trouble breastfeeding her newborn bottles or breastfeeding pads.
A search for Facebook exchange teams discovered the materials he needed for his little wife and were in Lagaday’s hands the next day in exchange for M chocolate bags.
Lagaday, who has since traded hangers for five kilograms of rice and an electric mosquito killer for two litres of cooking oil, is one of thousands of Filipinos who have joined Facebook’s barter teams in recent months.
Reuters has known just over a hundred barter groups, some with up to a quarter of a million members, since the main Philippine island of Luzon, home to a portion of its population of 107 million, went into a harsh blockade in mid-March. two months.
Among the excessive exchanges: a 36-year-old boy from Cebu Province in the central Philippines traded a 1993 Mitsubishi Lancer for 125,000 pesos ($2574) in money and preserves, noodles and sacks of rice he distributed to the poor. while a 20-year-old student, also from Cebu, traded two buckets of fried bird for a game.
Bartering has a long culture in the Philippines, an archipelago of more than 7,600 islands that can make shipping difficult at best.
Changing practice online is an herbal progression in a country that is the most internet-dependent country in the world. Filipinos spend around 10 hours on the internet each day, compared to a global average of around seven hours, according to 2020 knowledge of Social Media Executives Hootsuite and We Are Social. Social media accounts for about 4 hours of this daily use, the highest in the world, compared to an average of about 2. 5 hours.
Google’s “barter” searches increased by 203% in April and May, and as Manila and neighboring provinces are still subject to some movement restrictions, Facebook teams remain full of activity. Thousands of publications compete daily for books, clothing, devices and accessories. glassware, appliances, carts, groceries and pets.
“I made a deal with the first user he commented on and his enthusiasm for fighting, he left his task in a hurry and met me,” he told Reuters.
The resurgence of the online barter industry is causing government headaches. Commerce Secretary Ramón López flipped back embarrassingly in July to assure others that the non-public industry is the best day after he warned that bartering is an illegal tax evasion practice. This position has provoked the wrath of thousands of social media users who have criticized the government for finding new tax tactics, even in the midst of the pandemic.
As the economy enters its first recession in about 3 decades and unemployment reaches a record 17. 7% due to the pandemic, other people hope to rely for some time on online bartering.
“I took care of old tricks to communicate with other people who needed it,” said Josefa Amadure, who was looking for a mecedor baby as she planned to arrive with her son at the moment. “Trade is popular and because there is no cash. “
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