Davao ICT players are more equipped

DAVAO City can be considered as the Silicon Valley of Asia, a Dutch businessman working with Davao ICT players said Monday, August 1.

Paul Ludwig, chief executive officer (CEO) and managing partner of Maata games, who has been working with Davao-based top software developers for the past two years, said Davao Information and Communication Technology (ICT) experts are more than technically-equipped as compared to other nationals he has worked with in the ICT industry.

“It can be dubbed as the Silicon Valley of Asia but there are a lot of things and challenges that need to be address,” he said at the sidelines of Monday’s Kapehan Sa Dabaw at the SM City- Annex.

He emphasized that fast and cost-efficient internet connection is on top of the list that needs to be looked at.

“Internet speed here is far from others (countries),” he said.

Maata is a Dutch company established in 2013 in Arnhem, The Netherlands.

Its team is working from two locations: Arnhem, The Netherlands and Davao City, Philippines.

Ludwig told reporters Monday that they are bent on launching the first game title of Maata — Erectus, a free-to-play strategy-focused empire builder massively multiplayer online (MMO) about our history.

“This (Erectus) is a game developed and entirely programmed here in Davao City, it’s an export product of Dabawenyos, we are working with six developers and IT supporters,” he said.

ICT-Davao, Inc. and Next BPO Solutions are some of their partners.

Erectus will be launched on August 8 in a Dutch language, August 11 in English language, and August 15 in German language.

“We poured some US$1 million investment for this,” Ludwig said adding that they started developing the game in October 2014.

He further explained that the strategy game will be initially available only for desktop and laptop gaming but will soon be ready for mobile gaming.

“What we have now is still a prototype for the mobile kind of game of Erectus,” he said.

“What we will be launching will be the version 1.0 of Erectus, expect that we will still continue to develop it,” Ludwig added.

He also said that they are pushing to continue their student exchange program between the University of Mindanao in Davao City and HAN University of Applied Sciences in the Netherlands.

Thriving Industry
Software development sector in Davao City has continued to grow, with more players engaging into it.

In fact, members of Davao Software Industry, Inc. (DSII) have been growing in number, an indication that even business process outsourcing (BPO) industry is now a major economic driver of the city.
John Naranjo, president of DSII and chief executive officer (CEO) of Ingenuity, a Davao-based software development agency, said the number of members of the Davao software association reached to some 40, the figure doubled as compared to 20 members in the previous years.

“Software groups are expanding. Few years ago we are just 20 members in DSII but now we doubled that figure, this is a clear indicator that indeed software development and BPO has been a growing industry in Davao for several years,” he said. (ASP)

Source: http://goo.gl/L1Yt6T