Can livestreaming unite Filipinos around the world?

THE most popular export of the Philippines is the Filipino, so the joke goes. But beneath this dark humor belies a serious problem: the brain drain. There are now more than 10 million Filipinos living abroad as overseas foreign workers (OFWs), and more pack their

abroad. While these OFWs are able to send remittances to their loved ones back home, their departure marks a serious exodus of talent for the country as a whole.

There are doctors and lawyers and architects and authors and entrepreneurs and inventors now residing in another country who - in better economic circumstances - could have contributed their talents directly to the Philippines. If the Philippines had an HR department, its leaders would panic daily over this loss of human capital.

This country’s brain drain is old news. We all know it’s happening, and we have largely let it be, as the problem may strike our nation’s public and private leaders as too abstract and complex to address in the immediate. But we no longer have to sit idly by. The digital transformation of the local economy offers ways for Filipinos in other countries to evolve their contribution to the Philippines. Now they can offer not only capital, but their own human capital: their expertise, knowledge, talents, and skills. This kind of digital participation is already happening informally - many Filipinos

organizations, social enterprises, startups, and even large enterprises entirely through computer-mediated means, often half the world away.

Now imagine if there was a platform where Filipinos could directly contribute their talents to a mass audience, all in an instant. This is the world that Roland Ros, Rexy Dorado, Andrew Pineda, and Clare Ros - the co-founders of content and livestreaming app Kumu - envision.

Since livestreaming is still a relatively new concept to the Philippines, a simple explanation of how Kumu works is in order. Once a user downloads the app, he can choose to livestream to an audience of other Kumu users, or simply watch other livestreamers in action. This kind of functionality is essential to livestreaming platforms, many of which are already popular in countries like the United States and China. What separates Kumu is in its focus on Filipino content from across the country (the app is especially popular in cities outside of Metro Manila) and the greater diaspora.

While Kumu has already built up an impressive roster of early livestreamers - including everyone from singer-songwriter Mica Javier to DJ Skratchmark and club owner Angelo Mendez, the pair known as 2 Blocks from Burgos - its potential is even greater. An accomplished Filipino author living in London (a publishing hotspot) could give writing workshops via Kumu, a Filipino investor in Silicon Valley could welcome pitches from founders across the world through the app, or a Filipino director in Hollywood could whole: We could put a stop to the brain drain. Now Filipinos who live abroad can still contribute their abilities to the Philippines. Yes, the nature of their contribution would be different compared to if they chose to stay here - rather than working a full-time job or creating a local business, both of which are long-term endeavors, they share their knowledge or expertise in regular but short livestreams. But I would argue that the latter is in fact more impactful. With a job or a business, a person is generally focused on their own success; but when sharing over a livestream, they become audience- and valueoriented: They are focused on delivering value to their audience.

As a young startup, Kumu still has a long way to go before becoming the go-to creative platform for Filipinos around the world, but I’ll be one of its biggest cheerleaders. There are so many Filipino investors, entrepreneurs, and business leaders living abroad (or even on other islands in the Philippines) that I would like to listen to and learn from. I’m sure most Filipinos feel the same way: You each have your own personal heroes that you want to interact with. If Kumu succeeds, we