Demi Lovato to Mesmerize Filipino Lovatics in Demi World Tour in Manila

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Wilbros Live ushers in 12-time Teen Choice Awards winner, American actress, singer, and songwriter Demi Lovato to Manila to perform a one-night only show on April 30, 2015, 8PM at the Mall of Asia Arena.

Demi Lovato is widely known for her incomparable vocal prowess, the various television shows she starred in, her role as Mitchie in Disney film Camp Rock which elevated her to fame, and as one of the prominent judges of the American X Factor. 

In her previous and third tour, Neon Lights, Demi reached out to the fans all the more by imparting with them the trying times of her life. Billboard considers Demi’s sharing of her past struggles the “most interesting aspect” of the show. The singer-songwriter and actress conveyed to the audience her withdrawal from a world tour to enter a treatment facility due to “physical and emotional issues”. Billboard adds, “As much as Lovato has evolved as a performer since that scary period in her life, however, she has admirably made that past the visible bedrock of her artistry”. 

For this tour, musician, singer-songwriter, actor, and Demi’s old friend, Nick Jonas, took on the role of creative and musical director. 

On May 29, 2014, Demi announced the “Demi World Tour”, her fourth headlining concert tour and her second tour supporting her fourth studio album, Demi. The multi-talented artist says that she will be adding new songs and new covers to the Demi World Tour, and she will be doing things she did not get to do in her previous tour, Neon Lights. 

In Demi’s performance at Mohegan Sun Arena, MassLive.com expressed that she “offered up a genuine, artistic, and insightful 90-minute performance before the sold-out house”. 

Backed by a full band, a dance team, and two back-up singers, Demi set the stage ablaze with “Really Don’t Care” as her first song. 

The multi-faceted singer exhibited versatility in this tour as she shifted “Catch Me” and “Don’t Forget” into acoustic, alt-folk ballads, and deviated from the pop path of “My Love Is Like A Star” and bent more on R&B. 

The Guardian narrated that Demi showcased her collection of pop hits in Barclays Center in Brooklyn while magnificently expressing the themes of love, independence, and acceptance.

Demi effortlessly communicated with the audience in between songs. Orlando Sentinel shares that in the star’s show at the Amway Theater, she told her beloved Lovatics, “I want you to lose yourself in the music. Music is the most beautiful thing in the world.”

Her song “Warrior” which voices out the theme of empowerment was a brilliant coalescence of the mood and the message of the song. MassLive.com illustrated that the set’s centrepiece was built around the piano ballad “Warrior” which followed her journey to Kenya. Orlando Sentinel stated that Demi played an intricate piano introduction and assured the audience that it was okay to make mistakes. 

Demi Lovato naturally captivates the audience not only with her electrifying voice, but also her genuine character and enthralling charisma. 

“For her fans, Demi is a hero, an inspiration, and a lifesaver. Filipino Lovatics had experienced her care and passion for her fans during her first concert in 2013,” affirms a Lovatic Demi Lovato Philippines, the Demi Lovato fan community in the country. “[We] can't wait to see [our] hero perform more songs and hits such as Let It Go, Skyscraper, and Neon Lights in Manila!" he adds.

Experience this and more at Demi Lovato LIVE in Manila at the Mall of Asia Arena on April 30, 2015, presented by Wilbros Live co presented by Fox and Star World in cooperation with MYX, Mellow 947, RX 93.1, 99.5 Play FM, Home Radio 97.9 Natural, Barangay LS FM, 106.7 Energy FM, Philstar.com, Inquirer.net, ClickTheCity.com, Pep.PH, Rappler, Manila Concert Scene, Philippine Concerts, Soundcheck Manila, Business World, The Philippine Star, Astroplus, Odyssey, Business World, Chalk, Star Studio, Total Girl, Candy, HDI Admix and MCA Music Inc. 

Get your tickets now at SMTICKETS.COM or call 4702222.

EkoSummer Wind and Power Bundle Promo

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Summer is here! Ready for some outdoor fun under the sun this summer? How about those rolling blackouts? Don't worry, Ekotek and Hanabishi​ have got you covered with the new EkoSummer Wind & Power Bundles!

That's right! Get a FREE USB mini fan when you buy any of our Ekopacks from March 13 - 31, 2015! 

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Pia Alonzo Wurtzbach was crowned Binibining Pilipinas Universe 2015

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MANILA, Philippines– Pia Wurtzbach, of Cagayan de Oro City, was crowned Binibining Pilipinas Universe 2015 on Sunday night at Smart Araneta Coliseum in Quezon City.  

It was Wurtzbach’s third time in a row to join the contest. She was Bb. Pilipinas 2013 first runner-up and also made it to the Top 15 last year. 

Wurtzbach, was also now awarded Bb. Creamsilk, triumphed over 33 other competitors from across the country.

Being one of the pageant’s crowd favorites, the 25-year-old professional model and culinary arts graduate was tearful and beaming as she received her crown and sash from the outgoing Bb. Pilipinas Universe Mary Jean Lastimosa.

During the question and answer portion,  she was asked by Rep. Leni Robredo about her thoughts on Internet censorship.

“I think that we should be careful with what we post online especially our thoughts and our opinions that we don’t hurt anybody. Especially selfies, we have to be careful with what we post, especially with our bodies and our faces. So always think before you click,” Wurtzbach answer.

Janicel Lubina, of Palawan, was proclaimed Bb. Pilipinas International. She also won the Best in Long Gown and Best in Swimsuit awards.

Ann Lorraine Colis, a BS Management Accounting graduate, took home the Bb. Pilipinas Tourism title.

Bagging the Bb. Pilipinas Supranational award was 23-year old Rogelie Catacutan.

Christi Lynn McGarry, of Nabua, Camarines Sur, was declared Bb. Pilipinas Intercontinental.

One spot shy of the crown was first runner-up Hannah Ruth Sison. Kimverlyn Suiza was second runner-up.

Teresita Ssen Marquez, daughter of actor Joey Marquez and actress Alma Moreno, seized the Best in Talent, Best in National Costume and She’s so Jag 2015 awards.

Other winners include Toni Alyessa Hipolito (Ms. Friendship), Cannielle Faith Santos (Ms. Photogenic and Manila Bulletin Readers’ Choice awards) and Kylie Versoza (Bb. Philippine Airlines).

Among those who made the Top 15 cut were: Princess Joy Camu, Brenna Cassandra Gamboa, Teresita Ssen Marquez, Maolin Yalung, Alaiza Flor Malinao, Justine Beatrice Felizarta, Anja Vanessa Peter and Kylie Versorza.

Binibining Pilipinas, now in its 52nd edition, is the longest-running and most prestigious beauty pageant in the country. It chooses the country’s representatives to major international beauty contests.

Binibining Pilipinas Universe 2015 Pia Alonzo Wurtzbach

The most awaited Binibining Pilipinas coronation night was hosted by Kapamilya stars Toni Gonzaga and Xian Lim together with former Miss Universe runners-up Shamcey Supsup-Lee, Venus Raj and Ariella Arida as co-presenters.

The panel of judges was led by Secretary Leila de Lima and Binibining Pilipinas pageant director Stella Marquez Araneta. Other famous personalities in the panel of judges include basketball player Kiefer Ravena, TV personality and comedian Vice Ganda, Sofitel Hotel general manager Bernd Schneider, International Model Sarah Meier, COO of Robinsons Land Corporation Frederick Go, Chief of Staff of AFP General Gregorio Pio Catapang, Ambassador of the Republic of France to the Philippines Gilles Garachon, Ambassador of theRepublic of Chile to the Philippines Luis Lillo and Camarines Sur Congresswoman Leni Robredo.

Here is the complete list of Binibining Pilipinas 2015 Winners:

Miss Universe Philippines: Bb Pilipinas Candidate 10, Pia Alonzo Wurtzbach 

Bb Pilipinas International: Bb Pilipinas Candidate 11, Janicel Lubina 

Bb Pilipinas Supranational: Bb Pilipinas Candidate 25, Rogelie Catacutan 

Bb Pilipinas Intercontinental: Bb Pilipinas Candidate 19, Christi Lynn McGarry 

Bb Pilipinas Tourism: Bb Pilipinas Candidate 24, Ann Lorraine Colis 

Runners-up: 

1st runner-up: Bb 28, Hannah Ruth Lulu Sison 

2nd runner-up: Bb 8, Kimverlyn Suiza 

Bb Pilipinas Tourism: Bb Pilipinas Candidate 24, Ann Lorraine Colis 

Bb Pilipinas International: Bb Pilipinas Candidate 11, Janicel Lubina 

Bb Pilipinas Intercontinental: Bb Pilipinas Candidate 19, Christi Lynn McGarry 

Bb Pilipinas Supranational: Bb Pilipinas Candidate 25, Rogelie Catacutan 

1st runner-up: Bb 28, Hannah Ruth Lulu Sison 

2nd runner-up: Bb 8, Kimverlyn Suiza 

Janicel Lubina , Binibining Pilipinas 2015 Best in Swimsuit

Best in national costume: Bb 34, Teresita Ssen Marquez 

Special awards: 

Bb Friendship: Bb 6, Toni Alyessa Hipolito 

Bb Talent: Bb 34, Teresita Ssen Marquez 

Miss Photogenic: Bb 5, Cannielle Faith Santos 

Best in national costume: Bb 34, Teresita Ssen Marquez 

Best in swimsuit: Bb 11, Janicel Lubina 

Best in long gown: Bb 11, Janicel Lubina 

Bb Phil Airlines: Bb 12, Kylie Verzosa 

Manila Bulletin choice award: Bb 5, Cannielle Faith Santos 

She’s so JAG 2015: Bb 34, Teresita Ssen Marquez 

Miss Cream Silk: Bb 10, Pia Alonzo Wurtzbach

DRAGONPAY: An act of trust and persuasion

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One can say that Dragonpay’s success was built through partnerships. One can say it is because of their services. Or one can even say that it is because of the founder’s educational background. Though these remain true, Robertson Chiang, the founder of Dragonpay, says that his business’ success and legitimacy was established through honesty and integrity. It may sound cliché but in reality these traits, when tainted, are hard to form once more. Trust between or among parties can last forever, but can also disappear in a snap.

You can say that Robertson Chiang was the prodigy student of his batch in Ateneo de Manila University. Graduating top of his class with a Bachelor Degree in Computer Science, he pursued a career in Citibank as a Systems Analyst. This career path was scissored short when he flew to the US in pursuit of an MBA degree, which he deservingly received in Babson Graduate School of Business. Going back to Manila, he opened up his own Internet Service Provider (ISP), which was later acquired by the biggest private commercial ISP of that time. He joined forces with the bigger company as head of technology but he eventually left to become his own boss. The combination of his undergraduate degree, MBA degree, and work experience only made him better in all angles of his intellect – giving birth to Dragonpay.

Dragonpay started as a side business of Mr. Chiang while he was still under his previous employment. Starting up, his vision was set to processing online payments through credit card and paypal, then to online banking payments. But with the limited results from these channels, he realized that the credit and banking market would not cut his desired target. The truth is only an estimate of 5% in the Philippine population have access to credit cards and only 20% have access to Internet Banking. Knowing that the market is composed in this manner, Mr. Chiang thought of the majority, who the e-Commerce merchants have not tapped. This gave way for Dragonpay to expand their services to over-the-counter payments, which unsurprisingly rocketed the venture from a sideline to a frontline, single entity business. With this big shift in attention, he opted out from being an employee and became a full time parent to Dragonpay.

Ever since Dragonpay acknowledged this truth about the Philippine market, business has been consistently performing – although as with any business venture, barriers must be overcome. The main barrier to this venture is gaining the trust of merchants and of course, the consumers. There is no exact science to this, leaving Dragonpay to resort to the classic act of persuasion. Being a startup company themselves, there is no other way but to make other merchants understand the idea of the business. Fortunately enough, at the right place and time, merchants understood that with the statistics laid out, there is a need to acquire Dragonpay in their e-Commerce business. Along the way, Mr. Chiang was able to partner up with bigger companies who trusted their word from the very beginning. Showing that their service is full of potential and beneficial to all parties, these bigger names in different industries pursued the relationship and aided Dragonpay’s legitimacy as a full-grown business. 

Today, Dragonpay champions in three services – namely, online payment solution, mass payout, and recurring payments. These well thought-of services are steadily growing to what Mr. Chiang envisioned from the very beginning. It truly was a trial and error process for Dragonpay, but they made it to where they wanted to be one way or another. Mr. Chiang exclaimed, “Find out what went wrong, fix it; do it all over again.” This advice of his seems obvious. One could say, “I knew that.” But not everyone can say, “I made it.” 

In late 2014, GMO Payment Gateway, the biggest payment gateway in Japan, made a minority investment in Dragonpay. The partnership is expected to take the company to its next level of growth. More than anything else, the investment is also a testament to the soundness of the company’s business model and its prospect for further growth.

To know more about Dragonpay and their services, visit them at www.dragonpay.ph. This may be the missing payment solution to your business. 

Three Industry Leaders: PLDT SME Nation, Samsung Philippines and Microsoft Philippines forge a Partnership to Empower SMEs with Broadband and Digital Solutions

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The Philippines’ fast-growing digital, social and mobile users definitely creates unprecedented opportunities for the 800,000 strong small and medium enterprise (SME) market segment. However, the challenge today is how SMEs can efficiently tap and engage this community.

Today, there are over 34 million Facebook users, over 10 million Twitter followers and with over 44 million Filipino internet users and counting. 

With this, PLDT SME Nation partners with Samsung & Microsoft Philippines to create innovative business solutions that will enable entrepreneurs to run their business better, grow faster, be more globally competitive and engage with the country’s digital, social and mobile population.

SMEs can now enjoy the benefits of having PLDT SME Nation’s premium and faster fixed and wireless broadband solutions running on our latest fiber and LTE network. These broadband offerings provide unlimited access which give entrepreneurs the ability to continuously conduct online activities without the fear of bandwidth throttling. Our services also feature committed information rates or CIR, which guarantee minimum bandwidth speeds for businesses and a static IP used to power up their websites and enable faster inter-office data transfers.

Second, PLDT SME Nation boasts of its most robust network and nation-widest reach for its fixed, wireless and now satellite service, ensuring that entrepreneurs will have the best broadband service suited for their business wherever they are. 

Lastly, these new broadband packages come with supercharged flexible freebies ranging from relevant and business enabling Cloud Solutions such as Microsoft Office 365 and PLDT Cloud apps for video monitoring, asset tracking, POS, infrastructure and more. SMEs will also be able to get for free and choose the latest array of smart devices from Samsung Philippines and High Definition (HD) TV content from Cignal.

In an event entitled “Growing your Business in the Digital Age”, PLDT SME Nation together with two other industry leaders, Samsung and Microsoft, announced this partnership to create and introduce groundbreaking technologies and tools that will enable SMEs to efficiently manage their businesses anytime, anywhere. 

In his welcome remarks, PLDT Executive Vice President and ePLDT President and CEO Eric Alberto highlighted the significance of the partnership saying, “This collaboration and synergy among today’s leaders in the telecommunications industry ushers in a new era of enablement for the small and medium enterprise market segment.

Through this strategic partnership, SMEs will have access to game-changing business tools such as faster and nationwide fixed and wireless broadband solutions, latest gadgets and devices and relevant collaboration cloud applications which should ultimately lead to higher levels of operational efficiencies, expanded market reach, higher profit margin levels, and in the process create higher economic multiplier for our country” Alberto adds.

PLDT SME Nation showcased some of this technology’s capability during the event, inviting several bloggers from Cebu and Manila to virtually take part of the press conference from remote locations using Microsoft Office 365.

To signify the formalization of the partnership among the three companies Alberto was joined on stage by PLDT First Vice President and Head of SME Business Kat Luna-Abelarde, Samsung Philippines Managing Director Harry Lee, Samsung Philippines Business Manager James Kwon, Samsung Philippines Enterprise Director Irene Catane, Microsoft Philippines Director for Small, Midsize Solutions Partners Diana Tibbs and Microsoft Philippines Business Group Lead Tovia Va’aelua for the push-button inauguration. 

Abelarde pledged PLDT SME Nation’s commitment to provide SMEs with the best broadband and digital solutions saying, “PLDT SME Nation reaffirms its support for Filipino SMEs as it continues to innovate and form partnerships with industry leaders to provide our country’s aspiring entrepreneurs with only the best broadband solutions for their businesses.”