Philippines overtakes India as call centre hub

The global BPO scene dominated by India has undergone a change in favour of the Philippines, thanks to its geographical and cultural proximity to the US. Americans callers are now likely interact with Mark in Manila with an accent they would be more comfortable with rather than that of Manoj in Mumbai.   

The shift marks the culmination of a trend that started with the rise of the Philippines, a former US colony with a large population of young people who speak in an accent closer to the native American, rather than most Indians who tend to speak with a more 'Indian' accent.

More Filipinos, around 400,000 - than Indians now serve American consumers from call centres, according to industry officials, as companies like AT&T, JPMorgan Chase and Expedia outsource their business processes to companies in the Philipines or set up their own. The jobs come from the US, Europe and, to some extent, India with outsourcers following their clients to the Philippines.

India, which virtually hosted the global call centre industry has as many as 350,000 call centre agents, according to some industry estimates. The Philippines, with a  population one-tenth the size of India's overtook India this year, says Jojo Uligan, executive director of the Contact Center Association of the Philippines.

According to analysts, the growing preference for the Philippines was indicative of the maturation of the outsourcing business and partly underlined the move towards American English.

Whereas during the industry's infancy, it focused mostly on locating and setting up shop in countries with large English-speaking populations and low labor costs, which naturally led it to India, analysts say a differentiation has now set in as the trend is towards  increasingly identifying places best suited for specific tasks. India retains its position as the destination for software outsourcing, for instance.