How PSEi member stocks performed — July 18, 2017
Here’s a quick glance at how PSEi stocks fared on Tuesday, July 18, 2017.
Citigroup said to choose Frankfurt as EU hub
CITIGROUP, Inc. has chosen Frankfurt as its newest trading hub in the European Union and plans to present that option to its board of directors this week for approval, according to a person with knowledge of the decision.
The choice to expand the bank’s existing broker-dealer in the German city means it will create between 150 and 250 new roles there, said the person, who asked not to be identified talking about internal policies. It’s yet to be decided if the jobs will be filled by moving existing employees or by hiring locally, and it’s likely to be some combination, the person said.
The location, where Citigroup already has about 350 employees, is expected to handle some of the trading activities currently done in London, though the U.K. capital will remain the headquarters for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, the person said. Sky News reported the decision on Monday.
Frankfurt has emerged as a winner of the Brexit vote, with Standard Chartered Plc, Nomura Holdings Inc., Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc. and Daiwa Securities Group Inc. picking the city as their EU hub in recent weeks. Deutsche Bank AG is preparing to move large parts of the trading and investment-banking assets it currently books in London to its hometown of Frankfurt, people familiar with the matter said this month.
Citigroup has been considering the move for months. The firm was evaluating locations in Ireland, Spain, Italy, Germany, France, and the Netherlands, Jim Cowles, the bank’s top executive for the region, said at a Dublin conference in January.
Bloomberg News reported in November that the firm was in discussions with BaFin, the German regulator that’s seen by many as the only regulator outside of London capable of handling the banks’ complicated derivatives business, about moving some of its London-based equity and interest-rate derivatives traders to Frankfurt. The lender is also in discussions with the European Central Bank and regulators in EU nations including Ireland about relocating other parts of its operations.
Frankfurt is a natural pick for many international firms given a financial ecosystem featuring Deutsche Bank AG, the ECB and BaFin. Even as the chance remains for a UK deal maintaining some sort of access to the single market, banks are preparing for the worst and want to have new or expanded offices up and running inside the bloc before the UK formally departs in 2019. — Bloomberg
Thousands of goldfish bring Tokyo art exhibit to life
TOKYO — A Japanese artist has used thousands of fish in illuminated tanks to create a sprawling psychedelic visual art installation, drawing tens of thousands of viewers in Tokyo.
Hidetomo Kimura’s traveling Art Aquarium exhibition puts on display around 5,000 goldfish and 3,000 other maritime creatures, such as seahorses, in 130 LED-lit tanks of various shapes, colors and sizes.
The LED displays provide a colorful variety of moving images, such as one of sakura blossoms falling serenely from the sky, to the accompaniment of music.
“I wanted to create an artistic installation which is alive by using real fish, rather than materials or pictures,” Kimura said on the sidelines of the exhibition.
Kimura creates similar installations several times a year to show all over Japan. This year’s Art Aquarium, which marks a decade since Kimura’s first such display, is also set to show in the western city of Kyoto in the fall.
This year’s exhibition features hundreds of varieties of goldfish, including several cross-bred species. The fish swim in bubbling fishbowls made of magnifying glass, draped with lace or shaped like Japanese lanterns, among others.
One of the new works this year, in which Black Moor goldfish swirl about as their shadows are projected onto a white LED screen, creates an illusion of a Japanese ink-and-wash painting.
The exhibition is on show at the Nihonbashi Mitsui Hall until Sept. 24. — Reuters
Britain celebrates literary icon Jane Austen on bicentenary of her death
WINCHESTER, UNITED KINGDOM — Two hundred years after Jane Austen’s death, Britain is celebrating one of its best-loved authors, who combined romance with biting social commentary that still speaks to fans around the world.
The author of classic novels Pride and Prejudice, Emma, and Sense and Sensibility had only just become known when she died on July 18, 1817, aged 41.
But her six novels, dissecting the lives of 19th century rural aristocracy, have since sold millions of copies, led to film adaptations, and even spawned a zombie spin-off.
She has inspired countless other authors, from Virginia Woolf, who praised her “genius,” to Helen Fielding of the best-selling Bridget Jones series.
This week the Bank of England will issue a new £10 note bearing Austen’s image, during this year of special events including walks through her native Hampshire in southern England and exhibitions about her life.
Part of Austen’s appeal rests on her depiction of a romanticized England with love affairs, tea and parties in the glorious surroundings of sprawling stately homes.
Some have even compared her to Barbara Cartland, the late English romantic novelist.
But Austen’s novels have long been studied for their critique of a world of rigid class structure that was nevertheless in flux thanks to the Napoleonic wars.
“One of the things she is concerned with as a moral writer is social responsibility,” said Professor Kathryn Sutherland of the University of Oxford, co-curator of a new exhibition in Winchester.
Austen also shone a harsh light on the status of women, for whom a good match in marriage was considered the only goal.
“She was very conscious of the plight of women, of women’s dependence on men and she found that frustrating,” Sutherland said, calling her a feminist.
‘MYSTERIOUS MISS’
The daughter of a clergyman, Austen herself remained unmarried despite a proposal, and spent most of her life with very little money.
“She always had to hide it, to give the appearance of wealth that she didn’t have,” said Catherine Rihoit, a French author writing a biography of Austen.
Austen sought to earn money by getting her work published. The manuscript of Sense and Sensibility was finally accepted in 1811, after several attempts.
“Sadly, the success and the money only began coming in when she died,” Rihoit told AFP.
Austen is buried in the cathedral in Winchester, the Hampshire town where she died and where Sutherland and Louise West are staging their exhibition, The Mysterious Miss Austen.
Surprisingly little is known about the author, after her sister Cassandra destroyed almost all her letters.
There are even doubts about how she looked, and the exhibition brings together six portraits for the first time.
Among recent visitors to the exhibit was 70-year-old Bridget, who said she has read all of Austen’s books five or six times since being introduced to them at the age of 12.
“You think it’s all romantic love stories, but it isn’t. She was very acerbic, witty. The language is brilliant,” she told AFP.
And Austen’s appeal goes well beyond England.
“She speaks to people in far-flung countries, to other cultures. It’s really very clever, “ said Rihoit. — AFP
Surf epic is escapist best-seller for Donald Trump’s America
PARIS — William Finnegan tested the patience of his publisher in the 20 years it took him to write his remarkable memoir of his lifelong obsession with surfing, Barbarian Days.
“I gave up a couple of times, but she always believed,” the laconic American writer told AFP.
Her zen attitude paid off. The book has been heaped with awards including a Pulitzer prize and become a runaway best-seller, with former president Barack Obama among its many fans.
The New York Times called it a classic, the “finest surf book ever” — and up there with Jon Krakauer’s Into the Wild as an account of what happens when “ideas of freedom and purity take hold of a young mind and fling his body out into the far reaches of the world.”
Finnegan’s youthful odyssey “as a weird frontier guy” in search of the perfect wave took him from the Los Angeles suburbs to the jungles of Java and apartheid South Africa, surviving on his wits and the kindness of strangers.
Sports Illustrated, not normally prone to literary eulogizing, declared that “reading this guy… on waves and water is like reading Hemingway on bullfighting, William Burroughs on controlled substances, and Updike on adultery.”
Such praise surprised no one more than Finnegan, who spent his childhood between the beaches of California and Hawaii, where his father worked as a producer and union fixer twisting arms to get television series like Hawaii Five-O made.
“I had visions of people throwing the book across the room because they couldn’t bear another description of a wave,” he told AFP.
“But people who’d never surfed in their lives told me they completely went with it.”
‘SURFING WAS MY SECRET’
Still more were taken with his limpid style and lightly worn sea lore, such as how ancient Polynesian mariners navigated not only by the stars but by dipping their testicles in the briny.
“Strange but absolutely true,” Finnegan insists.
Now 65, the distinguished war correspondent and New Yorker magazine journalist had kept quiet about his surfing side “until well into middle age,” knowing that his years as a surf bum — a species not renowned for their intellectual acuity — might sit awkwardly with his writerly ambitions.
“Most people didn’t know I surfed. It was a huge part of my life but it wasn’t how I saw myself. It was a secret.”
Beyond this coming-out narrative, the book is also a reminder of how free and easy life could be in mid-century America, where children were not wrapped in the same shackles of parental concern they are now.
“It was a historical moment where the kids were off on their bikes all day long and nobody ever thought twice about it,” Finnegan said.
‘LOST BOY’
“I had hitchhiked the length of California by the time I was 15. I was doing the same thing on the East Coast at 16 and I first came to Europe on my own at 17.
“My parents didn’t know where I was for months on end.”
Finnegan said he was lucky to be in the right place at the right time to ride the wave of 1960s liberation to the full.
“I had lots of adventures and I survived. Not everybody came through so smoothly between drugs and general risk taking,” he said.
“It would never have happened 10 years later, and these days you can forget it. People just don’t let their kids out of their sight.”
That said, Finnegan admitted that “a lot of my compulsions were driven by a lost boy feeling. I left my family too young. I kept trying to reconstitute my family elsewhere.”
Indeed he recounts his relationships with other surfers almost as others would love affairs, each intimately attached to the sea and the waves they rode together.
Part of the book’s popularity he believes may be down to the fact that its blast of escapist ozone is an antidote to “growing dread and gloom” of Donald Trump’s America.
“It exists outside this increasing darkness. People read it as saying life was better, the country was better, politics were better.
However, Finnegan insists that the US was just as divided during the Vietnam War.
“I was in high school then and it was full blown culture wars. You were either pro-war or anti-war. The athletics departments were pro-war, and you pretty much couldn’t go out for sports if you weren’t for it.” — AFP
Woman in Dali paternity suit says just seeking the truth
MADRID — A woman whose paternity suit has prompted a Spanish court to order the exhumation of surrealist artist Salvador Dali’s body said she was simply seeking the truth about her family.
Dali, who died in 1989 aged 84, will be disinterred on July 20 so that DNA samples can be taken after protracted attempts by Maria Pilar Abel to prove she is his daughter.
“(I’m searching) for my identity, to find out who I am. I just want the truth to be known,” Abel told Reuters in an interview.
In tears, she added, “I’m not motivated by money. My father deserves more than that.”
Abel was born in 1956 in the northern Spanish town of Figueras, where Dali is buried.
Dali was one of the 20th century’s most famous artists and is best known for his dreamlike surrealist paintings depicting flying tigers and melting clocks, though he also turned his hand to film and sculpture.
He became notorious for his eccentric behavior and style, such as his trademark sculpted black moustache, and pulled off stunts such as giving a lecture in a deep-sea diving suit, which almost caused him to suffocate.
Dali was married to his lifelong muse, Gala. The couple did not have any children.
Abel, a divorced mother of four who has worked as a clairvoyant for a local Spanish television station, alleges her mother had an affair with Dali in the 1950s and says she found out about the liaison from her grandmother.
She never dared ask the artist, whom she would sometimes come across in their home town, whether he was her father.
“We never spoke but we’d look at each other a lot… How could I ask him? I was just a girl,” Abel said.
Abel launched her paternity claim 11 years ago. The Dali Foundation, which promotes the artist’s legacy, has appealed the court’s exhumation ruling. — Reuters
Biden to open up in memoir on loss of son
NEW YORK — Former US Vice-President Joe Biden is to release a memoir in November revealing how he coped with the devastating loss of his son to cancer, his publisher said Monday.
The book will be titled Promise Me, Dad: A Year of Hope, Hardship, and Purpose and will go on sale on Nov. 14, Flatiron Books said in a statement.
According to The New York Times, the title is a reference to something Biden’s son, Beau, told his father before he died.
“Promise me, Dad. Give me your word that no matter what happens, you’re going to be all right,” Beau Biden reportedly said at a family gathering in November 2014.
Beau Biden, who served for eight years as attorney general of his father’s home state of Delaware, died of brain cancer on May 30, 2015, at the age of 46.
Flatiron Books described the upcoming book as an “intimate memoir” that “reveals the most momentous year” in Biden’s public life.
“Promise Me, Dad is a personal story from a father, grandfather, husband, and friend as he confronts the inevitability of devastating personal loss, while trying to balance his duty to his family and his country,” according to the publisher.
In a statement, Biden said he hoped that sharing his story “will strike a chord with other Americans who have walked the same path I have.
“I have always been fortunate to have an incredible support system around me, and I understand how many people in this country go through far worse than I have, with far less support,” Biden said.
Biden, 74, a longtime senator from Delaware, served as vice-president during all eight years of Barack Obama’s presidency.
The former vice-president will embark on a tour of 19 US cities in November to coincide with the release of his book. — AFP
Ballet Manila goes on ‘Flights of Fantasy’
CLASSICAL ballet company Ballet Manila offers “Flights of Fantasy” in its 22nd performance season opening in August.
The company will present the tales of a legendary bird that has healing powers, a bewitched maiden cursed to transform into a swan at night, and a princess banished to the forest where she befriends seven delightful dwarves. A gala concert will also combine dance and song in another edition of BM’s trademark Ballet & Ballads series.
“Flights of Fantasy” takes off with the world premiere of Gerardo Francisco’s Ibong Adarna. Inspired by the popular legend about a mythical bird whose singing can cure the sick, the two-act ballet casts principal dancer Katherine Barkman and soloist Abigail Oliveiro alternating in the lead role, with West End musical theater actress Gia Macuja Atchison as the singing Adarna.
The show will feature flying sequences, innovative costumes and set design and most important, a well-envisioned choreography that breathes life to a one-of-a-kind Adarna.
“Gerardo has always been a multi-talented artist. He is not only one of the greatest principal dancers of the company, but has been choreographing successfully for many years now,” BM artistic director Lisa Macuja-Elizalde said of the man behind Ibong Adarna. “We gave him free rein to do his first original two-act ballet and we are going all the way in supporting his vision. It should be a revelation!” she was quoted as saying in a release.
Ibong Adarna also features music by Diwa de Leon, set and costume design by Make It Happen Workshop and script by Angela Blardony Ureta.
In October, Ballet Manila brings back the classical “war horse” Swan Lake in four acts.
“This is in keeping with Ballet Manila’s commitment to have at least one classical ballet in its season repertoire to uphold its Vaganova roots and foundation,” said Osias Barroso, BM’s co-artistic director, who himself danced as Prince Siegfried numerous times opposite Macuja-Elizalde as Odette/Odile.
The Serguei Vikulov version of Swan Lake features the original Lev Ivanov choreography for the white acts, a brand new set design by Miguel Faustmann, and new costumes designed by Michael Miguel. Katherine Barkman will debut in the role of Odette/Odile.
In late November, the prima ballerina’s own interpretation of Snow White will have its premiere. Snow White is the follow-up to her successful debut of a full-length choreography, Cinderella in 2016.
Ms. Macuja-Elizalde has already started on the choreography of Snow White. “It’s coming along nicely. Without revealing too much, it’s going to be in two acts with the Queen playing a big role in the storytelling and a surprise guest appearance of a magician. I am feeling the pressure,” she said, “but I’m very, very excited about the production.”
Snow White will use the music of Jules Massenet, as well as familiar melodies from the Disney film, while the overall look is said to be inspired by the Brothers Grimm and Hans Christian Andersen.
The season will be capped in February 2018 by the latest installment of the company’s Ballet & Ballads series, with balladeer Christian Bautista as headliner. As a Valentine treat, it will feature romantic pieces from the Ballet Manila repertoire, dancing set to love songs performed live by Bautista and new original choreographic works.
All performances will be held at the Aliw Theater, CCP Complex, Pasay City. Tickets are available at all TicketWorld outlets. For more information, call 525-5967, visit www.balletmanila.com.ph or follow Ballet Manila on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Art&Culture (07/19/17)
Lion King auditions
THE FIRST international tour of The Lion King, which premieres in Manila in March 2018 at The Theatre at Solaire, is searching for boys from ages nine to 12 for the role of Young Simba. The Manila premiere is presented by Concertus. The search is on for confident children with personality, natural actors/singers who can move well. Previous performing experience is not necessary. All Performers must pre-register for the open call by contacting the Children’s Casting Director, Atlantis Theatrical Entertainment Group, via phone at 650-5144, 0995-985-9718, 0945-338-6126, or 0917-838-1534, or e-mail at lionkingmanila@atlantistheatrical.com. Deadline for registration is July 30. All performers must pre-register for the open call. Children will be asked to prepare the last verse of “Just Can’t Wait to be King” and bring with them a 3R headshot, birth certificate, a parent/guardian’s written consent, and be prepared to fill out a registration form upon arrival. Each child must be accompanied by a parent or guardian.
Solo exhibit at Dragon Gallery
ON VIEW at the Dragon Gallery at The Yuchengco Museum at RCBC Plaza is Filipino-Australian artist Mon Coloma’s solo art exhibition entitled Art of Wisdom. His works range from portraits to abstraction to graceful dancers. The exhibition is on view until July 28.
Two shows at Silverlens
SILVERLENS has two exhibits ongoing until Aug. 12. These are: Techno-Utopian by Pow Martinez, comprised of paintings of varying sizes with the artist’s signature colorful grotesque protagonists backgrounded by land and seascapes in which he ponders on the failure of utopian ideals and its purported progress, pitting technology against a theory of the taboo; Dina Gadia’s Situation Amongst The Furnishings, her sixth solo show with the gallery, and her first show of all paintings. Silverlens is at 2263 Don Chino Roces Avenue Ext., Makati City.
Music Theater workshop for adults
ATLANTIS will be holding a Musical Theater Workshop for adults (ages 18 and up) from Aug. 7 to Sept. 15, with classes held from 7 p.m.-10 p.m. at Opera Haus, 3657 Bautista St., Makati City. There will be a recital on Sept. 15 at the Carlos P. Romulo Auditorium RCBC Plaza, Makati City. Classes are now open for reservation. Prior training and performing experience are not required. For details, call 0917-838-1534 or e-mail info@atlantistheatrical.com.
DLSU Museum opens FRAGMENTS: Cityscape
THE MUSEUM at De La Salle University presents its third exhibition that focuses on art and environment entitled FRAGMENTS: Cityscape stories and reflections. The exhibit is on view until Aug. 18 at the 2nd Level of the Don Enrique Yuchengco Hall on the Manila campus. The exhibit presents the essential structures and developments of a city plus people’s activities at daytime and nighttime, as interpreted by artists. The exhibit also gives viewers freedom to speak of their mind through art by writing their opinions, drawing, and forming puzzles. This serves as an interactive experience for all visitors. The artworks in Fragments are from the Wili and Doreen Fernandez collection, the University art collection, and loaned works from selected artists and art collectors. This exhibition is open to the general public. For details, contact The Museum at 524-4611 local 368 or e-mail nicky.bradecina@dlsu.edu.ph.
Rep presents Beauty and the Beast
REPERTORY PHILIPPINES’ Theater for Young Audiences is retelling the timeless fairy tale Beauty and the Beast from Aug. 12 to Dec. 14 at Onstage, Greenbelt 1. Cara Barredo, Alana Vincente, Jill Ita-as, and Maya Encila are set to play Beauty, while Arnel Carrion, Jos Jalbuena, Hans Eckstein, and George Schultz will be portraying the Beast. Directed by Joy Virata, the musical has a book written by Peter de Valle and John Ahearn, music by Michael Valenti, and lyrics by Elsa Rael. Tickets are available through Rep at 843-3570 and TicketWorld at 891-9999, www.ticketworld.com.ph.
Bigger MIBF 2017 set
THE MANILA International Book Fair (MIBF) promises to be bigger on its 38th year — it will occupy two floors of exhibit space at the SMX Convention Center, MOA Complex, Pasay City. It will be held on Sept. 13-17. Expanding its exhibit area from 9,130 to 11,980 square meters, MIBF 2017 will dedicate the entire second floor to children’s books and young adult books. With over 100 exhibitors, and about 150,000 visitors over its annual five-day run, the MIBF remains the country’s biggest and longest running book event, gathering book lovers from all walks of life to avail of the largest and most varied collection of literature for leisure and academic reading. There is also a lineup of varied events, such as book signings, author meet-and-greets, and special contests, and other activities designed for book lovers. Also co-located at this year’s MIBF is the National Conference on Technology in Education on Sept. 12-14, which gathers educators, the private sector, and government bodies gather to drive conversations about modernized trends in the Philippine education sector. The MIBF is organized by Primetrade Asia, Inc. in partnership with Asian Catholic Communicators, Inc., Book Development Association of the Philippines, Philippine Booksellers Association, Inc., and the Overseas Publishers Representatives’ Association of the Philippines. Interested exhibitors may call 896-0661 or 896-0682, e-mail info@manilabookfair.com. For more event details, follow @ManilaBookFair on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
YouTube opens the NextUp competition
Aside from earning 100,000 views for videos of yourself doing something creative/funny/inspiring/entertaining/ stupid, you may now also fly to California and receive production equipment worth ₱100,000 for being a YouTube creator, all by entering a contest.
Video‑streaming company YouTube is looking for Filipino content creators to join a week‑long camp this October as it launches NextUp competition in the Philippines.
The contest is open to YouTube creators with 10,000 to 100,000 subscribers and at least three original videos posted in the past three months.
Winners will receive a voucher for production equipment worth ₱100,000, and will join the YouTube Pop‑up Space Manila from October 19‑24 where they will be trained by previous NextUp winners and top YouTube creators.
One of the finalists, which the company will announce later this year, will join a global creator camp at YouTube Space LA in California, USA, and will have the chance to collaborate with creators from other countries.
According to YouTube, winners will be chosen based on the originality and coherence of their videos. Also part of the criteria are the “potential for improvement, capacity for attracting audiences, and alignment with YouTube’s core values.” YouTube is the only platform that demonstrated an overall positive impact on young people’s mental health, according to the #StatusofMind study.
Interested creators can fill out the application form through the competition’s website until August 2.
In a press release, YouTube said the competition would open opportunities for YouTube creators in the Philippines, which the company called “one of the most vibrant YouTube creator communities around the world,” with huge growth in content and mobile viewing sessions.
“YouTube is looking for passionate and motivated YouTube creators who are ready to create powerful stories with better production skills; those who are seeking mentorship from production and channel development experts, and eager participants looking for an opportunity to collaborate with talented creators and be a part of the global NextUp community,” the company said.
Out of the basement and into hip cafés: Board games are now cool
The geeks are finally getting their revenge with the things that once got you ostracized now suddenly becoming hip. The internet era has caused an upheaval in the dynamic between the jocks and the nerds, with the latter raking in cash at Silicon Valley. And so board games, an activity that once got you bullied or branded as a loser no matter how complicated and intellectual that game you’re playing, are now cool. New board game cafés are being set up here and there, and even cafés and food establishments that do not advertise themselves as board game cafés have shelves of games as decor that people can just pick up and play.
Among the first board game cafés in the Philippines is Ludo, which has two branches now: Ludo Boardgame Bar & Café in Scout Torillo, Quezon City; and Ludo Boardgame Bar & Bistro in Jupiter Street, Makati. These board game cafés were borne out of the geeky desire of board game hobbyists who wanted to play.
“My partners and I are avid board gamers, that’s really our hobby,” Jay Mata, General Manager of Alternative Forms of Tabletop Entertainment and Recreation (A.F.T.E.R.) Inc., told SparkUp in an interview at Ludo’s Makati branch last June.
With that came a quick clarification: “When I say board games, I don’t mean the normal things that you see like Monopoly or Clue, not that, but the actual games that you see around,” he gestured to the shelves behind him, all filled with different kinds of board games, with everything from card games to word games, and even a few based on popular TV shows like Game of Thrones and Attack on Titan. Contrary to the notion that board games are just for kids (although some are easy enough for the whole family to play), there’s something for everyone in their collection. And this is but a speck in the galaxy of board games all over the world. Just in 2016 alone, Mr. Mata said, about 800 new board game titles were launched.
“We started talking casually about starting our own board game café because as avid board game hobbyists we keep hearing about these board game cafés all over the world.” Mr. Mata said. “Wouldn’t it be nice to have one here, because it’s very hard to find a place to play without the restaurant kicking us out,” he explained.
“We kept talking as we played, and as the months went by it became less and less casual and more and more serious. Eventually we just went for it.”
Perhaps it’s the powerful love a hobbyist has over his activity of choice that makes Ludo one of the longest‑running board game cafés in the country, with customers choosing the café as a place to unwind and have coffee with friends over a game.
The Makati branch, being the larger of the two Ludo café branches, has also played host to several gaming events, both by Ludo or in partnership with other companies. For example, The Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) Asset Management last October launched a board game that they made at Ludo.
And if you’re curious about a game but don’t know how to play, don’t worry. The people at Ludo will gladly teach you how. So next time, if you want to play, you can bring your friends in and teach them. And then they’ll get addicted to the games that you play. And then they bring their friends in. Welcome to the growing club of casual and hardcore board game hobbyists, enjoy your coffee and pasta while you game. Look inside your heart and accept it: you’re a geek now. You’re one of us, one of us.
Still, Mr. Mata admits that board games is a niche market. The idea of board games being a childish activity is hard to defeat. “But it’s growing,” Mr. Mata said. “First of all, people are always looking for something social to do. That’s why escape rooms are popular, that’s why airsoft is popular. No matter what the situation, people always want something to do with their friends. That’s the appeal of board games.”
Board game hobbyists, despite having collections of their own, are also a part of the board game café market. “In terms of hobbyists, part of the appeal is trying out games that they’ve never seen before,” said Mr. Mata. It’s an expensive hobby, so some hobbyists play games in cafés to help them decide if they’re worth purchasing for themselves and adding to their own collections. That’s also why some cafés, like Ludo, also have a collection of games for sale. These establishments also serve as a good place for different gaming groups to meet up and for people to make new friends.
Millennials are the main drivers of the board game market—understandable, since it’s our generation that pushes trends forward. “Most of our customers are those who come in with their friends, mostly young urban professionals,” said Mr. Mata when asked to describe the people who go to Ludo. “We do have the occasional families and students but for the most part I think what’s driving the board game revolution are generally young people, 20‑30 years old, because they’re the ones seeing these things and want to try them.”
Is he worried of what the future has in store if the demand of board games plateaus? Mr. Mata, who has experience teaching entrepreneurship, shrugs it off. “Just like any other business that has entertainment as a value, itrsquo;s going to have ups and downs. That’s normal. For sure that it’s going to stabilize like everything else but I do think that board games will continue to grow and develop.”
“As more and more people realize that board games are a legitimate source of entertainment, I think we’re in a healthy place.”
And so board games have joined the big boys of sports in the list of popular activities for millennials, and the jocks will just have to learn how to share their popularity with the geeks.
Statistical indicators on Philippine development
A GOVERNMENT SCORECARD that details the Philippines’ progress in meeting economic development targets in the last six years showed that the country failed in many of them. Read the full story.
