MANILA - Business name registration for online businesses surged during the quarantine period compared to January to March as the pandemic hastened digital adoption in government transactions, the Department of Trade and Industry said Tuesday.

Some 75,876 online businesses registered their business name as of Sept. 2 from just 1,753 in the period of January to March 15, the DTI said in a statement.

The total number of business names registered as of Sept. 2 is now 712,657, up 12 percent compared to the entire 2019 total of 637,690, the agency said.

“We are pleased to know that our citizens are starting their businesses right by registering their business with appropriate government agencies, such as the DTI,” Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez said.

“The silver lining in COVID-19 is the accelerated adoption of ecommerce. Hence, the DTI is also increasing efforts to promote ecommerce by building trust between consumers and merchants, and focusing on the digitalization of our micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs),” he added.

Lopez said the entire online registration only lasts for 8 minutes. Migration to online registration is part of the government's efforts to cut red tape under the ease of doing business law.

The tax bureau earlier urged the online selling community, which gained popularity during the coronavirus lockdowns, to register their businesses and disclose previous transactions for tax purposes.

• BIR tells online sellers: Register, pay taxes
• BIR again extends deadline for registration of online sellers to Sept. 30

Registrations have since been extended to up to end-September.