MANILA - The parent firm of DITO Telecommunity said Filipinos who want to learn online but are looking for more affordable alternatives can sign up at DITO CME's online courses venture Luna Academy.

Launched in 2021 amid the pandemic, the 10-month old education platform said it is the local version of Coursera with most certificate courses focused on technology.

"We are creating a Coursera for the Philippines. It’s really for training…Like developers, they require to be upskilling, during the pandemic hindi na sila makapasok (they can't go to school). So we saw an opportunity, we were able to help people. Ngayon (now) it’s purely online," DCME chief operating officer Donald Lim told ABS-CBN News.

• Thinking of a career change? Filipinos can get full degrees from world's top universities through Coursera

Currently, Luna Academy has over 400 courses, 60 percent of which are technology courses from industry leaders such as Microsoft, Google, Amazon Web Services and Alibaba, Lim said.

There are also other online courses in leadership, HR management and culinary, among others, he added.

Lim said although their partners were industry leaders, costs are much more affordable.

For example, a course that costs P40,000 to P60,000 in Coursera is available on Luna for just P15,000 to P20,000, he said.

So far, there are about 3,000 registered learners taking up courses on the platform, Luna Academy said.

"We try to make it affordable, Luna is a platform. We do not create content, what we do is partner with school, institutions, industry players, they create their content and they certified it also," he added.

Luna Academy is just one of the other ventures of DITO CME Holdings, which is owned by Davao-based businessman Dennis Uy.

DCME's other investments are mostly focused on tech, whose adoption, incidentally also accelerated during the COVID-19 pandemic as Filipinos stuck at home turned online for their every day needs.

Digital adoption is also likely to stay even if the pandemic has been addressed, DCME president Eric Alberto said.

"I think even if the pandemic wanes and we get immunity and the pandemic disappears, the digital manner by which we engaged, which people have embraced and the way enterprises engage their consumers, will not change because its convenient, cost-effective and safe," Alberto said.

Aside from Luna Academy, DCME also operates sales, marketing and advertising arm Acuity Global as well as Unalytics or its analytics hub focused on big data.

"We said the intent is to enable the digital lifestyle of every Filipino with the aim of connecting the people, transform legacy to digital and making human transactions simpler, faster and easier," Lim said.

"That's why we went into telco, education, media and education and then later on we added e-commerce, having a data hub and data analytics as the backend offering," he added.

Alberto said majority of the business is still DITO Telecommunity, which tapped China Telecom due to their expertise in the field.

DCME recently set the final price of its stock rights offer to P4.88 per share as it seeks more funds to inject into its main business, DITO Telecommunity.

Officials have said the third telco, which passed its second year audit in 2021, nears hitting its 5-million subscriber mark before the end of the year. [5-MILLION https://news.abs-cbn.com/business/12/09/21/dito-nears-5m-subscribers]

• DITO CME sets final price of stock rights offer at P4.88 per share

DCME is also part of the Udenna Corp group and Davao-based businessman Dennis Uy is its CEO.

• DITO CME credits telco unit’s new towers for withstanding Odette
• DITO CME Holdings moves to acquire 3rd telco player via share swap deal

FROM OUR ARCHIVES:

Watch more in iWantv or TFC.tv