GCash Mastercard: another Innovation in the E-Commerce Industry

Frances O. Ponce

The Ayala Group of Companies
Globe is one of the diverse businesses of the Ayala Group. It is also one of the largest telecommunications company in the country with its closest rival Smart. As part of a large conglomerate who has business interests in industries ranging from real estate, retail, banking, water infrastructure, renewable energy, electronics, information technology and BPO, Globe has an edge to its competitors like Smart.

When Globe wants to penetrate the e-commerce market, it can tap the expertise of its sister company Bank of the Philippine Islands or BPI which is one of the giants in the banking and financial services industry. Banking and financial services is highly-regulated by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) and E-Commerce (Electronic Commerce) is quite risky and therefore needs a huge amount of investments in information and cyber security.

Four reasons why you should apply for a GCash Mastercard

The good news is GCash Mastercard is very accessible to the market. The four reasons why GCash Mastercard is better compared to other products are:

1. It has no annual service charge or fee unlike the EON Card of unionbank that has an annual fee of Php350.00.
2. It has a one-time processing fee of only Php50.00, Php40.00 of which will be credited back to your GCash Account.
3. Only one valid ID is required upon enrollment. You will do a series of simple steps through your cellphone in order to link your GCash account (in case you already have one) to your Mastercard. You will receive the card with your name embossed in it after activating.
4. You can use your GCash Mastercard for any kind of financial transactions (it will be discussed later).

In Poetry: Playground

Originally Written by Lee Ivy L. Acevedo

Posted with permission

I was there again,

In the river where we used to play with my friends,

The water from the cave beside it was still clear,

But the river looked different.

I thought something strange had changed.

For the last years it was still playable,

We had even spent time soaking our bodies in it.

But now floating on it were crumpled toiletries,

empty beaten cans,

and rotten skins of coconut and pomelo.

From the bridge already rotten,

Naked children jumped off, just like we used to.

The splashing sound of water reached me,

But it doesn’t feel cool anymore.

I shuddered at the thought

of the water pinching my skin.

I woke up from my sleep

And took off my headphone,

Wishing I had a better dream.

This poem was featured in dagmay.kom.ph-- a Literary Journal of the Davao Writers Guild. The author was a student in UP Mindanao with a course in Creative Writing.

See more of her poem at www.dagmay.kom.ph

Focusing on Excellence

We are all motivated by material things. We work not only because we want to fulfill our basic needs, but also we crave to have the things we lust like cars, jewelries and the like.

Setting your mindset on getting material rewards is an excellent strategy. It is the widely used technique in setting goals in our lives. However, it is still best to focus your mindset on excellence.

What I mean here is that if you really love the things you do now-- like for instance you love writing and it fuels your soul every time you share you literary pieces with others.

In other words, if you really love and have the passion on the things you do regardless of any material reward, success and other material things will follow after.

As for me, one of the reasons why "materially-motivated" mindset is not good, is that material and tangible things are only temporary and fickle. Intangible rewards such as trust, influence and love are lifetime-- they endure even after your death.

Furthermore, worse comes when you eventually focus your whole life on material things. It will rob you out of happiness and eventually not living life to the fullest.

As Aamir Khan said from the movie the 3 idiots, "pursue excellence and success will chase you."

How about you? What is your outlook in life?