GBG Case Study

YouTube enables Filipino enterprise Switotwins to create a dynamic digital storytelling community

About Switotwins

• switotwins.com and switotwinsinc.org • Davao City, Mindanao • Digital stories is a creative collaborative platform that provides a space and venue to showcase the creativity of ordinary people and promote local cultures and languages • 5 employees based in head office; 6 on-call project-based animators, illustrators and voice artists • Founded December 2012

Switotwins Digital Storytelling enables ordinary Filipinos to tell their stories, express themselves through writing, animation, voice and film and promote their language and culture. The founders met new friends at the University of the Philippines and together they created Switotwins after graduation. Showcasing stories online through the YouTube videos it makes and shares, the company has created a powerful online community keen to support the storytellers. Since December 2012, Switotwins has processed more than 200 stories. YouTube lowered costs and helped Switotwins expand its reach across the Philippines and around the world. This led to seed funding amounting to an 86 percent increase in start-up capital. Google Hangouts enables Switotwins to hold workshops online and provides a 66 percent saving on travel, accommodation and living expenses. Switotwins also uses Google Drive to write stories and collaborate. Furthermore, Google+ helps Switotwins be more visible to the young people who use social networks. Finally, Google Maps makes the enterprise searchable and has led to invitations to talk about Switotwins’ work further afield.

“The Internet is one of our biggest assets and opportunities.” — Glorypearl Dy, President/CEO

Looking back on the achievements of the past two years, Glorypearl Dy, co-founder and now President/CEO, says: “In two years, we’ve expanded from one community to several. We’ve helped children see that technology can be used in a more meaningful way. We’ve empowered the women in our workshops so much that they say they don’t need us. They can echo the storytelling methods to other women in the community. I see that as an amazing impact. We’re also helping revive the relationship between people and their mother tongue. Ultimately, we believe that if more people understand and love our cultures and languages there will be less conflict and a more peaceful culture of coexistence.” The next steps for Switotwins include selling ebooks written in the local language and translated into English, making materials to help teachers teach students in their mother tongue, and selling children’s toys developed to assist mother-tongue learning during early childhood. © 2014 Google Inc. All rights reserved. Google and the Google logo are trademarks of Google Inc. All other company and product names may be trademarks of the respective companies with which they are associated.