By Ruel S. De Vera

At a time when the dateline, with its two zeroes, reads like a digital code, there may be few more potent business brews than dreams and a fast modem.

In 1998, two groups of four friends from two adjacent campuses put together a plan to bring the mysteries and magic of Metro Manila to the vast expanse of the World Wide Web. At the University of the Philippines, instructors Trixie Alano-Reguyal, Kimi Tuvera, Issy Orlina Reyes and Carol Hau initially wanted to write a novel together, but eventually decided to put up an online magazine on urban living. It fleshed out an image that Reyes dreamt of one night: "an unfinished flyover, and from the top of the flyover, you could see the entire city." Thus was born LegManila.com, a decidedly literary site that remarked on the good and the bad in the city and boasted pieces from such notable authors as Kerima Polotan (Kimi's mother), Eric Gamalinda and Ninotchka Rosca.

At the other end of Katipunan Avenue, Ateneo schoolmates Bernice Arcenas, Jet Lacson, Aye Navarro and Chuck Syjuco concocted an on-line city guide and magazine. With an explicitly youthful bent towards happenings and events, Localvibe.com sought to be an actual participant in the city's energy. As Navarro said, "We're changing life in Manila."

After two years of launching their respective online invasions on urban life, LegManila and Localvibe mustered their own following and developed a budding rivalry - until they decided to hook up earlier this year. Under the auspices of Singapore-based GetAsia, LegManila and Localvibe merged to form GetAsia Philippines. From their original haunts (LegManila in a Katipunan condo, Localvibe in a Horseshoe Village house), the sites now call the Citibank Tower in Makati home.

At a time when too many Internet ideas go straight from startup to belly-up, the LegManila-Localvibe union is an apparent vindication of the vision and energy these young entrepreneurs put into their online ventures. Sometimes, you can make your Internet dreams come true.

Both sites will continue to appear, with their own unique content, even as the people behind them now work together. For Localvibe and LegManila, this is merely the beginning. In the spirit of their online endeavor, SIM chatted via e-mail with the movers and shakers behind this double-click success story.

SIM: Please identify yourself, your age, and what exactly you do.

Trixie: I'm Trixie Alano-Reguyal. I'm 30 years old and I'm the Editor-in-Chief of LegManila.com

Alex: Hi, I'm Alex Reguyal, 34, and the Country Manager of GetAsia.com Philippines.

Chuck: My name is Miguel Syjuco, although everyone calls me Chuck (after Charlie Brown, since I had a bald, round head as a baby). I am the Editor in Chief of Localvibe. I'm 24 years old.

Bernice: Bernice Arcenas, Marketing Manager for GetAsia.com Philippines. I'm 25.

SIM: LegManila began as a dream between four friends in 1998. Do you feel that LegManila became what you initially had in mind?

Trixie: LegManila became a lot more than what we initially had in mind. We had big dreams and a big vision, but LegManila was really a small project. In the beginning, LegManila only had one full-time staff, that's me, working on a workstation at home. Alex worked on programming on the side, and the three other editors all held other full-time jobs and were working on LegManila in their spare time. By the middle of last year, however, Alex realized it had potential, so we rented an office and hired other staff. Since then, LegManila has become part of bigger and more complex operations. It has also given birth to another site, ClickTheCity.com, which has partnered with numerous web sites in the country and won three awards in the recent Philippine Webby Awards.

SIM: We know the story of how the four Ateneans got together and came up with the site and the zine. But did Localvibe succeed in becoming what you had dreamed of when you put it together?

Bernice: I believe so. We came together to build a site which we hoped would provide real value for people - providing up-to-the-minute information about the city in a format that's fun and easy to use. I like to think of Localvibe as the most outgoing buddy in your group, the adventurous one who's always suggesting places in town to eat, shop, watch a movie, to do anything, really.

Chuck: Localvibe has always been successful in being what we dreamt it to be: Metro Manila's city guide. When we first started, we got together because it sounded like an exciting and fun business venture, and we were turned on by the fact that we could possibly make a difference by showing our readers a city where they live but which was oftentimes too foreign to them.

SIM: How did LegManila and Localvibe evolve in the past years?

Trixie: Work on LegManila has been a roller coaster ride - I think the dizzyingly fast and quicksilver changes that we've experienced in our work is unique to the Internet industry. The Internet, by its very nature, is defined by swiftness, changeability, innovation, and a real potential to change lives and society that up to now is still ungraspable and yet everywhere apparent. LegManila, as all Internet companies, is in the middle of this amazing phenomenon.

Chuck: The last two years have been a roller coaster ride indeed - but I do love those roller coaster rides. It's been really earthshaking for all of us. I mean, when you're doing something new and exciting, and when it's an uphill battle, being a small David of a company up against the Goliaths out there, every day is an earthshaking day. Sometimes I still can't believe we got this far!

SIM: Was there some kind of rivalry between Localvibe and LegManila? Any bad blood?

Trixie: LegManila and Localvibe, from the very beginning, have been pitted against each other because both were in the general space of online city guides. But the two, again from the very start, were very different creatures and were really catering to different groups of people.

Chuck: You know, LegManila and Localvibe are actually quite different. Localvibe is a city guide magazine for the active urban lifestyle. LegManila is more an online magazine about Philippine society and culture. I guess because we were really the only real forces to speak of in such similar niches, people would peg us together. But I think it's great for us to be hooking up.

SIM: Worldwide, Internet companies were all the rage for a while, and then the bottom dropped out. Did you experience any such problems?

Trixie: The Internet scene in the Philippines cannot be compared to the Internet industry in the U.S. The two are in different stages of growth. Whatever difficulties we experience are rooted on the fact that the Internet is new in the Philippines and both the infrastructure and content are still in the development stage. However, I still believe that this is the best time to be in this industry in this country.

SIM: Why merge?

Trixie: Why not? There are obvious synergies between Localvibe and LegManila. And now that we're part of the same company, we're definitely exploring and developing these synergies.

Chuck: Why not? There's so much we can do for Metro Manila and its residents, doesn't it make sense to combine forces and tackle that task together?

Bernice: Because bringing together two local companies that are in the same space but have different areas of talent and expertise makes for a fantastic partnership. Because having a regional parent company like GetAsia makes many of our plans a reality. Why the merger? Because it makes absolute sense for the three companies involved, especially in the current environment.

SIM: Give us a roadmap of the merger. How did the entire thing start?

Alex: GetAsia was really looking for local players in the lifestyle and infotainment space. They looked at a number of web sites and chose Localvibe, LegManila, and ClickTheCity because these sites were the clear leaders in that niche.

SIM: Who or what exactly is GetAsia? What is your relationship with them now and how did it start?

Alex: GetAsia is an Internet company situated in the leisure and infotainment marketplace. The company sees itself as becoming the definitive resource of leisure and entertainment information in Asia, as a network of the most authoritative web sites focused on lifestyle in Asia. It's a big project, a big plan, but we believe we're up to the task.

Trixie: When we merged, it was perfect timing for every one - GetAsia, Localvibe, LegManila, and ClickTheCity. It's a good and solid union because the various sites complement each other.

SIM: Did any of you have apprehensions about the merger?

Bernice: Actually, there's a lot of positive energy and excitement.

Trixie: We're really excited to work with each other.

Chuck: We just wanted to know when we could get started and get things rolling.

SIM: What are your immediate plans and/or hopes for the new company? I believe you're planning to keep separate sites but are you going to share content? How does all that work?

Chuck: Exciting things are happening in the company and to the web sites. But we're still keeping them under wraps, and if I tell you about them, I'll have to kill you.

Alex: We are working on maximizing our resources, getting better synergy out of content sharing that will allow us to further improve our web sites. You can expect to see more exciting new stuff on all GetAsia sites early next year. I'm afraid they're still very confidential, but we will reveal our plans when the time is right.

SIM: What is your vision for the company five or ten years down the line?

Alex: The Internet is ever changing. Five to ten years is a lifetime in this industry. But whatever form or shape this medium takes, our vision is to offer the most innovative and the most useful products and services in the entertainment and lifestyle space.

SIM: How do you all feel about this union? What do you say to people who think that you've sold out because you're no longer going out on your own path?

Alex: We're excited about this union because we're consolidating tremendous talents, energies, and other resources to come up with terrific products and services for Filipino Internet users. The entry of GetAsia will actually help our common dream to become regional players. Moreover, the expertise of the senior management of GetAsia will have great impact on our ability to compete in the market. What GetAsia brings to the table is definitely a depth and strength of management - something that's truly important for an Internet company.

Trixie: Alex, who's heading the Philippine operations, has extensive managerial experience as well, both in the Philippines and the U.S. He was working as a Vice President in Bank of America Headquarters in San Francisco before he came back to the Philippines three years ago to head a local Internet service provider. He has great expertise on the local Internet industry.

SIM: So what then does this merger mean to you?

Chuck: Opportunities. Growth. Combined forces. Remember anime cartoons? Volt in? Well, that's what we're doing!

Bernice: It means leveraging each other's strengths and hopefully building a better product together. I also see it as an opportunity to learn from GetAsia's experience, as well as LegManila's.

Trixie: New perspectives, different points of view. I see it as a great learning experience.

SIM: How does it feel to have offices at the Citibank Tower, right smack in the power hub that is the Makati CBD? Do you feel you've arrived, or is it all just starting for you?

Trixie: It's the end of one thing, and the start of another thing. The environment is completely different from what I'm used to, but it's an adventure. I don't really feel we've arrived because a lot of work is ahead of us.

Alex: It's a big change for LegManila itself. But for me, personally, it's a return to a corporate environment, corporate culture.

Chuck: Well, our real office has always been both online and all around the Metropolis, because that's where our work is done. But whether it's our old Lucky Horseshoe Village office, or Citibank Tower, it's always still an adventure that's just started out. The times I feel that we've arrived are when I get letters from pleased Metro residents, homesick Filipinos abroad, foreign visitors, and expats living here-all of them thanking us for doing what we do. That's when I feel we've arrived. It's not about the office at all. It's about the readers.

Bernice: It marks a new, fresh start for all, not a conclusion-it's the beginning of a new journey.

SIM: Your new venture is one of the true bright spots for Philippine Internet endeavors. Do you still believe that the Net's commercial promise remains high, or are you indeed an aberration?

Alex: We're just getting started and we're still definitely chasing the dream. We definitely believe in the strength and promise of the industry. The Internet is a very powerful and empowering medium and we're only beginning to tap its potential. Internet use can only continue to grow in the coming years.

Chuck: The Internet is a new and very very exciting medium. I think it'll change the world as much as the Gutenberg press did. I believe that we are in no way an aberration. I think that we're just a good example that you don't need loads of money and high-powered connections to make it in the Internet world. Again, it's teamwork, dedication, and great ideas that have made us. There is nothing really strange in that formula.

Check out the GetAsia sites by clicking on to http://www.legmanila.com/ and http://www.localvibe.com/.