The country’s first “social shopping network,” Multiply, is strengthening its e-commerce presence locally by partnering with the Aranetas Digiprint so users can order photo prints online and adding an e-commerce marketplace with at least 25,000 virtual storefronts.

Florida-based Multiply where the Lopezes ABS-CBN Global Philippines has around 5 percent stake, is one of the world’s leading media sharing services with over 2 petabytes of photos and videos.

With 5 million Filipinos using Multiply and over 1 billion pictures uploaded in its site from the Philippines to date, the American firm decided to fortify its business here. Photo finishing complements its biggest source of revenues advertising.

Now, Multiply and Digiprint will share revenues to enable Multiply users to print any albums uploaded on the site. It will be the first service of its kind in the Asian region.

“Our goal is more than replicate Kodak Galleries and do everything than can be done in the context of social networking. We want to make everything user-friendly,” stressed David Hersh, Multiply Vice President, Business Development.

Multiply is the only social networking site that stores original, full-resolution (print-caliber) versions of its users’ photos. On the other hand, Digiprint is the only photo processor in the Philippines that offers in-store pick-up and delivery from some 38 retail branches.

The partnership between the two will give Filipino Multiply users a quicker, more affordable way to order prints of their Multiply photos versus international shipping from the U.S.

Furthermore, Multiply has just “legitimized” running a store in its site just a month ago. “We have no idea that Filipinos will use us for e-commerce, from mom and pop stores selling cupcakes to big electronic firms selling gadgets and wedding planners. Actually, running a store on multiply is a violation of our terms of service,” Hersh explained. “We have no expectation Multiply will take off anywhere but in the U.S.”

But with around P75 million of the Philippines P3.4 billion total annual internet purchases being made at Multiply, they cannot ignore it anymore. “We decided to update our terms of service to accommodate the seller community,” according to the Multiply VP.