[b1twise_]

I'm a foreigner living in the Philippines, and I'm aware of a number of small tech businesses run by other foreigners here. Visa issues keep these businesses fairly low-key--foreigners technically aren't allowed to work on the easier visas to obtain. They tend to use their local knowledge to employ Filipinos as contractors efficiently. It can take time to find quality contractors, but it can save a lot of money.

Cost of living is low, but internet access and infrastructure issues can be problems. I pay quite a bit for 3mbit internet. I've had two power outages today. If you show up here and don't adapt, you will get frustrated and miss a lot of the benefits.

There are a lot of colleges here pumping out CS grads who are underqualified. They tend to look for work in call centers instead of programming. Filipinos don't spend money on the web, so targeting products at them is tough. Advertiers are aware of the fact that Filipinos don't spend money online, so ad supported businesses are not feasible. You need to earn in Dollars/Euros/Yen and then spend locally in Pesos.