When I was in the Philippines I rarely hear the english word "how are you?" not because its not our languages. I mean "hi or hello" are most common in greeting people we see or met on the day, We normally say hi or hello on the people we met anywhere for the first time, and for the first time of the day normally the people we are working with, like office mates etc.
We have " kamusta ka? " from the spanish word (como esta) the Tagalog or Filipino translation of "How ar you?" We normally ask "kumusta " to our friend and or to people we did not see for a couple of times or for the people we met for the first time and we are interested to have a conversation with them. I mean kumusta is really a sincere word of asking How are you in my country. The answer is mabuti which is "good" in english. or sometimes they will answer "okay lang, in english "just okay" and if not good ussually they tell directly the story, the same as good they directly thell the story.
For most english speaking people "how are you is the best way of greeting people". I do not know the real explanation, I didn't check. Based on my observation english speaking people normally say "how are you" when they greet people, doesn't matter if they are sincere or concern or no or what. And of course the answer is normally good, I'm fine, no good, so so. etc. For some people just to have something to say they say I'm good but for those people who have to express more they will say "no" and you will be lucky if they are interested to listen.
We have to understand that "how are you" is a greeting in general. But depends on the person who say it, we can say that they are sincere when they ask how are you? You can see it on the expression of their face when they say it.
