About the online world

Most of the talent of Pakistan remains undetected thanks to the lack of opportunities, mentorship, exposure and connectivity with the right people. 

The online world is one such untapped area, where the youth could have several opportunities to learn new skills and earn foreign exchequers. Though Pakistan’s telecom industry has shown unprecedented growth and the advent of the cheap smartphone has revolutionized the connectivity regime and access to the virtual world. Though no structured and reliable data on access to smartphone and the Internet is available, it can be said with an educated certainty that a large majority of the Pakistani individuals and most of the Pakistani households have an easy access to the mobile phone (or smartphone) and the Internet. 

The development, however, has yet to be translated into some meaningful sectoral venture. Go to any public place, workplace or private place, one finds people in groups or individually are glued to their phones and often using the social media. The magic of social media has shrunk the world and often triggered public movements, such as Arab Spring and the Occupy Silicon. Awareness on social and political issues among the public is often directed from the social media. This is, however, one side of the picture. On the side, the youth has failed to fully capitalize the blessings of the online world. Online entrepreneurship has yet to take roots in Pakistan because of the lack of mentoring and government’s and industry's supports. There have been successful ventures related to the online world, such as online selling stores daraz.com, services providing apps like rozee.com and but such success stories can be counted on fingers. Given the volume of the telecom sector growth, the scale of entrepreneurial activities should have been huge, but unfortunately that is not the case.  

It is not that the people are unaware of the importance of the online wealth. Many people start but fail. Many people want to start a startup but cannot because of the lack of guidance, funds and market support. Companies and industries all over the world help startups and mentor them to grow and sustain the growth. This culture is going to take a hard try in Pakistan as Momentum Pakistan’s 2018 edition, to be unveiled on February 18 and 19, will host a big event for startups in Karachi where world giants like Facebook, Amazon, IBM and Microsoft will interact with Pakistani startups and mentor them to grow. These giants will also provide resources and tools to the startups. Other than these giants, the Momentum Pakistan will unveil anther big thing – Adapt a Startup – where overseas Pakistanis will adopt a startup and mentor it through guidance and tools. This is the best way to help the country by the successful expatriates.     

Other than the Momentum Pakistan, the Lahore University of Management Sciences and the Plan9 (of the Punjab Information technology Board) and the Global Entrepreneurship Foundation have been helping the startups groom well. These efforts are laudable but the country need more and more such ventures.