Every country big or small has the potential to explore new business grounds and Pakistan is no exception. Recently, a team from Google and YouTube decided to go to Pakistan and explore some business and content opportunities and see if it’s really possible to engage in business from a country that has been at the core of world politics. Google already has the Clinton Global Initiative commitment to Pakistan in their agenda and plus they are also sponsoring and participating in Pakistan’s first International Youth Conference and Festival. Together Google and YouTube wanted to learn more about the Pakistan as a country and their technology and several media and non-profit sectors.
They learned that the internet penetration is very low in Pakistan and therefore only 10% of the population has internet connection. However, they found that there is ample scope for internet in the future because there are many youngsters who want to know more about it. The trend of smartphones is also on rise currently in Pakistan and 60% of the population has cell phones. SMS is one of the primary means of communication in Pakistan at the moment.
Google and YouTube found that although there is very low internet connectivity in the country there is a large amount of Pakistani content available on the web. Coke Studio is one of the biggest fusion music projects that is sponsored by Coke. It allows popular Pakistani musicians to showcase their talent to the world and surprisingly it was the 11th most viewed channel on YouTube. Apart from that many young Pakistani media personnel prefer to make use of YouTube and other internet applications through which they can make their news public. Citizen media in Pakistan is on the rise where they shoot the dram through their cell phone cameras and upload it on the web.
In the last summer Google donated $1 million to Pakistani flood victims and launched their very own flood relief landing page. Google also came up with Google MapMaker that provides information about the floods to concerned relief agencies. Google and YouTube learned that currently 62% of the Pakistan’s population is under the age of 25 and therefore the future of Pakistan lies with the youth. The International Youth Conference is run by an organization called Khudi which was founded by Maajid Nawaz. Google and YouTube were excited to learn that dynamic leaders like Maajid Nawaz were committed to encourage Pakistan’s younger generation to the latest web technologies that can better their future.
