In a series of panel discussions on digital payments in Pakistan, an information packed webinar was held by Badar Khushnood and Asfandyar Farrukh. While the previous two webinars touched upon Freelance payments and Account based payments, this one was about card based payments.  For those not aware of card based payments, You will need a good amount of time to …

I simply loved Tania Aidrus’ speech at Digital Pakistan inauguration ceremony. She was eloquent, specific and incisive. Here is my 5 reasons why her speech was spot on. Clearing the Air She is from Pakistan and she knows general perception about those working with government as someone connected to higher ups. She clarified that in the start. In her own …

After the famous Maslow Hierarchy’s upgrade with Wi-Fi at the bottom, we have our very own slogan to enter into the digital age. Roti, Kapra, Makan, aur Internet, as aptly put by Tania Aidrus during her speech at the inauguration of Prime Minister Imran Khan’s initiative of Digital Pakistan where she shared her strategy on how to lead Pakistan on …

Often you come across a small talk or a post on some social platform that carries so much insights and meaning, you tend to read it again and again and try to apply it in your life and work. I came across such a post by Herman Singh, Group Executive Innovation & Strategy, that I thought is worth sharing with …

While I withdrew my coins and cash from www.urdubit.com with a heavy heart, I felt sorry for the exchange that happened to be Pakistan’s first bitcoin exchange. For me, it was not just an exchange but a major event in Pakistan’s startup history. Urdubit was a sign of embracement of new technologies by Pakistanis and representation of intellectual repository in the …

Albeit a slow growth on adoption of digital banking and payment services, the pakistani market is on the right track. The latest report released by State Bank of Pakistan shows positive indicators across all categories and is worth having a look at. The report shows numbers starting from first quarter of 2017 to projected figures of  1st quarter of 2018. …

With so many chat apps being around its hard to imagine what new features one can expect from the new entrants. Especially, with big giants like WhatsApp establishing themselves well in respective markets, it becomes difficult to launch a chat app and entice users to try it out. VEON is a recent example that made a big launch and successfully …

What is a Chat Bot? A Chat Bot is a software program that interacts with humans through textual or audio chat apps. While interacting, the human side of the app does not really feel the difference since the Chat Bot has almost all the answers to questions asked by the person related to service. This simulation of humans by the chat …

When I found out about Simple.pk in a competition, held this year by karandaaz, I was not very impressed. I was aware of global freelancing platform and the fact that Pakistan has world’s 4th largest freelancing community on these platforms. Why do we need such a platform when we have the likes of Upwork, Fiverr, Freelancer and many others?  Why …

Looked like an impossibility when someone told me few years back about extending loans to strangers by just looking at their online presence or by just analyzing their smartphone usage. How can you trust someone with your money without having met them? How can you match the due diligence level of banks? No reference check? nothing? That was my initial …

Black Friday is talk of the town and when I got email from Careem offering Black Friday discount of Rs. 500, it got my attention. Careem giving discount? How? Where? So, I got into contact with Careem team to find out how does it work and here are the steps: If you are a Careem user, you must have got …

There are 1,500 registered IT companies in Pakistan with 10k IT graduates entering the market every year and technology services exported to other countries amount to $1.6B of total sales. 92% of the our land has cellular network coverage, making flow of information possible. Out of 47 Million Active Internet Users 42 Million access social media through mobile devices. These …

Embrace yourself for year 2017’s one of the biggest event that is going to take place in Karachi on 4th November. Organized by NEST I/O, a well known Incubation center by PASHA, the event 021Disrupt Conference is all about startups, crypto-currency, fund raising and networking. Excited to participate in the event, here are 5 things that I’m looking forward to …

The team at Certify.pk is onto something big. They aim to change how educational degrees are verified in Pakistan for good. No more lining up in queues. No more delays. If you are from HR department of a company and want to hire a candidate you have now a solution to verify their degrees. And, if you are from an …

This year, one of the biggest incubation centers of Pakistan, launched its cohort especially for corporate employees. The thought behind this program was a very high failure rate of startups launched by youngsters. I think, the step is very much in the right direction and will definitely bring good results. With more digital inclusion in Pakistan, the country has now …

For people not in the know, the 1-click checkout process available at Amazon online store is actually a patented check-out technology that is going to expire in September, 2017. As basic as it seems, the retail giant fought for its patent for almost 2 years when it was eventually awarded in September 1999 in US.   Request to patent this …

State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), in its efforts to increase financial inclusion in Pakistan has issued a regulatory framework that will allow Payment Service Providers to install and operate their own ATM machines just like banks in the country. The decision was taken after unsatisfactory performance of banks in increasing ATM network. Banks were directed by SBP to maintain Branch …

Come to think of it, banks in pakistan are pretty good in making ads. Aren’t they? Ads made by commercial banks over decades have touched the emotions of people, while selling them saving accounts and insurance services. The quality of production is impressive and the jingles are becoming catchy. “Mukammal Account” by UBL, “Dil Main Account Khonlay K Tareeqay” by Allied Bank …

Recently, JazzCash launched pilot of its QR code based payment called QuickPay through Mobile Account in partnership with MasterCard. Previously, Finja also introduced QR payments through its wallet SimSim. Definitely, a step in right direction. While many initiatives have been taken by Banks in general and specifically Mobile Financial Services industry in realm of payments, unfortunately, digital payments’ adoption rate is still very …

If you are reading this, chances are you have heard about bitcoin already. Though the purpose of this article is not to explain what bitcoin is but to introduce Pakistan’s first bitcoin trading platform but let’s have a cursory look at it. Bitcoin is a digital currency without any moderation or regulation from any financial institution. The currency is not …