Babar Ahmed’s Mindstorm Studios created Cricket Revolution™ – the first PC game produced by

a Pakistani gaming outfit to sell in retail stores internationally – and recently launched the official
game of the ICC WorldCup 2011. Brothers Rizwan and Irfan Virk’s GameView Studios created the
successful Tap franchise, which was recently acquired by Japanese social gaming giant DeNA.
Hasan Rizvi’s Pepper.PK made history by developing two top-ranking paid BlackBerry applications
at BlackBerry’s AppWorld store. Murad Akhtar left Stanford and Silicon Valley to form Tintash,
dedicated to creating innovative casual games designed for the iPhone, iPad, and Android
platforms. Umair Javed of TkXeL prides himself in creating not one but two 100% "Made in Pakistan"
mobile applications and gaming companies from a university lab in Lahore. Pakistan’s mobile,
gaming, and animation scene is increasingly a hotbed of a new generation of exciting entrepreneurs
seeking their fair share in the riches and prosperity of a new age of infotainment, and in the
process of proving a point to the rest of the world.

POWERING
THE WORLD OF
INFOTAINMENT
A Snapshot of Pakistan's Mobile,
Gaming, & Animation Industry
 "Aristotle said, 'Quality cannot be an act, it's a habit'. After many years and many
projects I've come to continually realize for this to be true with Sharp Image"
- Director, Dream Team Films
Yet, this new generation of entrepreneurs is only part of a larger group of global entrepreneurs
COMPANIES PROFILED IN THIS BROCHURE riding upon and creating a new wave of innovation and entrepreneurship.

A piece of the global action

MINDSTORM STUDIOS--------------------------------- P1
GAMEVIEW STUDIOS------------------------------------ P1
Pakistan’s mobile, gaming, and animation industry – not unlike many of its peers – has
PEPPER.PK----------------------------------------------- P1
ridden the “new media” revolution of the twenty-first century driven by three defining
T I N TA S H - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - P 1 events: the launch of Toy Story by Pixar in 1996 and the coming of age of the digital
T K X E L- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - P 1 entertainment and animation industry; the launch of Facebook in 2004, and the social
GENITEAM----------------------------------------------- P4 networking bonanza that ensued; and the launch, in 2007, of the iPhone, which has since
FOLIO3--------------------------------------------------- P5 sold over 100 million devices pushing to mainstream the smart mobile devices industry.
SMONTE TECHNOLOGIES------------------------------ P5
POST AMAZERS----------------------------------------- P6 Pakistan’s IT and software industry is now a relatively well-established tier-2 player (behind
SHARP IMAGE------------------------------------------- P6 India, China, and Russia) in the global IT industry. With over $2 billion of overall IT market
S M S - A L L- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - P 7 size – and more than $750 million in exports1 – the industry has come a long way, and has
AKN MTECH (M3 TECH)-------------------------------- P7 been gradually coalescing around a fast developing ecosystem designed to deliver quality
CONVERGE TECHNOLOGIES--------------------------- P7 and innovation. The recent downturn in the global IT and software industry has further
VA H ZAY- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - T 1 focussed energies on the new and emerging sub-sectors – such as mobile, gaming, and
E VA M P & S A A N G A - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - T 1 animation – whose growth has remained largely unaffected by the worldwide recession.
MOOBILA------------------------------------------------- T1
A 2010 Study by the Pakistan Software Export
Board (PSEB) – the Government entity
OTHERS:
responsible for supporting and promoting
P A K I S TA N S O F T WA R E E X P O R T B O A R D - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - P 2
exports of IT and software from the country
P A K I S TA N T E L E C O M M U N I C AT I O N S A U T H O R I T Y- - - - P 2
– hailed Mobile, Gaming, and Animation
P A K I S TA N S O F T WA R E H O U S E S A S S O C I AT I O N - - - - - - - P 8
(MGA) as “the most exciting change
G A M E D E V E L O P E R S G R O U P O F P A K I S TA N - - - - - - - - - - - P 8 sweeping across Pakistan’s IT industry.”
A number of global and local factors
contribute to this trend, the most
important of which is Pakistan being home
to one of the largest mobile subscriber
bases in the developing world – if not
globally. As per the latest
indictors published by the Pakistan
Telecommunications Authority (PTA), there
are more than 97.3 million mobile
subscribers in Pakistan – a figure that
translates to more than 59% of the
country’s population, and over 100% of all
qualified potential subscribers (excluding
people too young to own a mobile device).
Although, the penetration
02
of smart phones is considerably less (around 1%) it is growing. The falling
prices of smart mobile devices, and better access to wireless Internet and
broadband is likely to only hasten the trend.
Another important factor in the growth of the MGA industry in the country
is a critical mass of well-qualified and quite “adaptable” technical and
creative talent, and a fast growing supply of entrepreneurs with strong
linkages to key markets – either directly or through diaspora networks –
in the United States, United Kingdom and Asia. Many of these critical
capabilities have been amply displayed in the early successes of Pakistan’s
leading players in MGA industry.There is an increasing appreciation that
cross-disciplinary 'left brain - right brain' collaborations is critical to excellence
in this area," says Zia Imran, the Managing Director of Pakistan Software
Export Board (PSEB). Zia is pushing hard for greater collaboration between
engineering and art schools in the country.
Unlike the DotCom and the Y2K opportunities, where Pakistan’s IT and
software industry lost out on the first mover’s advantage, the opportunities
presented in the mobile, gaming, and animation space are ones where
Pakistan has been quite well-positioned to take advantage. The relatively
short life-span of the opportunity necessitates that history will not be
much of an advantage. Technological novelty puts a premium on the
COMPANIES DOMAINS & SPECIALISATIONS
GameView Studios Social Games
Mindstorm Studios PC Games, Mobile Games, Architecture and Exterior
Visualisation Services
SharpImage Advertising, 2D and 3D Character Animation, 3D Asset
Development, Visualisation Services
TkXel Mobile and social games, social media and infotainment
applications, enterprise dashboards
Tintash Casual Games, Utility Applications
GenITeam Social Games, Business Applications, Educational Games
Folio3 Sports Games, Virtual Worlds, Casual Games, Enterprise
mobile apps
Converge “Traditional” digital content for multiple mobile and web
Technologies platforms, multichannel activation campaigns
SMS-all Group SMS based networking, information sharing, and
advertising platform
Vahzay Enterprise Software, mobile games and applications, web, and
social media
Smonte
Games, Embedded systems, VOIP, Infotainment, productivity,
and Digital mapping
Pepper.PK Games, productivity, and infotainment applications
Mobile, system integration and application development for
Evamp & Saanga telecoms, web and voice content
Moobila Mobile applications and games, cloud computing
Table-1: Specialisation and Capabilities of Industry's leading players
ability to quickly learn and adapt, and the real advantage comes from
creativity and innovativeness.
That’s where this new generation of entrepreneurs is placing its bets. 2
A sizeable number of companies have cropped up to take advantage of
the opportunities presented in this exciting space, and more are coming
up almost every day. Some of the more salient ones – focusing on a range
of domains and platforms – are depicted in Table-1.
Enter the world of mobile applications and gaming
One of Pakistan's first - and certainly the most successful - company to
jump on this bandwagon was CambridgeDocs (whose mobile gaming
division, GameView Studios Inc., has since been spun-off and acquired by
Japanese gaming giant DeNA). Starting in 2005, GameView Studios Inc.
created the successful Tap franchise, whose flagship TapFish has had 10
million+ downloads on the Apple Appstore or iTunes. The recently launched
Tap Jurassic - the newest in this series - allows players to build and manage
their very own dinosaur-inhabited theme parks, complete with
Tyrannosaurus Rex, Triceratops, Pterodactyls and over 40 other prehistoric
animals. In its first 10 days since launch, Tap Jurassic
clocked more than 1 million users, 6 million play sessions, and an average
PLATFORMS 3 logins per player per day.2
iPhone and Android
PC, iPhone, iPad, Android “We are thrilled with the success and longevity of the whole Tap Fish
franchise,” says Riz Virk, co-founder of GameView Studios. “Our goal has
TV, DVD, Cable always been to build really high-quality sticky social games. One reason
for the success of Tap Fish is that people think of these fish as their pets,
iPhone, Android, Blackberry, Palm, Facebook, Titanium enjoy caring for their fish, watching them grow, and showing them off to
their friends.”
iPhone, iPad, Android, Facebook
iPhone and Android
Flash, Facebook, Android, iPhone, iPad,, and HTML5
Mobile, Digital Kiosks, IVR, Web
"Tintash took my idea from a plan on
Mobile SMS
paper to finished app in 3 weeks! They
were with me every step of the way,
iOS (iPhone and iPad), Android, Facebook, and Web
working together to make a great
Apple, Android, Blackberry, Win Mobile, Symbian, Palm, Bada,
J2ME, Java TV product. They are clearly experts in their
BlackBerry, iOs, Android, Windows Phone 7, Symbian, BADA
Linux, Windows field and I highly recommend them!"
iPhone / iPad, Android, Windows Phone
Source: Technomics' Compilation
- Co-Founder, Seremeres Games
03
 COMPANY GAMES FRANCHISES AND INFOTAINMENT ACCOLADES
Table-3: TOP GENRES OF GAMES PLAYES ON SMART MOBILE
GameView Studios Tap Series: TapFish, TapRanch, TapMall, TapJurassic TapFish grossed 10 million+ downloads since DEVICES FOR 3 MONTHS ENDING FEB 2010 US MARKET
launch 1 year ago
Mindstorm Studios Cricket Revolution and Cricket Power Whacksey Taxi Pakistan’s first PC Game sold internationally ICC Total Audience: 13+ yrs old 100.0
World Cup 2011’s official Cricket Game
Number 1 iPhone game in 40 countries Arcade Puzzle 12.9
Tintash Fishing Frenzy 2 million+ downloads since launch 2 years ago Card 11.9
Doodle Toss 750K+ downloads since launch 8 months ago
Stick Cricket Ranked 2nd in paid games in Australia and top-
Seven Wonders, Wordlists, Nitwit Test 10 inUK. Word or number 11.4

th Casino 7.6
GenITeam GangWars Top paid App for Android in Q1 2010, Ranked 7 in
Family Builder, Brain Twister Google Global Android Developer Challenge 2009 Retro Arcade 6.3
Folio3 Secret Builders Over 2 million active and premium users
SoccerWorld and Ice Hockey Board 5.4
worldwide
Quiz 3.9
TkXeL Hunting Genre (4 games) 1.5 million+ downloads, Top30 paid game on iStore.
WW2 Beachhead Top3 paid simulation game. Strategy 3.7
Fighterpedia Top-100 Reference App.
Brief Room Top20 in News Category on Apple App store Sports 3.3
Both products were best selling paid Blackberry
Racing 3.0
Pepper.PK Photo Editor, LED Notifier Apps worldwide with Photo Editor grossing 2
Cricket World Championship 20, Skitrix, million+ downloads Action/adventure 2.5
Battle Olympus
Music/Rhythm 2.3

Moobila iPicEd Consistently among top 50 paid applications in First person Shooter 2.0
MotionSnaps, MediaSlates photography category
Other 1.3
Table-2: Signature Game Francishes and Infotainment titles of Industyr's trailblazers Source: Technomics' Compilation
Source: Comsource Mobilens

While GameView Studios has been somewhat of a trend-setter for the
industry, and has had considerable success in transforming the “sticky-
ness” of its games into financial returns for the company, others are fast
catching up as well. TinTash – a developer of casual games for the
iPhone, iPad, and BlackBerry devices – has had a fair bit of success with
Fishing Frenzy (2 million+ downloads) as have TkXeL with its franchise
of hunting games (1.5 million+ downloads), and GenITeam with
GangWars (top paid app for Android in Q1 2010).
Not unlike GameView Studios, many of these companies began
operations as software services and outsourcing companies, developing
games on spec for some of the well-known game publishers and brands
from around the world, such as GameZebo, Digital Chocolate, BBC, MTV,
Barclays, NBC Universal, Verizon, and PlayFirst, etc. and have only gradually
begun to make their transitions from services to products companies.
TkXeL, for example, boasts more than 200 mobile game titles since its
inception, and 20+ Top-100 credentials for a variety of clients. Increasingly
These companies are now developing their own titles across a range of
popular genres, and successfully publishing them.
“The key”, says Murad Akhtar of TinTash, “is to get the right approach
and balance for monetisation ultimately through experimenting with
user behaviour and psychology and pricing strategies. This is something
a lot of people around the world are thinking about and experimenting
with right now and Pakistani companies are not far behind. A few
Pakistani companies have figured out the puzzle of monetisation and
we are all learning from these closer-to-home experiences.” There seems
to be a general feeling within the industry that 2011 will be the year of
successful monetisation for a number of Pakistani mobile gaming
companies.
Pakistan presents an excellent value proposition for mobile game
development. It costs about $15-25K to develop a decent game on a
mobile device in Pakistan, which is broadly in line with India and
somewhat cheaper than Central Europe.
The cost for doing the same in the United States is an order of magnitude
higher. It is, therefore, possible for a small start-up of 10-12 people with
a burn rate of $250K a year to develop 15-20 games per year – a number
good enough to turn up at least one (perhaps two) “winner(s)” in the
course of a year.
As more and more companies make their mark, critical skills such as
product development, product life-cycle management, publishing, and
monetisation will develop and mature within the industry. “Creating
your own product”, says Umair Javed of TkXeL, “is not an easy job. You
have to re-write the DNA of the entire services company. Only now, after
much hard work,do we believe that we are in a position to ‘balance’ the
two within our company.”

04
As a clear sign of maturity, this transition is now taking place across the
industry. A lot needs to happen, however, before they become household
names in the global mobile marketplace, but the potential and promise
is apparent and well-established.
Games are not the only avenue on the mobile platform that Pakistani
companies are focussing on. A number of players have seriously looked
at the broader educational and infotainment markets. Folio3 – judged as
one of the Harvard Business School’s All-World Fast Growth 500 companies
Game Development
Company
Game Publisher
Figure-1: The PC console Game Development Process and Value Chain
in 2010 – has some interesting products in its portfolio. Folio3 has been
instrumental in creating an online educational platform for SecretBuilders™
– a company with its roots in the Pakistani diaspora in the Silicon Valley
– which boasts a virtual world for children 5 to 14 years old powered by
a Web 2.0 community of children, parents, educators, writers, artists and
game developers. On SecretBuilders™, children can explore virtual lands,
undertake quests, play games, maintain a home, nurture a pet, and interact
with their friends.
Pepper.PK, another noteworthy company, has developed two top-selling
applications – including a photo editing suite – across all categories and
geographies on Blackberry AppWorld. Mahe Zehra, the Director of
Marketing for Pepper.PK, noted that "Pepper's success on the world stage
with two World #1 BlackBerry apps shows that the level of product quality
and competitiveness in Pakistan is truly second to none."
Other companies are taking more unconventional risks. Smonte
Technologies, for instance, focuses on the niche market of embedded
Outsourced Developer
(may be used)
Investor may partially fund
Typical Costs: from $5 - 10mn to 50 mn
Source: Technomics International (Adapted from Mindstorm Studio)
systems integration with mobile devices. Smonte's clients ship their
hardware to Pakistan for software integration with a variety of platforms.
Smonte integrated an engine/throttle device for a Formula One race car
with an iPhone /iPad that its engineers and technicians could use to
monitor the progress of the car in real-time. Smonte recently worked on
digital mapping systems for iPhone/Android for a client in the UK
implementing complex algorithms to produce real-time maps used by a
UK, Government entity.
First forays into PC games
In 2009, Lahore-based Mindstorm Studios created Pakistan’s first
internationally-retailed PC game. Cricket Revolution™ is quite remarkable
in its attention to detail, a rich team selection, multi-player mode, realistic
action, and a variety of controls to make gameplay incredibly interesting.
Equally remarkable, however, is the story of how its founder, Babar Ahmed
and Mindstorm Studios team of developers, illustrators, designers, and
artists, with no prior experience or expertise in game development, pulled
out a rabbit from the proverbial hat. Not only did the Mindstorm team
self-teach itself the challenges and intricacies of designing a PC game but
also, unable to afford a modern $200K motion capture studio, built its
own by extending capabilities of low-cost devices and software to achieve
world-class motion-capture quality. Since then, Mindstorm has offered to
make this device available for other game designers in the country to use.
Building up on its success with Cricket Revolution™, Mindstorm recently
launched Cricket Power – the official online game of the ICC Cricket World
Cup 2011. Cricket Power is the most advanced 3D browser cricket game
developed to date. It features all 14 teams along with official players,
stadiums and kits, and is played directly in the browser. The game is
powered by a superior cricket engine at its core, coupled with a pick-up-
and-play interface to appeal to casual and core gamers alike 3.
Babar Ahmed is very passionate about the potential of game development
in Pakistan. He believes that local game developers face a significantly
greater task than their peers in more developed markets because of
deficiencies in the overall ecosystem, and that the companies must learn
to tap into, and work with other elements of the gaming value chain that
exist outside the country. “The closer we go towards the consumer, the
less expertise we have in new entrant countries like Pakistan, such as in
the critical steps of publishing and monetisation”. This, he believes, will
come with experience.
Fresh from a gruelling launch of Cricket Power, Mindstorm is currently
focusing on the iOS platform. “We’ve done a ‘first’ in Pakistan’s history.
Despite no prior experience, we took up the challenge and de-mystified
PC game development for ourselves. We will put this expertise within an
appropriate vehicle within Pakistan and now want to focus our energies
towards the relatively ‘low-tech’ but ‘high-impact’ mobile platform”, says
Babar. Mindstorm Studios hopes to launch at least one iPhone title every
quarter in 2011.

CGI movies and animation: Building upon a culture
of “story telling”
Computer Generated Imagery (CGI) and animation is another emerging
area of considerable promise in Pakistan. Post Amazers – a venture-funded
company created in 2002 – was one of the pioneers in this relatively small
yet upcoming genre in the country. In its heyday, it provided creative
services from concept to execution, including art direction, broadcast
design, 3D animation, post-production, sound design, etc. Its work has
featured in titles such as 'Son of the Mask' and 'Exorcist: The Beginning'
and was quite successful in creating several pieces of branded intellectual
property, such as the now famous 'Commander Safeguard' for Unilever,
which featured in the first Pakistani 3D animated educational series focused
on health and hygiene4 and was later adapted in a number of countries,
including Mexico and China, among others.
"GenITeam helped us develop a product
Sharp Image is another leading player in the industry, providing a range
that helped us attain market leadership
of animation services, including advertising, character animation, 3D asset
development, and visual effects services such as architectural and medical in the mobile educational category. Our
visualisation, etc. More recently, Sharp Image has moved to a greater focus
towards its own intellectual property and character development and has customers, senior management and
launched branded content such as M i l k a t e e r (for TetraPak) and
C O C O M O (for a TV short) – both winning international awards and
investors are extremely happy with
recognition. The company has also been the first to develop Arabic GenITeam's professionalism."
characters such as g u l g u l (a camel).
Over the years, Sharp Image has established a reputation for producing
- Watermelon Express
quality creative content, and has developed its own Animation Academy animation industry is also well-positioned to capitalise on the Arabic
to train new talent. A qualification from Sharp Image’s Academy is language Gulf, Middle Eastern, and North African market opportunities.
becoming a seal of approval for professional training sought by other
players within the industry. Sharp Image hopes to considerably expand
this facility to be able to train more widely for its own and the industry’s Mobile Nation – The unfulfilled promise of the
needs. And, with several years of experience to its credit, Sharp Image is domestic market
ready to take on bigger challenges.
While Pakistani companies have made significant inroads into the global
“The key to ultimate success, however,” says Tahir Moosa, the co-CEO of
mobile applications and gaming market, their exploits on the domestic
Sharp Image, “is finance. Over the years, we have developed the capability
front – despite significant mobile penetration – have been quite limited.
to handle projects of any amount of complexity and technical sophistication,
This is explained by considerably less domestic market penetration of
and we have delivered quality with consistency. Developing high-quality
smart phones, lesser purchasing power of consumers, and low levels of
3D content requires considerable investment in human capital and
literacy in the society. At just over US$ 2.5 (estimated in 2010), the Average
equipment. It takes about 100-150 people working over 18 months to
Revenue Per [mobile] User (ARPU) in Pakistan is one of the lowest in the
develop 26 episodes of 22-minutes each for a season. This amounts to
world and is declining4 although penetration continues to increase, hitting
an investment of $5-8 million per series.”
79% in 2010. In 2009, Pakistan ranked fourth in the world, behind the
Philippines, the United States, and the United Kingdom in terms of SMS
Industry insiders suggest that a 22-minute episode of 3D animated content
traffic5. According to a report released recently by the Pakistan
that costs $360K to develop in the US can be produced for $90K in India
Telecommunication Authority (PTA), Pakistanis sent 151.6 billion
and around $75K in Pakistan. Increasingly – and despite the labour arbitrage
messages in the calendar year 2009.6
advantages in relatively low-cost countries – even major international
studios demand cost and revenue sharing models as conditions for working
These numbers represent both a set of challenges and an
with animation facilities oversees. Sharp Image seeks to embark upon a
opportunity for mobile software and application designers
major effort to bring in the financial investment necessary to enhance the
focused on the domestic market. In the short to medium
profile of its work.
term (2-5 years), perhaps, the market will continue to focus on trying
to get more value addition from the non-smart phone subscriber base.
In creating a CGI and animation industry, Pakistan can build upon its rich
This will be a challenging undertaking, as the largest mobile
local tradition of “story telling.” There are also considerable opportunities
telecommunications providers compete in an internecine price war, in
for locally-developed content drawing from this tradition (mythical tales
which the happily-switching consumer has been the major beneficiary.
and characters such as Dastan-e-Ameer Hamza, Beer Bul, Alif Laila,
and Umro Ayyar, etc.) that can be designed for the local market. Due
to the its religious, cultural, and linguistic proximity, Pakistan’s CGI and
The “ v a l u e ” in Value-Added Service (VAS) offerings of these telcos has
largely been in the form of ringtones, songs, mobile alerts, etc. Up until
now, the telecommunications infrastructure has been unable to support
mobile TV and other forms of live-streaming content.
“In the very short run”, says Umar Saif, “SMS is the key to riches in the
domestic market. The potential of something as simple as an SMS has
not been fully realised in the domestic market.” Umar is a Professor of
Computer Science at the Lahore University of Management Sciences
(LUMS) and the CEO of SMS-all (formerly known as ChOpal.pk) a group
text messaging service that has sent more than 3 billion SMS so far. SMS-
all buys SMS in bulk from leading telcos and provides its 2 million plus
subscribers the opportunity to communicate with self-defined groups
through this medium. A mobile version of eGroups that offers a greater
range of possibilities than Twitter, SMS-all has been fairly successful in
developing traction. “The key challenge”, says COO Idrees Butt, “is guiding
and managing the networks and monetising the interactions that we have
generated”. The company has had a fair bit of initial success in the
advertising and corporate realms.
A small number of companies that have made inroads into this market,
however, seem to have done fairly well. Perhaps the first company to
provide value-added services to the domestic mobile subscriber base was
AKN Messaging Technologies (AKN MTECH) – a TMT Ventures company
listed on the Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange (KLSE) – that launched the
first SMS-based secure mobile payment system in Pakistan in 20047. AKN
Messaging Technologies – now known as M3 Tech – has also
acquired licensing rights to Asia’s largest mobile
content library (comprised of Pakistani – Urdu
and regional languages – Bollywood,
Western, Arabic, Malay, Chinese and Thai
content).
Another industry player, Converge
Technologies has done well in
developing platforms – mobile, IVR,
RIA, and interactive digital kiosks – and
content across a range of Pakistani,
Bollywood, lifestyle, and devotional
themes, and has since served all
major telcos in the country.
Converge has also developed
proprietary content serving
platforms (C-Serve) with specialist
modules to connect and serve
different digital channels.
"The Folio3 team has consistently The party you don’t want to miss
exceeded our expectations. It felt as if we Pakistan’s mobile, gaming, and animation industry presents the picture
of a new frontier for the immense creative energies and aspirations of this
were working with an onshore team. It nation’s hundreds of thousands – if not millions – of talented youth. Like
was their ability to understand our needs most frontier endeavours, it offers substantial returns in exchange for
some risks. Increasingly, the mobile opportunity is being seen by
and keep us engaged throughout the Government planners and industry leaders as something that the country
can ill-afford to miss out on.
entire process that has resulted in an
At a recent event at the country’s leading art school, Zia Imran – the
exceptional product and a valued partner." Managing Director of Pakistan Software Export Board (PSEB) and the Chief
Marketing Officer for Pakistan’s IT industry – talked about the need to take
- Product Manager TRUETRAC a plunge in this exciting new world of possibilities, of breaking old moulds
and doing the extraordinary. He urged young art students to shun their
dreams of cosy jobs in creative departments of multinational brand
Increasingly, though, a more discerning consumer is emerging, and is agencies and take the road less travelled. PSEB is planning an
demanding greater variety, capability, and quality in value-added services
available to the domestic market. Adnan Lawai, the founder of Folio3,
believes that this class of consumers – although limited in numbers – will
have the purchasing power equivalent to any similar consumer segment
in some of the more developed small-sized economies, such as the Eastern
European countries of Poland or Hungary. “We need to forget about the
60-70 million figure and focus our energies on creating content and
applications for the 2-3 million target market. If we can somehow
know the needs and preferences of this market better and
sell to them, we’ll probably do as well as any small-sized
European or Middle Eastern country,” he says.
While these alluring possibilities are just around
the horizon, in the short-to-medium run, the
domestic market is somewhat restricted by a
number of constraints. It will not remain like this
forever. Some telcos are already playing with the
idea of VAS, although their success in attracting
talented programmers and applications
designers has been limited by what they are
willing to share. One of the leading telcos is
planning the launch of its very own app store.
Bigger changes will require a paradigm shift in
their thinking to appreciate the market’s potential.
This, then, is an opportunity for a visionary investor
with somewhat deeper pockets to advance into the
fastest growing mobile markets in the world.
 Pakistan Software Export Board (PSEB)
2nd Floor, Evacuee Trust Complex
Aga Khan Road, F-5,
Islamabad, Pakistan
Telephone: +92-51-111333666 and +92-51-9204074
Email: MKT@pseb.org.pk
PSEB is the apex body created by the Government of Pakistan
(GOP) within the Ministry of IT and Telecom (MOITT) and charged
with promoting Pakistan's exports from IT and IT-enabled Services
(ITES) industry. PSEB does this by hosting and supporting foreign
delegations to conferences and events, match-making and
networking of Pakistani companies with foreign partners and
clients, and supporting international marketing and image-building
activities.
To learn more about Pakistan's IT Industry, please visit the IT
Industry Portal at http://www.IT.org.pk
incubation “ b o o t c a m p ” that will expect its attendees to develop and
market a mobile application or game within a six-month time-frame.
Other government agencies and industry bodies, such as the Game
Developers Group of Pakistan (GDGP) and Pakistan Software Houses
Association of the IT and ITES Companies (P@SHA) are similarly paying
attention.
Jehan Ara, the President of Pakistan Software Houses Association (P@SHA)
sees promise in the magical world of digital media and entertainment.
“When I look at the kind of work that startups in the mobile, gaming and
animation space in Pakistan have been able to produce despite immense
challenges, it excites me and re-affirms that we are indeed on the verge
of a major surge into an exciting new world of opportunity. Fortunately,
Pakistan has no shortage of young people. Some have already embarked
on this journey. They are well on their way. All we have to do now is provide
them with the ecosystem and the support network that they need to flourish,
to scale and to grow into global companies,” she says.
“Mobile applications, gaming, and animation provide exciting opportunities
for the country…”, says Zia Imran of Pakistan Software Export Board. “If
you want to change the world, we are throwing a party. That party starts
today.”
The party has just gotten underway and it is OPEN TO ALL –
both inside and outside the country…
Pakistan Software Houses
Association (P@SHA)
Suite 310, Business Centre
Block 6, PECHS,
Karachi, Pakistan
Tel: +92 21 3541 8121 & +92 21 3430 4796
Contact: Jehan Ara, President
Email: president@pasha.org.pk
P@SHA is the representative association for Pakistan’s IT and
IT-enabled services industry. It is a platform for promoting, protecting
and developing the software industry in Pakistan. It provides a focal
point of representation to a variety of outside agencies find ways
to tackle issues confronting member companies, and provides
advocacy for the advancement of Pakistan’s IT industry.
To learn more about Pakistan’s IT Industry, please visit P@SHA’s
website at http://www.pasha.org.pk
References
1.PSEB, 2010, Pakistan IT Market Study 2010, Pakistan Software Export
Board, Islamabad
Technomics International
2.GameView Studios’ Official Blog: http://gameviewstudios.blogspot.com/
93 Century Court
3.http://pasha.org.pk/mindstorm-studios-develops-official-game-for-icc’s- Woking, GU21 6DR
cricket-world-cup-2011/ United Kingdom
4.Research and Markets forecast quoted at
http://telecompk.net/2008/11/08/forecast-of-lower-arpu-higher-
Telephone: +44 1483 901916 | Fax: +44 1483 901925
penetration-for-pakistan-mobile-industry/
Email: fp@technomics-international.com
5. http://tribune.com.pk/story/103597/much-to-say-the-text-
republic-of-pakistan/
6.http://tribune.com.pk/story/105395/text-messages-prime-source-of- Technomics International is a boutique strategy, policy,
revenue-for-cellular-operators/ and media advisory company. Technomics Media's
7.http://telecompk.net/2009/08/12/sms-mobile-payment-pk/ Brand Intellect™ Services provide a unique approach to
creating differential brand identities for national,
regional, and sectoral clients. Brand Intellect™ delivers
Disclaimer bespoke brand marketing campaigns based on strategic
This document is prepared by Technomics International’s Brand Intellect ™ Service
thought leadership and specialist marketing collateral.
for Pakistan Software Export Board (PSEB). It provides factual assessment and “ b e s t
j u d g e m e n t ” analysis of an emerging, dynamic, and fast changing industry. It is not
intended as a sole means of advice for making investment decisions and neither PSEB
nor its Consultant assumes any responsibility for the same.