海角大神

Gridiron sports fans are famous for their love of statistics and trivia surrounding their sport. One bit of trivia they might not know, however, is that last season鈥檚 popular Facebook fantasy football app was developed in Karachi, Pakistan 鈥� a city known more for its chronic ethnic and sectarian bloodshed than football scraps.

The app, called Game Day Pick 鈥楨m, allows NFL devotees to pick teams and compare their results with friends and leading TV analysts. Game Day Pick 鈥楨m 鈥� a major hit in the US and quiet profitable for the startup that created it 鈥� is just one example among many of a small but increasingly vibrant software industry here.

Long in the shadow of their more illustrious counterparts in India and East Asia, Pakistan鈥檚 software industry is today making strides thanks in part to the rise of mobile and social media led gaming. And it鈥檚 a boon for the country鈥檚 fragile economy.

Pakistan鈥檚 IT industry鈥檚 global share is currently estimated at $2.8 billion, according to the Pakistan Software Export Board, and that includes a global sales revenue of $1.6 billion.聽Over 30 small studios, concentrated in Islamabad, Lahore, and Karachi, are now mainly devoted to developing games for Facebook or smart phones.

鈥淲ith the surge of web-based and Facebook apps, the industry here really took off in 2008-2009 鈥� catering for the Western market,鈥� says Ahmed Hashim, founder and CEO of Cynis media, which created the Game Day Pick 鈥楨m app. Cynis, which was founded in July 2010, now has 22 employees and counts websites like AskMen and Pizza Hut among its numerous foreign clients.

That鈥檚 a good thing for Pakistan says Murad Akhter, CEO of Lahore based-startup Tintash. He points out that because smart phones and tablets are relatively new platforms worldwide, 鈥測ou鈥檙e not going to have a lot of people with a lot of experience working on mobile games or apps anywhere. So it levels the playing field and that allows us to compete."

A typical successful CEO

The profile of a typical successful CEO in Pakistan today is someone who has either studied at or spent time working in the US and therefore has a network of contacts within Silicon Valley, says video game developer and business journalist Jazib Zahir. 聽

Mohsin Ali Afzal, the soft-spoken founder of We R Play in Islamabad, is one example. Mr. Afzal graduated with an MBA from Berkeley in 2008 and interned at LucasArts before returning home to start his company in August 2010.

鈥淗aving a Berkeley MBA helped. All the companies we鈥檙e working with are from San Francisco ,you have the Bay Area connection. It adds a bit of credibility,鈥� he says.

Operating from a converted warehouse in the outskirts of Pakistan鈥檚 capital, We R Play now has a staff of 35 employees, mostly under 30. Dressed casually in jeans and T-shirts, We R Play workers 鈥� almost half of whom are women 鈥� work in a laid back atmosphere reminiscent of the Silicon Valley startups they aspire to.

Desks are lined with action figures and sci-fi artwork, while the rec-room has a large Pakistani style lounge with traditional rugs and cushions, as well as a Table Tennis table.

When it comes to producing quality work, though, Afzal has proven his company is anything but lazy. Among their list of accomplishments, We R Play developed Gardens of Time for Disney subsidiary Playdom, which became Facebook鈥檚 most popular game in 2011.

Challenges

Working in a politically and economically volatile country has its challenges.

鈥淲e鈥檝e had days when we haven鈥檛 had electricity at," says Azfal, recalling the times before he could afford generators. "There have been days when the Internet hasn鈥檛 worked and we鈥檝e had to go to coffee shops just to download our tasks.鈥�

At other times, he adds, 鈥淭here have been days when people haven鈥檛 been able to come in because the roads were blocked from protests. These are part and parcel of working in Pakistan.鈥�

But the main challenge facing the industry is creating original content,聽says Mr. Zahir the business journalist.聽

Currently, these companies are doing outsourcing work for Western聽companies like back office coding and artwork. What gets more聽attention and generates more revenue is when businesses make original聽software and keep the rights to the intellectually property. That's just starting to聽happen in Pakistan. Before Pakistan is recognized聽as a country producing original software, not just outsourcing聽services, that has to be stepped up, he says.聽

鈥淧roviding services bring in clients. It needs efficiency and you have to satisfy the clients. You do that by being efficient with your processes and meeting deadlines," says Zahir. Creating new, original products, on the other hand, is trickier. "It鈥檚 less to do with efficiency and more to do with talent. It鈥檚 a much bigger risk.鈥�

Apple鈥檚 app store and the Android Market provide a good forum for startups to take those risks. It's a forgiving market driven by impulse buys, says Mr.聽Akhter,聽whose resume includes stints with Apple鈥檚 headquarters as well as with Microsoft. His聽company鈥檚 app Fish Frenzy, for example, has now seen over 2.5 million downloads.聽

鈥淚 think people are more open to taking risk than they were in the past and that鈥檚 a good development. Wherever you have startup activity you have innovation and that鈥檚 a really good sign for the country.鈥�