Nowadays, World is going to
change into digitalization as its affection appears on Pakistan as well.
Diverging markets is going to transform into converging markets. The issue with
digitalization is that it’s a monopolist world, only innovative companieswill
get the profit and the followers will have to suffer.
The issue with sub-continent countries is that they adopt the new things very
eagerly but don’t know the outcome that they will have to face in future. The
trend of these countries nowadays is to make money through ecommerce sites.
Multinational companies are the innovators of these new ideas and only they will
get the profit and the rest will be in a struggling mode. People will be buying
things from one website that introduces that idea,just because that company is
the earliest one and has some experience in it. Here are the fields in which new
digital ideas have been introduced in Pakistan by multinational companies.
Transport
Uber is the first one who introduces the online ride hailing service to the
world and started its operationsway back in 2016 in Pakistan. It expanded its
services from rickshaw to taxi ride hailing very quickly. From that point till
now, peopleare using its app and the figures are still growing and the others
are going to catch up.Yes, Careem has started its operation side by side with
Uber but Uber is the earliest one in Pakistan and has more experience in it than
Careem. New ride hailing apps are developing in the name of Shahi Sawari,
RocketRikshaw, and AwamiSawari…etc, investing a lots of money unnecessarily but
don’t have any big plan business strategy and some of them are not available at
right time.
Retail Market
The new trend that Pakistanisis considering nowadays is online shopping and
pioneer of this new trend in our country is Daraz.pk. Wherethis daraz.pk company
came from? It’s a subsidiary company of Rocket Internet which is situated in
Germany. There are also local online retail companies launched but their demand
is less as compared to daraz.pk. Why? One reason behind is that our mindset is
still like slaves. We would prefer foreign products as compare to local products
just because we think that it comes from heaven. Second reason behind is that we
have made a perception in last 30 years that our Pakistani retailers are
dishonest, they will sell you low degrade products and will earn a lot of money
from it.
Food Delivery
Food panda, the name that eateries would definitely know about it in Pakistan.
The company started its operation in 2013 under the parent company, Rocket
Internet. Later on, this company (Food Panda) was acquired by Delivery Hero.
Before this company, there were many local food delivery companies already
working in Pakistan but it was on small scale. With the arrival of this
multinational company, it immediately eaten the profits of these local brands
and as a result, some of these companies stop their operations. One of them was
EatOye, due to the cutoff in its profits, the company (EatOye) offer itself for
acquisition. In 2015, this company was acquired by Food Panda. Nowadays there
are many local online food delivery companies opened but its revenue is less, as
compare to food panda’s revenue.
Entertainment
There was a time when people would love to hear radio, later on; that medium was
transform into television but now with the arrival of 3G and 4G in Pakistan,
people are diverting gradually to online entertainment medium and one of its
popular channel is YouTube. Who wouldn’t know about YouTube? If you are an
internet user. This website started its operations all over the world in 2005,
later on; it was acquired by Google Inc. After theacquisition, this website
grows to a new level and became a profitable website. In Pakistan, mostly
internet users are watching their programmes on this website. Whether it’s a
drama, movie or cartoon, its all appear on YouTube. There are alternative local
brands existed as well but they don’t have much content and don’t have best
marketing strategies to compete with this big giant.
This is just the beginning. As the internet just grows in Pakistan, more and
more multinational companies will operate and will loot Pakistan’s economy from
the air. The aim of these companies is to spread over the market and to eat the
profits of local companies/shops. As a result, more and more unemployment will
be rise in future. This is the time to reunite as a nation. Commerce Industry
should think about internet trade as well and should introduce new marketing
strategies to this online medium. Government should try to help them otherwise
the time will definitely come that our security agencies will protect these
multinational rights but not people rights.