This Week in Pakistan (7th — 13th April)
This weekly newsletter focuses on the most important new developments within Pakistan’s Technology Sector. To receive this newsletter on a weekly basis subscribe to our mailing list (no spam ever) or follow me on Twitter (@adamdawood). Previous instalments of the newsletter can be found here.
Online Payments in Pakistan
UBL has installed its merchant acquiring facility with Wi-Tribe. This is coming on the back of news in the last few weeks that MCB has partnered with MasterCard, and HBL has partnered with Visa to bring e-payment solutions to online Pakistani businesses. The e-commerce businesses in Pakistan is worth an estimated PKR 4.5 billion a year, with the number of “plastic” cards in circulation at 23.6m in 1Q14.
However, despite merchants accepting online payments, many issued credit cards are by default not authorised for online transactions by customers unless they request for the facility, with some banks requiring confirmation before each transaction. For credit card payments in Pakistan to really start growing these extra steps need to be removed from customers and they need to be incentivised into making online payments.
Wi-Tribe | MCB | HBL | E-commerce Market | Credit Cards | Payment Systems in Pakistan
Rocket Internet Launches 7th Business in Pakistan with its largest now doing 1,000 orders/day
Rocket Internet has just launched Jovago its hotel booking site in Pakistan, this is Jovago’s first step outside Africa and into Asia. Jovago already has some competition with the likes of Chutti.pk and Tourplanner.pk. This marks the entry of the 7th Rocket business in Pakistan since Daraz.pk started in July 2012. Its marketplace business Kaymu.pk has just announced sales of 1,000 orders per day with a daily sales of PKR 1.2m.
Jovago | TechinAsia | Kaymu Stats
PTA may Auction Four 3G Licenses
ProPakistani is reporting that the PTA may be looking to increase the number of licenses by one, to a total of 4. They are looking to create more competition in the market. Further to this the PTA will use electronic balloting, for the auction, with bids being sent to the PTA by tomorrow.
Other News
Investor confidence high in Pakistan after sale of $2bn Eurobonds | Tribune
Pakistan economy is at a turning point with growth on the way | World Bank
LUMS Centre for Entrepreneurship & its new Incubator | ScoopCircle
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