Daily Times

The year 2020 crowns a decade of change that has upended traditional ways of starting, marketing and growing businesses across the world. This is even more pronounced in Asia, where entire countries have leapfrogged to the mobile internet, making the region home to some of the world’s fastest-growing economies.

Asia drives 61% of all new mobile subscriptions as compared to EMEA (25%) and the US (14%) and globally, mobile phones now account for almost half the time that people spend on the internet. Pakistan recorded 161.8 million mobile subscribers in May 2019 which increased from 150.2 million from the preceding year, thus marking a 7.72% increase. With mobile accounting for an ever-increasing share of our online activities, people’s expectations for the experiences they have with brands and businesses are evolving fast.

Developers, startups and technology businesses across Asia and in Pakistan are accepting the challenge to keep pace with the needs and expectations of Internet populations increasingly used to having the world at their fingertips. Where innovation once flowed from the larger digital economies, these groups, or what I like to refer to as “innovators,” are now empowered to deliver locally-relevant and innovative products and services, and that’s creating a richer Asian online ecosystem custom-made for the region’s diverse communities

It is vital that these innovators continue to accelerate, innovate, and advance the region’s next wave of digital growth. Embracing the region’s diversity is key to this goal. And tech companies can help. Our collective role is to provide these groups with access to education and innovation, to gain new skills, and help build a supportive community for developers and startups in Pakistan to interact and grow their business. As part of this, we must encourage developers and entrepreneurs, especially Pakistani women in tech to help realise Asia’s digital future.

It is key that the tech community continues to provide support for developing the skills and know-how of developers and startups across Pakistan. Local developers and startups are best placed to understand the diverse needs of local communities. By equipping startups and businesses with the right expertise and mentorship, they can, in turn, help the tech community deliver locally relevant services.

We have seen through tech hubs in fifteen cities across the world alongside intensive programmes such as our Accelerator programme and Developer Circles (DevC), that providing developers and startups access to training, guidance and mentorship can lead them to scale their businesses sustainably. These training sessions are run in partnership with local providers, covering a variety of areas, including product, engineering, UX & design, data science, marketing, and empowering developers and startups to improve their skills and build innovative products.

In Pakistan, we have our community-led DevC program, with members across six cities, including Lahore, Islamabad, Karachi, Faisalabad, Sahiwal, and Gujrat. Our DevC members hold regular meetups to share new technology trends, learn new skills and to build meaningful products.

Additionally, we conduct regular training sessions and bootcamps for startup founders and entrepreneurs, to launch, grow and scale their startups. In the past year, we have trained entrepreneurs from Lahore in areas including product, growth, fundraising, marketing and virtual reality.

In April 2019, we also launched the Facebook Innovation Lab in Lahore, to provide local startups with skills training essential in building sustainable businesses. The lab was set up in partnership with Ignite, Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS), and the Ministry of IT&T’s through their National Incubation Centre (NIC) tech-hub initiative, focusing on providing infrastructure access to developers, entrepreneurs and community groups. As part of the launch, we held the first national DevC Conference, which saw developers and g startup founders being equipped with the necessary skills and tools to become investable companies.

For Pakistan’s most successful innovators, access to new technology will give them a base to be disruptive, innovative and reimagine the possibilities of their services.

Artificial Intelligence has the potential to not only create efficiencies in existing products, but it offers a world of services that could never have been imagined previously. By providing developers and startups in the country with access to AI-driven products, they can build companies that understand their communities of users, proactively adapt their services to changing needs, and ultimately beat their global competitors.

With the power to bring people together in entirely new ways, augmented and virtual reality allow developers to offer users a new reality. Services such as Spark AR, a platform of camera effects that go beyond animations, masks and playful effects, gives users the chance to interact with the physical world around them, digitally. For instance, Orbit-ed an educational technology start-up uses augmented reality to develop the school curriculum in an interactive format, using 3D visualisation of textbook content. It was created by Navera Waheed and Wajiha Habib in 2016 with hopes of bringing about a technological breakthrough in the field of education in Pakistan

By equipping developers’ toolkits with the latest technologies, startups across Pakistan can remain at the forefront of competition on the ever-crowded global stage.

A healthy tech ecosystem can best flourish with the support of a strong community of developers and entrepreneurs working and competing, and strong partnerships with local networks.

Startups are best placed to understand their local needs, and by supporting them, we can ensure they go on to support their communities. One such example is “Baat Karo,” an idea resulting from a hackathon we held in Islamabad last year, timed with International Women’s Day. Bringing people together to prevent suicide and boost mental wellness for women, the team has built a community of over 900 online members since. They are currently looking to expand their reach with support groups in three cities – Rawalpindi, Lahore and Peshawar.

Additionally, Pakistan’s digital future would not be success if it failed to recognise the diversity of the region. While we see higher women representation in the workforce today, many women lack opportunities for mentorship, coaching and access to appropriate networking channels. By supporting startups led by female developers, entrepreneurs and those in emerging economies, we are not only clearing a path for the country’s most valuable talent pool, but we are ensuring that this new era of internet reflects the true needs of the region.

Individuals, especially women often feel a boost in confidence when they know they are being backed up by an advocate, who is also a role model, especially when dealing with challenges at work. In a nutshell, the sense of belonging, acceptance and being recognised, all help, especially in developer and startup communities that a predominantly male led.

At Facebook, we have experienced the power of Asia’s developer and startup ecosystems when strengthened by education, given access to innovation and encouraged by community. Together these support-systems democratize developer knowledge and give startups the tools they need to create sustainable, successful businesses.

In an emerging economy like Pakistan which has a great deal to contribute in the digital world, steps such as these will help expand the horizon of innovation in order to stay abreast with the rest of the world. Facebook and our peers in the technology sphere must continue empowering startups in Pakistan and across the region to imagine services for the local context and continue building tomorrow’s Asian internet.

The writer is the Director of Developer Partnerships and Programs, Facebook APAC