Fantasy football fans: Do you know
where your favorite apps are made?
Last season’s popular Facebook fantasy football app was developed in Karachi, a city known more for its chronic ethnic and sectarian bloodshed than football.
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’s popular Facebook fantasy football app was developed in Karachi, Pakistan – a city known more for its chronic ethnic and sectarian bloodshed than football scraps.
The app, called Game Day Pick ‘Em, allows NFL devotees to pick teams and compare their results with friends and leading TV analysts. Game Day Pick ‘Em – a major hit in the US and quiet profitable for the startup that created it – 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’s software industry is today making strides thanks in part to the rise of mobile and social media led gaming. And it’s a boon for the country’s fragile economy.
Pakistan’s IT industry’s 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. Over 30 small studios, concentrated in Islamabad, Lahore, and Karachi, are now mainly devoted to developing games for Facebook or smart phones.
Operating from a converted warehouse in the outskirts of Pakistan’s 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 – almost half of whom are women – 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’s most popular game in 2011.**
**Challenges
**
Working in a politically and economically volatile country has its challenges.
“We’ve had days when we haven’t had electricity," says Azfal, recalling the times before he could afford generators. "There have been days when the Internet hasn’t worked and we’ve had to go to coffee shops just to download our tasks.”
At other times, he adds, “There have been days when people haven’t been able to come in because the roads were blocked from protests. These are part and parcel of working in Pakistan.”
Apple’s 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. Akhter, whose resume includes stints with Apple’s headquarters as well as with Microsoft. His company’s app Fish Frenzy, for example, has now seen over 2.5 million downloads.
**Tum kitna talent maaro ge???
Har ghar sey talent nikley ga…
har shakhs kahey ga barrh, barrh ke…
meiN talen hooN, meiN talent hooN… **
