Google Goes to Pakistan

[S_O_C_O_M]

Google Goes to Pakistan ​

BY E.B. BoydWed Dec 22, 2010

A delegation from YouTube and Google.org, the company’s philanthropic arm, just flew to Pakistan to “explore business and content opportunities.” The trip, writes YouTube News chief Steve Grove on the Google blog, was inspired in part by the company’s pledge of $1 million to the country following its floods, as part of its commitment to the Clinton Global Initiative.

Googlers have been taking a number of trips to the Middle East, including one to Iraq this past fall, to see how they can help accelerate technology and Internet adoption in the area. Very few Pakistanis are online--only about 10 percent--but one of the keys to growing that number, Grove writes, is the amount of local Pakistani content available on the Internet. That’s where YouTube comes in.

A YouTube channel sponsored by Coke that features popular Pakistani musicians, called Coke Studio, became so popular last summer that it was the 11th most-viewed channel on the site. And, Grove says, in a country whose television airwaves were barred to non-state owned channels until eight years ago, news organizations have been using YouTube to reach both Pakistanis at home and those living abroad.

Google tools were also used in the wake of this July’s floods, which at their worst covered a fifth of the country’s total land and affected more than 20 million people--more than the 2004 tsunami in the Indian Ocean and this year’s earthquake in Haiti combined. Both the Pakistani army and relief organizations used Google MapMaker to track flood response efforts.

Grove says Google will be back: “This was the largest delegation of Googlers ever to visit Pakistan, and we’re looking forward to continued engagement in the region.”

Google Goes to Pakistan | Fast Company

 

[mjnaushad]

I would love to have ebay in pakistan.

 

[Hyde]

ask Google to start Street View in Pakistan... like they have for Europe and USA

Seriously would love to see that street view of my beautiful country.

Baaqi mujhe koi khas faida nahi lag raha google ka Pakistan main. 5-6 logon ko job mil jaye gi shayad

kidding

 

[VelocuR]

^street view (your house, schools, offices, malls,etc) is not SAFE, it is good tips for terrorists, internationals intelligences to gather informations!

 

[Zizou]

I pray that they don't .... Google don't give a damn about anyone's privacy ... Google is dangerously advanced ... all this technology in wrong hands could be catastrophic (not that it is in good hands now anyway) ....

 

[Hyde]

^street view (your house, schools, offices, malls,etc) is not SAFE, it is good tips for terrorists, internationals intelligences to gather informations!

oh 5-7 macharon ki waja se hum darr ke ghar baith jayen?

Bomb blasts are taking place anyway. Lets use the technology

 

[Zizou]

YouTube - The Google Toilet: SuperNews!

 

[Gentle Typhoon]

I would love to have ebay in pakistan.

no eBay in Pak? news to me!

 

[DesiGuy]

I would love to have ebay in pakistan.

i also agree. it could be a great place to open market for ebay.

 

[Zizou]

i also agree. it could be a great place to open market for ebay.

You might want to conduct a survey on How many people in Pakistan shop on internet ??? and with stupid paypal and ebay fees ... no chance in next 30 yrs at least i guess ....

 

[justanobserver]

i also agree. it could be a great place to open market for ebay.

You might want to conduct a survey on How many people in Pakistan shop on internet ??? and with stupid paypal and ebay fees ... no chance in next 30 yrs at least i guess ....

Well in India's case, ebay didn't come here all of a sudden. They acquired bazee.com which was a very popular e-commerce site. Market is always there....

 

[mjnaushad]

You might want to conduct a survey on How many people in Pakistan shop on internet ??? and with stupid paypal and ebay fees ... no chance in next 30 yrs at least i guess ....

How many people were using ATMs before 2002 ??? or Internet before 98??

Today's survey will surely say that less than 1% shop online. But how can they shop online when they don't have any site to shop online.You buy something from ebay.com and if they deliver to Pakistan the costom will hold that piece of equipment until you pay costom plus chai-pani. If they open ebay in pakistan that means local shops will get benefit and cosumer will not need to go search the whole market. You'll be able to search whole country instead of your local market.

 

[WAQAS119]

I guess it has more to do with positive results Pakistani IT industry has started to show more consistantly e.g., recent awards for Pakistani Industry and World's No. 1 Blackberry app. etc

 

[AZADPAKISTAN2009]

Google = CIA puppet tracks all your searches and key words , and tracks you IP any time you search for any sensitive site in US on google map you get a message from google that your IP will be tracked for compliance

Its a CIA puppet tool behind the happy smiles

I favor the usage of chinese search engine as its more friendly to Pakistan

 

[TechLahore]

As a matter of fact, I happen to know that several members of this delegation were playing the role of "advocates" and are actively connecting numerous Pakistani companies they met with with groups inside Google. There is a lot of positive momentum accruing from this trip.