Period Covered: February 6 (Saturday) to February 12 (Friday)
1. ‘Shop Online Pakistan’ – Listing the Best Local Online Stores
Summary: Ever needed an app to help you browse through a list of accredited Pakistani online stores? ‘Shop Online Pakistan’ is a solution which can help you out. Users can browse through its directory of selected websites and purchase their desires items through the click of a button. The search filtering criteria also lets you browse store websites based on product categories such as books, shoes, accessories, etc. Click here to read Mehreen Omer’s review of Shop Online Pakistan for PakWired.
2. Managing tenders using TenderWala.pk
Summary: Issuing tenders or bidding for them can prove to be quite hectic, especially when users are not familiar with the basic know-how of the entire process. This is where a Pakistani web service called TenderWala.pk comes in. The online procurement agency helps businesses and service providers to create digital tenders without any hassle. Perhaps the biggest plus side of getting access to such a service is time and resource management. Click here to read Absar Kazmi’s detailed review of TenderWala for PakWired.
3. 11 startups graduate from Founder Institute Islamabad’s inaugural semester
Summary: 13 entrepreneurs from 11 different local startups graduated from Founder Institute Islamabad as part of an inaugural semester. The program was held with the support of Telenor Pakistan. The latter’s sponsorship included professional mentorship and financial assistance. Out of 128 applications, the successful innovators created projects to address economic and social problems. Sihah Waris, founder of ‘Rise Mom’, was declared the Top Founder of the program and awarded a cash prize of Rs. 25,000 from Telenor. Click here to read Mehreen Omer’s detailed report for PakWired.
4. An interview with the CEO of JustPrice.pk
Summary: JustPrice.pk is a shopping comparison engine that helps users find the best products by providing a real-time comparison from all the leading online markets in Pakistan. Comparative information includes price, warranty and shipping, to name a few. JustPrice is among the graduating projects from Founder Institute Islamabad and was founded by Arzish Azam, who is himself the world’s youngest Founder Institute graduate ever. The startup aims to redefine the online shopping experience in Pakistan by empowering buyers, rather than sellers. Click here to read Mehreen Omer’s interview with Arzish for PakWired.
5. 5 Key Leadership Qualities of a Pakistani Entrepreneur
Summary: Keeping the unpredictable circumstances of Pakistan in perspective, what are the top 5 traits that every Pakistani entrepreneur should possess? Click here to read our take on what we believe are key leadership qualities which are specifically mandatory for Pakistani startup managers to have within them so they can successfully lead their teams in this nascent but competitive market.
6. Find out how many times your Instagram videos were watched
Summary: Instagram users can now finally view statistics of exactly how many times their videos were watched by users. The new YouTube-like feature is being slowly phased in for all Insta users. The latest development is seen as a helpful tool for people who’d like to understand how many people take an interest in their videos. Like Facebook, Instagram considers at least 3 seconds of autoplay as a “view”.
7. Facebook focusing more and more on video streaming
Summary: According to findings by Adam Levy at The Motley Fool, in recent months Facebook has started experimenting with more direct monetization of its videos. Viewers who opt for a full-screen display have started noticing ads auto-playing right after the video finishes streaming, with other ‘related videos’ following next. Facebook believes that monetization of video views could earn the company significant revenue. Levy believes that Facebook’s real potential lies in increasing user engagement around videos.
8. 7 practical steps to keep yourself from getting hacked
Summary: Alex Heath at Tech Insider has put together a list of 7 easy and practical tips to protect your online accounts from hack attacks. The information was compiled with expert input from Will Strafach, a security researcher and former iPhone hacker working on an iOS product called “Sudo Security”. Click here to read the tips.
9. Google to remove Flash from its ads soon
Summary: After Facebook, Google too seems to be fed up with Adobe Flash’s performance issues. The search engine giant will formally disable uploading facility for Flash ads from June 30 this year. The company is instead encouraging advertisers to opt for HTML5 when creating their ads. The move will deliver a huge blow to Adobe as its technology is currently being used in Google AdWords.
10. Opera browser receives $1.2 billion offer from Chinese companies
Summary: Norwegian browser-making company Opera revealed recently that it had received an offer of $1.2 billion from a Chinese company. The offer for 100% shares came from Golden Brick Silk Road, a conglomerate of Chinese software firms ‘Beijing Kunlun’ and ‘Qihoo 360’ along with investment firm ‘Yonglian’. If the acquisition is finalized, both Kunlun and Qihoo will be able to cross-sell their products to the Opera user base while extending Opera’s mobile advertising platform to users in China. In mid-2015, Opera had said its mobile ad network had reached a whopping 800 million unique mobile users each month.
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