Though developing countries such as Pakistan are still slow in their progression on this path, yet there have been positive signs. With more and more online retailers popping up in the market, the avenue is increasing for this particular business model. Online bookstores in Pakistan are no exception to the increasing trend as there are numerous online stores now that are dedicated to supplying only books.

So let us take a look and see why online bookstores are the future of our country as well as the rest of the world.

2. Convenience:

The first and most obvious reason why people prefer online bookstores to the conventional brick and mortar bookshops is convenience. Especially in Pakistan, it is not easy going out into the market to search for the book you need, and in the case of students looking for academic books, the time is even less. They have to keep up with their studies, work jobs, maintain social and personal lives, and take part in extra-curricular activities as well. So it is extremely convenient for students to find order and purchase the book they need from the comfort of their own home, saving time and money.

After all, the purpose of businesses everywhere is to provide the maximum amount of convenience and ease to consumers and online retail businesses are structured around this. Online business stores allow you to browse larger amount of books, compare their prices, assess their quality, and order them without even leaving the comfort of your own home so it is easy to understand why conventional brick and mortar bookshops are closing down slowly but surely. Moreover, there is no time constraint when it comes to ordering books from online retailers, unlike physical shops that close down at night and are only operational for a set amount of hours every day. You can access online websites at any time and avail their services.

2. Cheaper Means of Acquisition:

Online bookstores such as Booksinn are cheaper for students who have limited funds. They look for businesses that save them time and money and these are the businesses that will continue to survive and thrive. Not only do online book retailers offer a discount on a wide range of books, but they also save you a lot of transportation and fuel cost as well.

They offer original books for only a few thousand rupees that would otherwise be sold to the regular customer at a higher rate in the market. The money you would have spent to get to the brick and mortar bookshop can now be spent on buying the actual book, not to mention you would have to face less stress in dealing with traffic and people. It is quite clear that businesses that reduce stress and save cost are the ones destined to thrive in the future.

3. Sophistication and Efficiency

Online book retailers offer sophistication and efficiency in the customer experience that simply cannot be matched by the brick and mortar bookshops. With sophisticated search options that allow you to put in any detail about the book from the title and author to the ISBN and the publisher, everything can be available on your screen with the click of a button.

You can know the price, quality, and content of a book in a matter of seconds as compared to flipping through the pages one by one to make sure they are in good condition. Once you have selected a book, you can simply click “Add to cart” and pay through online means or by cash on delivery and a process that would have taken hours to complete decades ago, can be done in a few minutes through online supplier consumer interaction. That is why buying online books in Pakistan are much easier nowadays as compared to going and buying a book from the store.

These were just some of the reasons why online bookstores are the future of the industry. They offer too much to the every day consumer as compared to the conventional bookshops and consumers are willing to purchase from them more readily than ever before.

The launching event was hosted by Hina Altaf one of the rising female star. Hina started off with an introduction about the Honor and entire event. A small video is played for the guests and media, to show them what the HONOR Pakistan is all about. The Vice President of Honor in the Middle East and Africa, during the launch event, Mr. Chris Sun said,

“Pakistan has immense potential since it is one of the fastest growing markets in the region. The good thing about this market is that 70% of the population is under 30 years of age and a true representation of Honor.”

“We have worked with Huawei in the past and this time we are excited to work with such a young and energetic brand. We are positive and hopeful as the product lineup is promising.”

Yayvo.com, Pakistan’s leading e-commerce platform is all set to launch ‘Yayvo Cricket Festival’ starting from February 15, 2018. This was communicated at a press conference held at a local hotel in Karachi on February 07, 2018.

The press conference was arranged to announce the launch of the month-long #YayvoCricketFestival18 and Yayvo.com’s exclusive merchandise partnership with Karachi Kings. Yayvo will offer a host of discounted offers along with kits, shirts, jerseys and other Karachi Kings merchandise exclusively.

Tickets for the PSL Matches being held in Pakistan will be sold online by Yayvo.com and TCS, Pakistan’s leading express and logistics service provider.

Babar Azam, Imad Waseem, Tabish khan, Saifullah Bangash, Hasan Mohsin and other players of Karachi Kings were there to grace and add star power to the event.

When Captain Imad Waseem was asked how he intends to manage Shahid Afridi, he accurately replied that

“We all are professional players, and so is Shahid Afridi. He knows his responsibilities well, and that makes my job easier.”

He further said that

“We will give our best and try hardest to win but we cannot guarantee to win the trophy. What we can guarantee is to give the toughest competition to all competing teams.”

We asked Babar Azam about his preparations for PSL 2018. He replied that

” We are continuing our last year’s rigorous exercises and team building routines with some changes.”

When asked that he is Lahore born but plays from Karachi, which team does his family support? He laughingly replied that,

“which ever team I am playing, my family supports them.”

M. A. Mannan, President, and CEO, TCS Holdings (Pvt.) Ltd and Salman Iqbal, Owner Karachi Kings signed the agreement that Yayvo.com will be the official merchandise partner of Karachi Kings. It was further announced that TCS Hazir will deliver Karachi Kings merchandise in Karachi, Lahore, Islamabad and Rawalpindi within 120 minutes.

M. A. Mannan, Salman Iqbal and Salman Hassan, CEO, Yayvo.com addressed the press.

President and CEO TCS Holdings, M. A. Mannan said,

“We thank PCB and Karachi Kings for placing its trust in our ability to manage a delicate task. We were aware of the issues that cricket fans had to face in the recent past to get tickets and made sure to provide them relief. TCS has always taken challenging tasks head-on in the past and will continue to do so in the future as well.”

Expressing his views about the partnership, Owner Karachi Kings Salman Iqbal said,

“We are excited to be a part of this initiative. Karachi Kings is Karachi’s very own team, and I am positive that they will reach the finals this time.”

He also shared his big plans for this season of PSL as the final is scheduled to be played in Karachi.

Tariq Wasi, CEO, Karachi Kings, lauded the efforts of Yayvo.com in multiplying the joy and excitement of PSL by joining hands with Karachi Kings as its official partner.

Singer Shehzad Roy introduced the new song of Karachi Kings. He expressed that he feels honoured to compose the anthem for Karachi Kings two years in a row. According to him,

” He has a natural alliance with Karachi because he was born and brought up here. This year Salman took a huge interest in the composition of the Karachi King’s anthem. He asked me to compose a song about Karachi because it is the heart of Pakistan and has the immense ability to welcome people from every part of the country. Another interesting thing about this song is that Shahid Afridi will be adding his vocals for the first time to a song. I had a great time working with Shahid Afridi, Imad Waseem and Babar Azam.”

Actors Humayun Saeed, Faisal Qureshi, anchors Waseem Badami and Iqrar Ul Hassan who are the brand ambassadors of Karachi Kings, were also present at the conference.

Stage 1 (2009-2011): Introduction and adoption by black markets.

In 2009, Satoshi Nakamoto published the bitcoin white paper outlining all the technical workings of bitcoin. Shortly afterwards bitcoin was formally launched and was quickly adopted by the black market as medium of trade, which increased its demand to the point where it surpassed the value of US Dollar.

Stage 2 (2011-2012): Early stage investors.

As people saw the rise of bitcoin from $0.003 to $1 many early stage investors saw it as a great investment opportunity if bitcoin continued to rise in same way. Ironically this expectation of increase in value actually led to the rise in value because more and more people started to buy it only to sell it for a profit later.

Stage 3 (2012-2014): Mature investors and introduction to general public.

As the demand for bitcoin continued to increase (owing largely to influx of early stage investors), prices started increasing to greater heights. Investors started making bigger and bigger trades with it. This was also the stage where bitcoin started getting some degree of public adoption outside of the black market as many restaurants and shops started accepting payments in it.

Stage 4 (2014-2016): Early stage hype and rise of inexperienced investors.

By this time, bitcoin’s worth had crossed hundreds of dollars so naturally mainstream media and financial analysts started to give it serious attention which gave birth to the hype surrounding bitcoin investment. Many people with little knowledge of bitcoin and almost no knowledge of investment started to pour their money into it.

Stage 5 (2016-present): Late stage hype.

The craze of investing in bitcoin has continued to rise and has spread to people from all walks of life ranging from professionals to students to barbers and uber drivers.

In finance industry there is a running joke: “when your taxi driver suggests you to invest in a stock, you know it is actually time to sell it.” Meaning when people who don’t usually invest are taking interest in a market, it means price is up due to massive hype and not genuine demand. This seems to be true in case of bitcoin because almost no one is buying bitcoin to actually use it. People only want to buy it because the hype around bitcoin leads them to believe that value will rise further.

Stage 6 (time frame unknown ) : Peak, Panic and crash.

All items touch a peak value at one point or other after which any further rise is impossible. This can happen due to natural decrease in demand, or due to government regulations and crackdowns or maybe because investors lose confidence in the market. In either case, once bitcoin touches a peak value and there is no further chance of profit, investors will start to sell it so they can move to another market. In many other markets the impact is small because people who need that item continue to buy it, but in case of bitcoin where more than 90% of bitcoin owners are investors and not users, it means after the peak, 90% of bitcoin users will go out to sell their bitcoins and almost no one willing to buy it. When that happens, the market will go into panic mode and prices will plunge down into the ground.

This will mark the end of bitcoin bubble, after which it will take several months and maybe even years for bitcoin to rise back up to $10 or $20.

Biggest losers of this panic and burst would be the late stage investors who bought bitcoin at $15000 or $20000 and will be forced to sell it at a tiny fraction of that value.

Celebrities on the ground

On their 5th anniversary, Aslam Khan and Omar Omari of CKO Event Architecture said,

“This is the year of the ‘BIG EAT’. We have raised the bar in terms of venue size, number of participants,  surprise performances from Pakistan’s leading pop singers and much more. We remain focused on our objective behind the festival, which is to provide great family entertainment, reactivation of public spaces around our cities and to inspire a community spirit.”

Bigger than ever

Well we cannot deny the fact that the ‘BIG EAT’ was bigger than any of its events happened before. There were 125 stalls this year as compared to last year’s 98. Entrance ticket this year were sold for Rs. 300 whereas last year they were sold for Rs. 250 but Rs. 100 from the ticket were redeemable so they’ve actually reduced the price this year.

Lack of Management

A lot of complaints about the “mismanagement” surfaced up before the event even got going. The event was planned to open its doors to the public at 3:00 pm but instead people were waiting outside more than they expected, signs of mismanagement. The average time to get out from the event was approximately 90 minutes. With increasing number of participants, the management had their handful.

Enthusiasm of Karachiites

Despite all the odds, Karachiites didn’t lose their enthusiasm and remained pumped up throughout the event.

Among all the stalls the most highlighted one was “Special Dreamers” by the specially-baled and physically challenged children. The art works being sold at that stall were created by the children themselves. A good initiative by Karachi Eat 2018 to encourage and support them.

The event spiced up when Bilawal Bhutto along with Aseefa Bhutto paid a visit on Saturday. Bilawal Bhutto intermingled with the visitors and clicked selfies with them. He also painted a design of his party’s electoral symbol i.e. Arrow with the kids.

The price of dishes at Karachi Eat 2018 were higher than expected but the quality they provided was top notch so that’s even. Foodies were able to treat their taste buds with more than Eight different cuisines all under one roof, including Thai, Japanese, Pakistani, Mexican, Swiss, Chinese, South Indian, etc. This time they had stalls all the way from Lahore and Islamabad, such as Awesamosas and Kitchen 23 respectively! Of course last year’s famous Wingitt, Chapli Kebab House, Chai Wala, Nurpur and others also made it to the event.

Tipu Burger at Nurpur Stall

Great rush was witnessed at the Nurpur stall where people tried their appetizing “Tipu Burger”. Apart from their tempting cuisine, the main highlight was the appearance of Renowned Chef Saadat Siddiqui who was invited by the House of Nurpur. Here’s what he said about the Karachi Eat 2018:

“It’s a treat for the people of Karachi because you don’t really get such opportunities on daily basis. People should come out and enjoy the delights of this festival.”-Chef Saadat Siddiqui

EatsApp

EatsApp, a new phone app designed for all the foodies out their. The app was planned to launch at Karachi Eat 2018 but will be active even after the event. The app is a directory of the restaurants and eateries in Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad where user can review, post images and rate their favorite eateries.

Wonderland

Apart from the delicious food they had to offer, team Karachi Eat made it a fun hub for everyone. They arranged performances by lead singers of the country and fun booths for the kids. Wonderland and live painting stalls were setup to entertain kids as well as adults.

As if it was already not a huge success that our famous heartthrob Atif Aslam decided to add a spark by stealing the limelight on the second day of the event with his melodious voice. The crowd went crazy as he performed ‘Tu jaane na’ and ‘Adaat’ in his mesmerizing voice.

Success

The success of the event can be estimated by the huge crowd of people who showed up on all three days of the event. It created a marvelous opportunity for aspiring chefs and entrepreneurs. It was incredible to see the battle of tastes on such massive level and we hope that it will be bigger and better next year.

Zameen.com is Pakistan’s first and largest real estate classified website, serving as a property portal across the country. Since its foundation in 2006 Zameen.com has proved to be a central online hub for everything related to real estate in Pakistan. It was founded by Zeeshan Ali Khan and Imran Ali Khan, two Pakistani entrepreneur brothers.

The event was inaugurated by Syed Nasir Husssain Shah, Minister for Transport and Mass Transit, Labour, Human Resources and Information Sindh. His presence at the event as their honorable Chief Guest alone was enough to add the spark to the spectacular event. He received a warm welcome by the Zameen.com CEO Zeeshan Ali Khan and important staff members. He was presented with commemorative shield after which he took a round of the halls visiting every exhibitor. He appreciated the efforts Zameen.com has put in to gather all the real estate service providers on one platform for the sake of public convenience.

The Expo was full of exhibitors displaying projects and properties from the major cities of Pakistan such as Lahore, Islamabad, Karachi, Multan, Gujranwala and more. The halls were full with more than 70 exhibitors offering exclusive deals and discounts across a variety of residential and commercial properties including plots, apartments, villas and much more.

It provided a one-stop solution to gather all the information regarding properties and seek expert advice to make a reliable and secure property investment plan.

We interviewed Afaq Latif, Sales Manager at Zameen.com to know what is the goal of Zameen Expo 2018. Quoting Mr. Afaq,

“The main goal is to provide a platform to the people where they can bring their properties from all around the Pakistan and sell those to the right and relevant crowd”.

As the event progressed the crowd started to get thicker and eager to explore the exciting opportunities which Zameen.com had brought to them. Both halls seemed to stay loaded with people from different age groups. They were also offered discount offers on bookings and payments made during the event on various stalls.

Zameen Expo planned multiple activities for their visitors to enjoy. A lucky draw was held and the winners were provided with expensive and cool gifts. Zameen Expo didn’t forget their little visitors and had activities for them too. The kids had a day full of laughter and enjoyment. The jumping castle was definitely their favorite spot.

Zameen Expo 2018 Karachi had been a tremendous hit. The event is headed to Lahore, scheduled to be held at Expo Centre, Johar Town on 10^th and 11^th January, 2018.

Last year on Independence Day, EFU life extended support for Karachities through the beautification projects aimed to reclaiming the walls of major public areas of the city and displayed rich historical content of art of heritages of Pakistan.  The inauguration ceremony took place at Ayesha Manzil with the presentation of the wall by Commissioner Karachi Ejaz Ahmed Khan.

Art, in its a lot of forms, exists in every society, every civilization, and every country.

Art has been shaped since time began, evidenced in cave paintings and rock art, and in today’s world we know that art can be a major economic force, yet we continue to question the value of art.

I believe that:

• Art is a natural human behavior which makes us complete human beings.
• Art is communication; it is required to full range of expression. Art is healing, the process of creating art engages both the body and the mind and provides us with time to look inward and reflect.
• Art tells our story, history lesson, an historical record, a preservation of culture, and an autobiography all in one.
• Art is shared experience; creation of art is a collective activity.
• Art forms the solitary painter or poet relies upon the craft of the paint-maker or book-binder to help create art.
• Art offers us a reason to come together and share in an experience.

There is a lot to be proud of being Pakistani and it is vital to bring forward the positive approach about our rich cultural heritage especially among the youth. One of the ways is through street art and wall paintings in public spaces. The project aims to wipe out wall-chalking and highlights not only the heritage and culture of Pakistan but also encourages citizens to take responsibility for the city. What makes this campaign truly unique is by the involvement of the youth.

This year EFU Life insurance wants to restart the campaign and reclaim public spaces once again. This year area of painting is double and artists are also invited to submit their art which will be sketched in general public.

CPEC will bring a lot of employment and development for the two countries but there is also some risk involved. Corruption on both sides of the partnership is driving the costs of the project higher, pushing Pakistan further into debt. Despite the introduction of a transparency commission, the project continues to be hindered by side dealings and allegations of improper transactions.

External debt in Pakistan is swelling. A combination of persistent current account deficits and external debt has put the country in a vulnerable situation. External debt moved up to 75,747 USD million in the first quarter of 2017, and if you add in the dwindling foreign exchange reserves and the deficit in foreign capital outflows the picture is worrying.

Adding to the problem is the Nawaz Sharif corruption scandal which is scaring off foreign investors. If you compare the capital and financial deficit of $989 million recorded in the first quarter of 2017 with the average of $782.17 million in the period from 2011 to 2017 you can see that this lack of transparency and high level of corruption is harming the economy.

However, it is not all doom and gloom. Under the remit of the partnership Lahore will get a redeveloped airport—making it the largest in the country. And, real estate in Gwadar and other cities along with route are receiving a welcome boost. “We have seen an uplift in online searches for property in Gwadar, Peshawar, and Multan,” said Saad Arshed—managing director of Lamudi Pakistan.“Many satellite cities are now on the map thanks to CPEC and the improved road and rail networks,” Arshed mentioned.

In addition, jobs will be created, and vital infrastructure will be created which will encourage foreign direct investment in the future. As foreign companies see an improvement in key transport and energy infrastructure, they will be encouraged to pour more money into Pakistan. If the government can mitigate the risk of corruption and ensure that the main projects of CPEC run smoothly; the debt imbalance might sort resolve itself in the coming years.

Operating from Westlake Village, CA for over a decade, Astera Software is now exploring different markets to prospect for talent. Being a data integration software provider, Astera focuses on a very niche technology sector, and the hunt for such talent necessitated operations in different parts of the world. This brought the firm to Pakistan.

Astera CEO, Ibrahim Surani, considers this region one of the ripest markets for talent. In a recent meeting,

Mr. Surani said, “We need stem cells – we need people who are open to growth in any area the company needs rather than limiting themselves to a particular domain.”

This is the sort of talent Astera Pakistan HR seeks to recruit to realize the company’s expansion plan. At this point in time, the team has multiple job openings for dot net developers, among others, who can contribute to the software engineering operations in Karachi in a holistic manner.

Providing enterprise software solutions, Astera’s primary product is Centerprise, a powerful, unified data integration solution with ETL and EDI capabilities. The platform is designed for use by business professionals rather than developers, offering a drag-and-drop interface with zero coding involved. Incredibly easy to deploy, learn, and use, here’s what one satisfied customer had to say about Astera’s flagship product:

“Ease of use, clever transformations and in general Centerprise has a library of transformations that even heavy duty tools like Informatica doesn’t offer, such as SCD. You can literally be up and running in a few seconds, with a very low learning curve.”

The customer base ranges from mid-sized businesses to Fortune500 enterprises, and to cater to such high-profile clientele, Astera needs the very best talent.

One of the most talent-rich cities in the country, Karachi serves as the latest base of operations for Astera. The aim is to create fully-functioning units in every department as the next stage of growth. Hiring is going strong for Marketing, Sales, and Software Engineering (.NET) professionals who love challenges and need a place to incubate their skills to the fullest.

An established company with a burgeoning local presence can be a great starting point for any individual owing to the potential for quality learning, experience and limitless opportunities for growth. Astera Software believes that employees are integral to its success and therefore encourages a thriving culture. Idea sharing is highly encouraged and employees are continually motivated to take initiatives. A flexible working environment and no rigid hierarchies are a plus.

Astera Software offers an excellent salary and benefits package for rapid advancement. For software engineering talent in particular and .NET developers more specifically, Astera is currently proving to be the most attractive employers in Karachi.

About Astera Software

Astera Software develops powerful, intuitive data integration solutions that conquer the complexities in relational and hierarchical integration processes. Whether running batch transfers or real-time integrations, Astera empowers enterprises to extract, transform, share, and migrate data through a wide range of data structures and services, on premise or in the cloud, so it can be leveraged to streamline processes, make more informed business decisions, and promote partner relationships. For additional information and regular updates, visit the company’s Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn page.

“The Daraz we see today is the best of the two businesses that came together mid last year and we owe a big part of our success to the people and learnings coming from Kaymu. Thousands of high quality Kaymu sellers are now selling on Daraz and most of them are already doing significantly more business now than they ever did on Kaymu,” says Bjarke Mikkelsen, CEO Daraz Group.

Daraz will continue to work relentlessly to raise the standards of ecommerce service solutions by ensuring that millions of Pakistanis benefit from 100% purchase protection, with fast-growing assortment of original, genuine products, safe and secure payment options, and free and easy returns. We thank our patrons for their trust and support as well as our teammates for their hard work in making this happen.