Case in point: An electrical engineer quits his job to “follow his dream” and sets up a consultancy. He opens his office in his hometown Lahore and with the minimum of resources that he has, he designs his own business stationery and makes his own website.

As he spends time in the market, his hard work slowly but surely pays off, and he is getting industrial orders that require a team of vendors to service. Following the traditional route, he faxes, calls, visits and sometimes emails his vendors with Purchase Inquiries and Tenders from time to time.

Then, after five to six months in business, something remarkable happens. Vendors he has never heard of and has never contacted before, start calling him up to bid on his purchase inquiries and tenders. He then finds out that these vendors actually searched for work on search engines like Google, found his website listing the Purchase Orders, and contacted him!

At first he found it next to amazing that Pakistani vendors would be following such an ‘unconventional route’ but he was quick to realize the benefit of his website. “I was lucky that I placed a list of old Purchase Inquiries on my website,” he says, “but I never thought that credible and real vendors would actually contact me. This makes my work a whole lot easier.”

He now plans to get his website developed professionally to entertain more vendors in a more ‘corporate’ way.

And his clients would only be happier to have a consultant whose website can be referred to and be actually used in a productive way!

Connecting businesses, getting work and workers was never easier. And finally, the people in Pakistan are paying attention to it. Pakistani individuals from all walks of life are getting online to search for news (especially during a media blackout vis-à-vis Emergency), to get a review of the mobile phone that they plan to buy or to catch up on their hobbies. This growing number of Internet-savvy people can be seen whenever a talk show host reads out an email or you see letters in newspapers sent using emails. Internet use in Pakistan is definitely on a steep climb.

But what about Pakistani companies and businesses? Where are they on the Internet map?

Even a cursory glance at the kind of websites owned by Pakistani companies will reveal the following unfortunate fact:

A lot of companies have websites, and a large percentage of these websites are only ‘for show’. A severe lack of attention and interest can clearly be seen.

All businesses can skim benefit from the vast sea of the Internet.
A lot of people are offering the right kind of services to bring these businesses online in a financially fruitful manner.

The technical skills are there, the benefits of a business website are there and the right kind of market is there.

We now just need to put it all together.