(This post is in response to a tip-off from Shahid Rana, one of readers of Webyantra from Pakistan. He helped me compile this post as well)

Ever wondered what’s happening in the internet & Web2.0 space across the border in Pakistan? The internet base there is supposed to be app 3 million subscribers (most of which is dialup and only 100K broadband subscribers). The software exports out of Pakistan are galloping at 60% albeit on a small base ($116 million against previous years US$72 million). These numbers off course do not compare with India, yet there’s a fair bit of activity happening in the tech space there. Here’s a bunch of disparate facts/datapoints that would put things slightly in perspective, specially for an Indian audience. Pakistans’ equivalent of TiE - The Organisation for Pakistani Entrepreneurs (OPEN) in Silicon Valley is possibly their equivalent of TiE. Launched in 2001, they have chapters across major American cities. They do not seem to be having chapters in Pakistan though (please correct me if I am wrong) but are getting Pakistani startups to showcase their wares to the tech community in Silicon Valley as this report indicates. TiE’s Pakistan Chapters - On its part, TiE has recently (June 08) launched its Islamabad chapter, making it the third city where they are present in Pakistan (Lahore & Karachi being the other two). Details here. While TiE is a global body, it has a distinct Indian origin. And what is worth noting is that the “Indus” in TiE (The Indus Entrepreneurs) refers to the erstwhile Indus Valley Civilization from the Indian sub continent, which actually now falls in Pakistan.

Tech News & Blogs - One of the most widely read Pakistani techology blog is Green & White, which covers software, telecom, marketing, advertising etc and has a specific sub section for Pakistan tech startups. WiredPakistan is another good blog and so are Tech Lahore & IT Tazee. TelecomPk is another very well written blog about the telecom industry in Pakistan. Add them to your RSS reader if you want to keep abreast of whats happening across the border.

Web 2.0 / Internet - One of the Pakistani startups to have made its mark in the Web 2.0 space is Islamabad based Scrybe, the Flash/Flex based product that launched in 2006. Built originally to be an online calendar application, they seem to be evolving into an online productivity suite. They have incidentally received Series A funding from Adobe Systems in 2007.

Another company that deserves mention is Naseeb Networks, which runs a battery of websites. This includes Naseeb.com which is claimed to be the world’s largest social network for muslims, Rozee which is supposed to be the largest online recruitment website in Pakistan and RingPakistan which is into calling cards and telehony products. Naseen has recently raised Series B venture funding from two Silicon Valley venture Capital firms - ePlanet Ventures (ePlanet) and Draper Fisher Jurvetson (DFJ).

Naseeb (the social network) incidentally has a basic free version, but many of the features that are standard in social networking sites (e.g. browse profiles invisibly) are available only if you sign up as a paid premium member. Details here.

Online Job space - Check out this slide deck from BrightSpyre, one of the biggest Pakistani online job portals. The other notables ones are Rozee & Mustakbil, and Alexa seems to suggest that Rozee is a clear leader amongst the three, inspite of what the deck claims about BrightSpyre.

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Resource List- For a list of technology resources and service providers in Pakistan, check out this & this.

If you have other things to add here, please leave it behind in the comments and I’ll update the post.