Shahzeb Memon, General Manager – Pakistan at Swvl, during conversation with Daily NewsPK elaborated on his point of view about the current economic landscape of Pakistan and shared what new initiatives are in pipeline with Swvl.
1. How do you see the overall landscape of the economy in Pakistan post-COVID-19?
No easy way to say that things have gone down. We expected the recovery to be slow but it’s faster than our expectations. We are back at 50% of the pre-COVID-19 volumes and plan to be at 130% by December. You have to co-exist.
A few facets of the market like payments, deliveries, etc have increased but the overall market and economy have shrunk. People are worried about the wave. People are not spending as much and are being cautious overall. However, the market is taking pace slowly and gradually. The COVID-19 vaccine is out, so that’s good news. We can hope it is something that would be available to the masses in Pakistan soon. Overall, the pandemic has given a big boost to the digital economy. It has essentially leapfrogged us into a future where we might not have reached as quickly otherwise. It is interesting to see that PTA has registered a huge number of 3g 4g users in COVID-19.
2. In terms of business growth, what challenges and opportunities do you see in the market like Pakistan as a ride-hailing service provider?
Challenges:
- Infrastructure
- Literacy levels of Captains
- Constant connecting with the authorities and making people understand the service (involvement of multiple stakeholders)
Opportunities:
- Huge product-market fit
- Pakistan being one of the worst mass transportation systems in the world
- Growing and digitally enabling youth & middle classes
- Addressable market of $1.75B
3. What will be your key focus areas to grow your business?
- Category Driven Structure (Diversify portfolio) – B2B and Travel
- Customer and Captain Experience
- Raising the bar (People)
- Product Experience
4. How do you see the environment of partnering with other service providers and how can partnerships nurture the business ecosystem in the market?
We believe in co-creating, so opportunities definitely exist currently payment gateway integrations and forming partnerships with other companies. We plan on having other gateway providers on the app to promote cashless payments, partnering with brands to provide rations and insurance cover for captains, and with companies to provide sanitizers/masks for users. We have some interesting things lined up as well for the future where we aim to partner with a wifi company to provide free wifi to all users in return for viewing ads. Our vision is to work with thoughtful organizations that are solving problems in the region.
5. What role are you playing in educating the customers in terms of digital services usage?
- Constant reaching out
- Constant digital presence
- Converting user offline to online (Building a playbook around it)
- Connecting captains to the digital age
6. How do you think the industry and society will look like in the coming 12 months?
We will be back to normal but this time we will be a lot more digital-savvy – The ride-hailing/bus-hailing industry will be back and will grow faster due to the inclusion of people into the digital age (transportation and economy have to go together, movement of goods and people is an integral social as well as economic need. We also see micro-mobility going on the rise. Due to digital penetration, cashless transactions will go a lot higher which is great for business. People will start being more responsible, we are already seeing a change in patterns. Mass transit will stay.
For us, our global vision has expedited our expansion. We want to be in 15 more markets in 2021. Our SaaS/TaaS/Travel products are also coming out to be a clear winner so far and it looks like the markets have been waiting for it.
Launched Dubai and Jordan last month, planning on launching Saudi, Qatar Kuwait, Brazil, Mexico, Philippines, Indonesia, etc shortly. We’ll conduct on demand product testing initially and then build other categories on top to get closer to our vision of reimagining mass transportation platforms across the globe.
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