Can the Largest Web-Based Classified Network Work in Pakistan?
Monday, October 20, 2008 19:47
Riazu, the largest classifieds network in the Middle East, began its Pakistan operations a few days ago! Claiming to be an efficient user-friendly website, Riazu is said to serve as a platform for exchange, whereby buyers and sellers, prospective employees and companies, real estate developers and investors are brought together under a single banner.
Speaking at the launch occassion, Ozair Mateen, President, Riazu said “For us, it was about empowering the local community. We saw that Pakistani people were crippled by a lack of an online community, a place where ideas could not only be expressed, but built upon.”
Actually, Mr Mateen seems to be only partially correct. Pakistan actually has no dearth of online communities where people can gather upon. Whether they do or not, is another issue for another time. However, if we look back to the classic example of the time when Dawn Classifieds went online, their portal became such a great success that their print advertising revenue was impacted. There is no doubt, that if given the right “glocal” platform, Pakistani browsers will come.
And why wouldn’t they? Pakistan has the 4th largest presence on Orkut; a growing population on Facebook; launches a Web2.0 inspired App or Community almost every day; and certainly knows how to network their way to drive traffic to their gateways. But the key for all of these businesses, and Riazu is no exception, that these projects are extremely community driven. If you can empower the community to keep your content fresh and alive, your project will be a raving success. If you can’t, well… we’ll certainly see you at the graveyard for the “projects that would have, could have.”
There is no doubt that the Canadian-based venture has more money and funding running through its veins than the average garage portal developed by a kid out in Larkana, but only time will tell. The Web is an unbelievably level playing field and Riazu will have to battle it out with a lot of startups and existing portals that do similar work locally.
Mahmood Shauki says:
October 21st, 2008 at 1:22 pm
Nice point about community empowerment; that’s what its all about with web startups these days isn’t it? Get people involved, add value constantly and then leave the publicity to them. I’m always interested in the newbies and what they are doing to entice users. Riazu, although the name is a tad funky for me, seems to have the right idea. Their website has a very Middle Eastern vibe to it, and has some nice touches such as the Souq & B2B. Pakistan may welcome a site such as this which is a bit removed from the usual American flavour.
Mahmood Shauki,
KT DXB
admin says:
October 21st, 2008 at 8:27 pm
@Mahmood - Thanks for your comment. No doubt every idea is a good one. How people react to an idea is what will be interesting. The first few months will be full of hype. The real challenge becomes how to keep up that interest once the initial test phase is over. If they can manage to keep the community engaged until then, they’ve got nothing to worry about.
Beard Tech says:
November 30th, 2008 at 3:24 pm
Riazu.com looks very different from the screenshot used in the review, interesting idea, a very different twist for traditional google ad based classifieds.
Pakistan has a growing internet userbase and Riazu.com seems like a interacrive new platform to engage in discussions and trade, a point of note though that it has various languages ( Arabic, Turkish, French ) but it is missing Urdu which would be great for a large % of Pakistani users.
Zeus says:
April 2nd, 2009 at 10:08 pm
Riazu.com has data for more than 100,000 businesses in Pakistan, concentrating primarily on Karachi. The majority of its user seem to be from Canada and its home base, then Pakistan and the United States, and then the Middle Eastern countries.
I think Riazu killed of its classic craigslist style interface and has undergone a major overhaul of its features adding interesting tools like google mapping for registered businesses, virtual tours.
Its been a year now and Riazu is still in Alpha promising to churn out new tools. Apparently the venture recieved a very good response from Karachi. Looks like an interesting concept for Pakistani’s. The challenge though is Pakistan’s internet penetration which is quite low compared to India and even Iran.
If we compare the most popular sites in Pakistan. Dawn, Rozee.pk, Geo, jang, Riazu does not have the traffic perhaps due to its minimal advertising style. I think they need to undergo major advertising to actually spread their awareness in Pakistan to reach the likes of Rozee and Dawn.
Ismail Shah says:
October 6th, 2009 at 3:13 am
Communities generally always start out small, it takes time to develop if the concept is not disruptive. Youtube, Twitter, Google were disruptive concepts. Now whats going to happen is that niche players will specialize and develop interest based sites glocally. Given the size of the Pakistani market and its growth rate i think a smart startup with a drive has a great chance in Pakistan.