Business

Online Gaming can Rope in Massive Dividends for Pakistan, Experts Suggest

Published

7 months ago

August 31, 2022

A conference on the economic scope of the gaming industry in Pakistan organized by the Pakistan Software Houses Association (PASHA), with support from Tencent, took place in Islamabad today. Conference panelists discussed the viability and potential of gaming and animation contributing to the overall IT and ITeS exports of Pakistan and, thus, facilitating the economic growth of the country. Conversations centered around where Pakistan’s gaming industry stood at the moment and what were the challenges that needed to be addressed in order to move forward toward a substantial growth trajectory in the coming years.

Discussing the potential of Pakistan’s gaming sector, Lih Shiun, Tencent’s Senior Director for Public Affairs, added “Pakistan’s IT industry is active in the mobile gaming industry, and is well poised to capture the immense opportunities the global video games industry brings. Apart from direct economic impact through jobs and economic output, video games also generate secondary economic value for Pakistan, such as through eSports and digital games-related events like the current PUBGM campus championship. With video game-related technologies increasingly being used in other sectors and areas such as industrial design and cultural heritage promotion and protection, you can see how much potential there is for Pakistan’s video gaming sector”

“Pakistan potentially has access to a $90 billion dollar mobile gaming industry alone” Chairman PASHA, Badar Khushnood articulated. “According to an informal estimate, Pakistani consumers have spent $ 260 million on video games through e-commerce. Game makers in Pakistan typically produce mobile games for a global audience. Most of the games are published by international game giants like Electronic Arts (EA) Inc., Ubisoft, Lion Studios, and Supersonic Software. If supported with the right policies, the gaming sector can spur economic growth in Pakistan.” he added

Other notable speakers briefed on the need to promote talent development in programming and game designing. The fact that gaming is a promising industry–revenue generation can go up to $400m annually– ease of doing business has to be ensured. The discussion also covered other aspects such as policy interventions, investments required to spur growth, and technical infrastructure requirements, etc.

The event was attended by stakeholders from the government, gaming studios, game developers, entrepreneurs, freelancers as well as telecom operators.

Business

Pakistani Workers Paid Only $0.75 For World Cup Football That Sells at $165 Each

Published

4 months ago

November 25, 2022

TechQuice Team

Although the Al Rihla World Cup Football Balls are listed on the Adidas website for $165, the workers who create them only receive about $0.75 for each football.

The Fifa World Cup’s official soccer ball was made in Sialkot, Pakistan, for the largest football tournament of the year. Do you realize that these football manufacturers only make a minimum pay of Rs. 160 PKR ($0.75)?

At least two-thirds of all footballs in the world are made at the 1,000 firms in Sialkot, including Adidas Al Rihla, which is Pakistan’s center for sporting products.

The 60 000 workers in these factories are not paid the minimum wage despite having such a significant impact on the sports world and literally being its core.

Long hours are put in by the artisans, who manually stitch each panel of the ball. Hand-stitching sports equipment, especially balls, is a custom in the city. This is because hand-stitching provides balls with more longevity and aerodynamic stability compared to machine sewing.

Thus, it can take up to 3 hours to complete each ball. According to Bloomberg, a laborer can only make about Rs 9600 per month when taking into account their typical compensation. Given that the average cost of living in the city is Rs 20,000, it is clear that this expense doesn’t even register.

The majority of the balls are sewn by women within the workforce. Additionally, despite being the family’s primary provider, these women go home to work and prepare meals for their loved ones. On the other hand, men work in numerous manufacturing phases and receive incredibly little pay.

Globally, over 40 million soccer balls are produced and shipped annually. The production and sales are much higher during the World Cup Football year. Therefore, despite such a remarkable yearly sale, the issue remains: Why are the workers in the factories in Sialkot so grossly underpaid, and will any steps be done to grant them the rights they deserve?

Business

Google to pay record $391m privacy settlement

Published

4 months ago

November 15, 2022

TechQuice Team

Google to pay $391.5m (£330m) to settle allegations about how it collects data from users.

The technology giant tracked the location of users who opted out of location services on their devices, 40 US states said.

Google has been told to be transparent about location tracking in the future and develop a web page telling people about the data it collects.

It is the largest privacy-related multi-state settlement in US history.

A Google official said: “Consistent with improvements we’ve made in recent years, we have settled this investigation, which was based on outdated product policies that we changed years ago.”

Last month, Google agreed to pay Arizona $85m over similar issues concerning how it collects location data.

There remains one outstanding case on the topic in the US courts, after Texas, Indiana, Washington and the District of Columbia took legal action against Google in January.

‘Misleading consumers’

Knowing a user’s location helps advertisers target products.

And location services help Google generate $200bn in annual advertising revenue.

Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum, who led the case – alongside Nebraska Attorney General Doug Peterson – said: “For years Google has prioritized profit over its users’ privacy.

“It has been crafty and deceptive.

“Consumers thought they had turned off their location-tracking features on Google – but the company continued to secretly record their movements and use that information for advertisers.”

The attorneys general said Google had been misleading consumers about location tracking since at least 2014, breaking state consumer-protection laws.

The company has been told to significantly improve user controls and the way it discloses location tracking, starting from 2023.

Business

Binance backs out of deal to buy FTX

Published

4 months ago

November 10, 2022

TechQuice Team

Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange by volume, has walked away from a deal with FTX, the third largest.

It appeared that Binance may be in the process of bailing out its troubled rival, FTX, on Tuesday. The plan, however, crumbled just over 24 hours later.

According to The Wall Street Journal, Binance backed out after reviewing the company’s structure and books. We hoped to support FTX’s customers by providing liquidity, but we cannot do anything about the issues.

“In light of recent news reports regarding the mishandling of customer funds and the alleged investigation by the US government, we have decided to not pursue the potential acquisition of [FTX],” Binance tweeted.

Binance continued, “When a major player in an industry fails, retail consumers suffer.” According to us, the crypto ecosystem is becoming more resilient over the past several years, and we believe the free market will eventually weed out outliers who misuse user funds.

TechQuice did not immediately receive responses from Binance or FTX.

According to CoinDesk, FTX’s loan commitments have raised concerns among Binance’s top brass. It follows Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao’s tweet that FTX “going down is not good for anyone in the industry.”

We may update this story if new information becomes available.