Dispelling Myths About Pakistan’s Outsourcing Market
It seems like whenever you hear about Pakistan from the news, its always about doom and gloom. Pakistan is all bad, it’s filled with fanatics and all sorts of crazy people that want you to go kaboom. With an impression like that, who would want to outsource to a firm based in Pakistan? And as a firm based in Pakistan, how could you find customers?
I’m here to tell you that most of what you hear about Pakistan is hogwash. Pakistan is a top outsourcing destination. Let’s bust some of the myths about Pakistan’s outsourcing industry:
Myth #1: Pakistan has no significant presence in the outsourcing market
Fact: Depending upon the market you check, Pakistan is the 3rd or 4th largest service provider.
Let’s take a look at some of the most popular sites for outsourcing. For this article RentACoder.com, eLance.com and oDesk.com looked like good candidates. They have been around for quite a bit and provide useful statistics (except for eLance, can anyone get statistics for Pakistan?).
On RentACoder.com, Pakistan is the 4th Largest provider (743 Pakistani Service Providers):
(source: RentACoder Pulse)
On oDesk.com, Pakistan is also the 4th highest service provider (1173 Pakistani Service Providers):
(Source: oDesk oConomy)
Ironically though, despite the presence of Pakistan in the Market, Pakistan-based firms don’t get projects in the same ratio as they offer their services.
In terms of work won by country, Pakistan stands at number 6.
(Source: oDesk oConomy)
Online Outsourcing Marketplaces are very popular in Pakistan. If you look at the traffic these sites receive by country (Alexa.com statistics), Pakistan is in the top 5:
RentACoder.com traffic by country (source)
eLance.com traffic by country (source)
oDesk.com traffic by country (source)
So, there’s a lot of interest from Pakistan in this area and it will continue to grow over time.
Myth #2: Work done from Pakistan is substandard or of bad quality
Alright, so Pakistan has a significant presence online, but quantity doesn’t mean quality. You’d be certain that our quality would be really bad, right?
Wrong.
Most marketplaces provide a feedback system by which sellers and buyers rate each other on a variety of factors pertaining to the way the work was carried out. Whenever work is completed by a service provider, the outsourcer rates the work done usually on a scale of 5. Looking at aggregate scores by country at oDesk, Pakistan scored 4.51 / 5.00 which is 11 places higher than providers from UK (4.44), 14 positions higher than providers in the US (4.42) and 33 positions higher than India which scored 3.99 / 5.00. Mind you, these aren’t a few jobs done well; this is an aggregate over 794 assignments. Here’s the detailed breakdown:
Top Countries, by Feedback Score
| Developer Country | End Assignment For Provider - User Score | Number of Assignments |
|---|---|---|
| Azerbaijan | 5.00 | 9 |
| Serbia | 5.00 | 7 |
| Armenia | 5.00 | 3 |
| Cayman Islands | 5.00 | 1 |
| United States Minor Outlying Islands | 5.00 | 1 |
| Mauritius | 5.00 | 1 |
| Gambia | 5.00 | 3 |
| Slovakia | 5.00 | 2 |
| Mongolia | 5.00 | 2 |
| Ecuador | 5.00 | 2 |
| Aruba | 5.00 | 2 |
| Croatia | 4.97 | 14 |
| Cyprus | 4.95 | 4 |
| Ghana | 4.95 | 3 |
| Uruguay | 4.90 | 31 |
| Slovenia | 4.86 | 15 |
| Malaysia | 4.81 | 26 |
| Denmark | 4.80 | 1 |
| Moldova, Republic of | 4.79 | 99 |
| Kyrgyzstan | 4.78 | 33 |
| France | 4.77 | 24 |
| Belarus | 4.77 | 63 |
| New Zealand | 4.77 | 26 |
| Greece | 4.73 | 34 |
| Finland | 4.73 | 18 |
| Hong Kong | 4.72 | 6 |
| Egypt | 4.72 | 137 |
| Jordan | 4.72 | 15 |
| Saudi Arabia | 4.70 | 25 |
| Spain | 4.67 | 41 |
| Estonia | 4.67 | 6 |
| Vietnam | 4.65 | 51 |
| Serbia and Montenegro | 4.64 | 21 |
| Macedonia, the former Yugoslav Republic of | 4.63 | 15 |
| Bulgaria | 4.62 | 37 |
| Indonesia | 4.62 | 280 |
| Belgium | 4.61 | 27 |
| Thailand | 4.61 | 5 |
| Nepal | 4.60 | 58 |
| South Africa | 4.60 | 89 |
| Qatar | 4.60 | 6 |
| Italy | 4.59 | 53 |
| China | 4.58 | 39 |
| Czech Republic | 4.58 | 66 |
| Norway | 4.57 | 17 |
| Morocco | 4.56 | 14 |
| Mexico | 4.54 | 32 |
| Colombia | 4.53 | 10 |
| Australia | 4.52 | 81 |
| Brazil | 4.52 | 76 |
| Pakistan | 4.51 | 794 |
| Venezuela | 4.51 | 7 |
| Latvia | 4.50 | 17 |
| Ireland | 4.50 | 19 |
| Guatemala | 4.49 | 8 |
| Romania | 4.48 | 199 |
| Canada | 4.47 | 328 |
| Netherlands | 4.46 | 7 |
| Poland | 4.46 | 51 |
| Lithuania | 4.45 | 40 |
| Turkey | 4.44 | 36 |
| United Kingdom | 4.44 | 196 |
| United Arab Emirates | 4.43 | 18 |
| Sweden | 4.42 | 79 |
| United States | 4.42 | 2033 |
| Ukraine | 4.42 | 1369 |
| Philippines | 4.42 | 1116 |
| Tunisia | 4.41 | 22 |
| Argentina | 4.41 | 120 |
| Cambodia | 4.41 | 19 |
| Bangladesh | 4.40 | 114 |
| Japan | 4.35 | 18 |
| Bolivia | 4.34 | 294 |
| Israel | 4.34 | 54 |
| Singapore | 4.33 | 30 |
| Sri Lanka | 4.33 | 112 |
| Russia | 4.30 | 1429 |
| Cameroon | 4.15 | 1 |
| Bosnia and Herzegovina | 4.09 | 12 |
| Germany | 4.07 | 35 |
| Kuwait | 4.05 | 12 |
| Andorra | 4.00 | 1 |
| Benin | 4.00 | 2 |
| India | 3.99 | 6815 |
| Peru | 3.98 | 41 |
| Switzerland | 3.97 | 8 |
| Hungary | 3.95 | 27 |
| Austria | 3.93 | 3 |
| Kenya | 3.93 | 6 |
| Tajikistan | 3.90 | 10 |
| Chile | 3.90 | 6 |
| Georgia | 3.84 | 14 |
| Lebanon | 3.76 | 5 |
| Jamaica | 3.66 | 19 |
| Portugal | 3.35 | 1 |
| Trinidad and Tobago | 3.15 | 2 |
| Puerto Rico | 3.00 | 4 |
| American Samoa | 2.73 | 4 |
| Antarctica | 2.17 | 3 |
| Antigua and Barbuda | 1.92 | 3 |
| Korea, Republic of | 1.80 | 1 |
| Uzbekistan | 1.53 | 3 |
| Zambia | 1.00 | 1 |
(Source: oDesk feedback score by country).
These figures are only from oDesk, if you have access to figures from other online marketplaces with a significant Pakistani presence, please let me know.
Myth #3: As a Pakistan based firm, you can’t earn good money online
The hourly rate for a programmer earning 20,000 PKR and spending the same on upkeep is roughly 3.5$. So, how much does an online job have to pay to be viable? How much should it pay to be termed good? oDesk’s aggregate of 1173 Pakistan based service providers show:
Avg Hourly Rate = $14
Avg Feedback = 4.2 / 5.0
Avg Years Exp = 4.2 / 5.0
Avg English Ability = 4.3 / 5.0
The hourly rate is the same for India’s 8018 providers:
Avg Hourly Rate = $14
Avg Feedback = 3.8/5.0
Avg Years Exp = 4.8/5.0
Avg English Ability = 4.5/5.0
You can find more information by clicking on the red-dot on your country of interest
So, as a person or firm based in Pakistan, this presents an exciting opportunity for growth and revenue.
Despite all this
Despite where you come from, despite your country’s bad image or what your neighborhood is going through; if you are able to create great software, a great product or a great service: it won’t matter. You see, great work does not need justification to be bought. GNU/Linux was started by a bunch of geeks who no one took seriously. But the product was so great that it has now become the dominant server OS and is practically everywhere.
So, if you are in the business of providing services, give everyone the best goddamn service they have ever seen and everything you think is bad about your circumstances will disappear. Your work will speak for you.
Muhammed Nasrullah (aka Nash) is the CEO of ByteSense (Pvt.) Limited. We make custom technology solutions and are software specialists.
Elance is a registered trademark and a registered service mark of Elance, Inc. Rent A Coder ™ is trademark of Exhedra Solutions, Inc. oDesk is a registered trademark and a registered service mark of oDesk, Inc. All trademarks, trade names, service marks, and logos referenced herein belong to their respective companies.
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