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The economic trade-off between money and time endures. There will always be folks with a lot of money but little time. And there will be folks with little money but a lot of time. In the current technological era, the economic exchange taking place between these two has given rise to what is been referred to as an “on-demand economy”.
The on-demand economy is fast becoming part of lifestyles in cities situated in North America and Western Europe. To get a glimpse of that, read the following para from the cover story of The Economist’s January 3rd issue, titled “Workers on tap”:
“Young professionals can (use their phone apps) to get their apartments cleaned by Handy or Homejoy; their groceries bought and delivered by Instacart; their clothes washed by Washio and their flowers delivered by BloomThat. Fancy Hands will provide them with personal assistants to book trips or negotiate with Cable Company. TaskRabbit will send somebody out to pick up a last-minute gift; Shyp will gift-wrap and deliver it. SpoonRocket will deliver restaurant-quality meal to the door within 10 minutes…”
As with other tech innovations from the global north, the on-demand economy is now gathering steam in the developing world as well. According to Financial Times, India’s on-demand economy will be worth an estimated $137 billion by 2020. Recent developments suggest that an on-demand economy is in the works in Pakistan, too, a glimpse of which is provided here.
First up is the e-commerce marketplace. Market leader, Daraz.pk, and other prominent online shopping portals like HomeShopping.pk and TCS Connect have been pushing the envelope lately. Daraz, which now has over 2000 brands online, is said to attract over 5 million unique users every month. Here we are referring only to marketplaces with a “shopping cart”, unlike information portals such as PakWheels or OLX.
The cash-on-delivery model has been working well for these firms in a largely-unbanked society. Now Daraz has come up with the swipe-on-delivery payment option, which reduces the cash handling hassles and is convenient for cardholding customers. As per SBP, there were nearly 26 million plastic cards in circulation as of December 2014, most of which are debit cards.
TCS, the courier company that shipped over 120 million shipments in 2014, has gone a step ahead. With its TCS Hazir service, the company sends its couriers to customers’ doorsteps to pick up the shipments. Not just that, you could even order groceries, of any kind or order size, and expect the courier to be Hazir within 60 minutes, claims the management. Similar promise is made by Retailistan – a start-up co-founded by two high-fliers previously working at Unilever – to the residents of Karachi’s Defence and Clifton areas. This start-up is in a very initial stage, but its future success may inspire entrepreneurs in other cities.
Food delivery is another area. In Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad, many restaurants are seen making order delivery a business model. Specialized delivery services like Food Panda and Eat Oye, which has recently been acquired by the former, have been actively expanding their market reach, especially in Karachi. On-demand economy also extends to “sharing”. Ride-sharing is slowly bursting into view now. Under the slogan “Never Ride Alone”, Savaree, a Lahore-based start-up, promises riders a safe journey with professional drivers. Tripda, another Rocket Internet venture after Daraz and Food Panda, also launched its social ride-sharing service in Pakistan few months back.
Uber, the $40 billion San Francisco-based firm that connects riders to cabbies, seems to inspire these two ventures – yet they seem focused more on social interaction and cost-sharing.
Shared lodging is another area. Informal networks are already operating in the country where, following referrals, outstations folks stay at a stranger’s place for a few days or weeks as paying guests. Interestingly, dozens of listings are seen for Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad on Airbnb, the San-Francisco-based company that lets people offer short-term paying guest service to travellers. Pakistan’s listings are a fraction compared to India’s on Airbnb, but they may improve as security situation improves.
In the next piece, this column will highlight the forces that are enabling the local on-demand economy and what possibly lies ahead.

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