The disease, primary biliary cholangitis (PBC), causes inflammation of the small bile ducts in the liver and can eventually destroy them. It mainly affects women aged 35 to 60.

Pakistani pharma reaches agreement with Gilead to manufacture Remdesivir

About 65 out of every 100,000 women have PBC, according to the American Liver Foundation.

Livdelzi is the first treatment to be approved from Gilead's takeover of CymaBay.

Gilead had said in February it expected the acquisition to be neutral to its earnings in 2025.

However, the target seems to be just lip service because in the first seven months of fiscal year 2023, IT exports stood at mere $1.52 billion, which is a mere 2% higher than the corresponding period of last fiscal year. Analysts do not see Pakistan achieving the annual target if it fails to address its problems.

In an exclusive interview with Business Recorder, Emeritus Vice President for Solutions and Engagement Mary Ann Barge pointed out that Pakistan was not investing in human talent to achieve IT export targets.

“The IT exports of the country can rise but there is need a for a talent base to support it,” said Ann. “I think that’s the biggest problem right now.”

Headquartered in Singapore, following its $650 million Series E funding round in August 2021, Emeritus is valued at $3.2 billion. The company imparts online learning and certification.

“Pakistan needs the right investment, right people and right plans and processes to unlock human capital,” Ann said.

Mary Ann flew to Pakistan especially to meet the first batch of 50 certified software engineers, who are all now working for Xloop.

Xloop collaborated with Emeritus for the certification of upcoming software engineers to ensure they met Silicon Valley standards.

Xloop is a newly founded digital engineering company with ambitious plans to train up to a thousand engineers a year. The company’s investors include Gul Ahmed Energy, Tapal Energy and Agha Steel.

During the interview, seasoned IT professional and Xloop CEO Mir Nasir and Xloop COO Ali Abbasi were also present.

Nasir said market statistics showed that an average software engineer brings $20,000 to $25,000 of foreign exchange annually.

“For every $1 billion, you need 50,000 engineers. Are our institutions preparing them to provide quality services to international clients? I’m afraid not,” Nasir told Business Recorder.

Although Ann and Nasir both said that the government of Pakistan has the “intent” and “they know the problem”, they think there’s no “firm” plan up the government’s sleeve to take the IT exports to the level it wants.

“Government is focused on increasing IT exports. They know talent is the problem. They know that they do not yet have the talent to do that (increase IT exports) today,” Ann said.

Problem with human talent in Pakistan’s IT sector

Mir Nasir said that the traditional education imparted to computer engineers isn’t helpful.

“We have not stayed abreast with the tech curriculum. Fast paced technology and the way it has been taught. I think we are failing there at the university level.

“Out of 500 people who attended the Emeritus bootcamp entrance test, only 50 were able to pass. This test is reverse engineered from US client needs and checks the skills, capabilities and acumen needed to deliver quality work to US clients.”

If 25,000 students graduate with computer science degree in Pakistan, only 2,500 can become Emeritus standard certified developers and join a software house, this will not help us increase technology exports as fast as we want.

“The test was for basic undergraduate coding. These are the skills that the students should know. With a 10% success rate, it shows that whatever is being taught in colleges is irrelevant. That’s the biggest challenge.”

Nasir said bootcamps could help bring graduates of related disciplines in this sector to help reach the quota of engineers required to increase exports significantly.

“So we are bridging that gap with our world class technical training. Even if a student has just passed intermediate and attended vocational training, he can become a programmer if he has the raw talent because this is very specialised training system,” he said.

Nasir said the government should play a role in this.

“Traditional education isn’t helping as much as it can. A framework for national level pedagogy is needed based on what works and what doesn’t,” he said.

Mary Ann said that in comparison with other countries that made their mark in the sector, Pakistan had an opportunity to do more.

“If you look at other countries that are major players in this area, they have spent a lot more time developing the talent,” she said.

Massive demand for software engineers

Mary Ann said that demand is increasing year after year. It is because every company is becoming a tech company. Demand will not fall anytime soon.

“By 2025, we expect that the number of tech vacancies will double or even triple. The demand is rapidly increasing but the talent is not keeping pace,” she said.

“It is now up to Pakistan how it harnesses its potential and turns its professionals in the tech sector into a big share of its exports,” she said.

Speaking about global numbers, Nasir said that there is a shortage of over 2.5 million of just cyber security officials, which is just one segment of the IT services.

“Just here in Pakistan, there’s only one trained professional for five positions. Everyone is running after that one person,” he said.

Meanwhile, Xloop is focusing on full stack cloud native engineering and data engineering for its engineers as it sees demand coming in these areas.

‘Declare digital emergency’

Mir Nasir said that if Pakistan wanted to increase its exports and address economic woes, the country should declare a digital emergency.

He said that issues with curriculum needed to be addressed which should be brought closer to international requirements and standards.

Unless Pakistan doesn’t address this issue, Pakistan would end up losing its edge to competing countries. This happened with textiles when stakeholders didn’t invest in world class machinery and value chains while the rest of the world was doing it.

“We are investing in training people because it makes perfect economic sense. Three of our investors are big industrialists and not technologists. They don’t have a tech background but they have the vision that the future is technology,” he said.

“When other groups realise that the future is tech, they will also start investing in the tech sector,” he added.

Lack of human capital hurting startups as well

Just like there’s a shortage of software engineers, startups in Pakistan are also struggling to find the right human resource.

“Startups have done a great job in Pakistan in attracting international attention. But due to lack of human capital, they start hiring each other’s employees,” said Nasir.

“When there’s not enough talent around, if there’s a good employee, another company will hire them.”

Xloop’s business model

Xloop has spent over $10,000 on each of its engineers to get them trained and certified by Emeritus. After training, they are hired for a three-year contract. A fresh graduate starts at over Rs100,000. Xloop gets work especially from the US where its own sales, presales and project management builds and supports a pipeline of business. Xloop also works with many third party companies that are bridges between customers looking to outsource work.

“Our vision is to become a top 3 tech firm in the country,” Nasir said.

“We want to reach a market cap valuation of $1 billion in the next five to seven years,” he said. He further said that they plan to get listed in the next five to seven years.

The seed round, which the company said was oversubscribed, was led by Speedinvest and returning investor Indus Valley Capital. It also saw the participation from Stellar Capital, Alter Global, Johann Jenson (SVP Product at GoStudent) and other strategic angels, said Maqsad in a statement.

Back in September 2021, the startup raised $2.1 million in a pre-seed round. After the latest funding, Maqsad’s total capital has reached $4.9 million.

Pakistan's edtech startup Out-Class raises $500,000

The edtech intends to utilise the latest funding to expand its subject offering and “supercharge the tech” behind the platform.

About Maqsad

Maqsad, founded by Taha Ahmed and Rooshan Aziz in 2021, is a mobile-only platform that delivers academic content and personalised learning to Pakistani students.

The edtech, while currently a purely B2C (Business to Customer) platform, envisions to embed itself across the education ecosystem. The company said that it has already received interest from private and public sector institutions for potential partnerships.

Pakistan's edtech startup Maqsad raises $2.1 million in pre-seed funding

“We’re laser-focused on delivering a personalized learning experience at scale and have a number of exciting AI-based initiatives in the pipeline,” Maqsad founders were quoted as saying.

The startup aims to capitalise on the country’s growing education sector, which “presents a substantial opportunity in Pakistan, with a forecasted annual spend of $37 billion by 2032”.

Pakistan’s 'sustainable fashion' platform Swag Kicks raises $1.2mn seed funding

Incoming investor Speedinvest, one of Europe's largest seed funds and already has an edtech unicorn in its portfolio, Vienna-based GoStudent, remains confident over the company’s potential.

“We invested in Maqsad because we see potential for it to touch the lives of millions of students and disrupt the education ecosystem,” said Philip Specht, partner at Speedinvest, who believes that “Maqsad is on track to be one of the most successful businesses in Pakistan”.

Pakistani fintech AdalFi raises $7.5mn to tackle lending challenges

Returning investor Indus Valley Capital’s founder Aatif Awan explained why they doubled down: “We first invested in Maqsad 18 months ago, before they had a product or a team.

“Investing again in Maqsad is a no-brainer as we have seen them [Rooshan and Taha] bring together one of the best startup teams in Pakistan to build a category-leading product that has helped over a million students.”

Salim Ghauri, founder and CEO NetSol Technologies, cited the example of the game of cricket to advise startups to reflect on their approach to shape the modus operandi for success in their endeavours.

“It was a painful last seven or eight months for startups,” said Ghauri, who was speaking on the opening of the three-day ITCN Asia - Information Technology and Telecom Show organised by the Ecommerce Gateway Pakistan (Pvt.) Ltd at the Expo Center Karachi.

The seasoned IT sector businessman lamented that the main goal of most startups at the moment was to raise funding when their goal should be to start a solid business that goes on to benefit people long after they have gone.

His comments come as a number of Pakistan startups announced either shutting down or trimming operations after a record year of fundraising in 2021.

CarFirst, a Lahore-based startup, recently announced that it has decided to shut down operations in Pakistan, affecting nearly 400 people who had added CarFirst as their employer on LinkedIn.

Earlier in June, VavaCars said that it will shut down operations in Pakistan. Careem also suspended its food delivery business in Pakistan, while another startup Truck It In said it is “recalibrating its strategy” due to which some employees “will be moving on to solve other challenges”.

But the biggest of them all was the downfall of Airlift Technologies, the posterchild of Pakistan's startup scene that was responsible for the country's largest single private funding round in history.

Ghauri said founders need mentoring. “They have to realise they need to go long because businesses need time to establish."

Syed Aminul Haque, Federal Minister IT and Telecommunication, seconded Ghauri’s point of view.

However, another IT sector expert Jehan Ara, Founder and CEO Katalyst Labs, said that the failure rate of startups was 90% not just in Pakistan but around the world.

Startup failure should not be seen as the end of the road for the sector, she said.

Meanwhile, Haque said that the ministry’s target is to take IT sector’s exports to $15 billion in the next few years.

“A target of $5 billion dollars has been set for IT export for next year.”

IT exports stood at $2.61 billion last fiscal year, higher by 87% from $1.4 billion two years ago.

Pakistan Software Houses Association for IT and ITeS (P@SHA) General Secretary Hira Zainab lamented lack of policy continuity for the IT sector.

Zainab said the IT sector has been the fastest growing one for the last five years in the region and it needs special treatment.

Meanwhile, Haque said that they have been working on reforms, reduction of taxes and other recommendations given by the industry.

He said a committee has also been formed to discuss incentives for the IT sector in order to achieve these targets.

5G to be rolled out before next elections

The minister said that the rollout of 5G technology has been delayed due to political turmoil, but the ministry expects it to be done before the next elections.

Haque further said that the MoIT was overseeing the establishment of the Center for Excellence in Gaming and Animation at Karachi University.

He added that preliminary work has been done for establishment of an IT Park in Karachi at a cost of Rs31 billion and its foundation will be laid soon.

“National Incubation Centres will soon be set up in Hyderabad and Faisalabad as well.”

Also read:

Turing, which enables businesses to hire software engineers from around the world, announced in June that it was now focusing its efforts towards attracting more software developers in Pakistan as it identifies the South Asian economy as a high-potential market.

Turing matches remote developers with long-term jobs and enlists them to work with leading US-based companies. Developers negotiate their own salaries. Turing charges the companies a premium for using its platform.

US-based Turing eyes Pakistan's software engineers as it expands in South Asia

“Software exports is a booming industry bringing significant revenue to national economies,” said Siddharth in response to queries sent by Business Recorder.

“Countries like India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh are fast emerging as top choices to ramp up software development teams. The tech talent of these countries is a significant asset that can bring endless opportunities in terms of foreign exchange to the national exchequer by exporting their expertise.”

Turing was founded in 2018 by Siddharth and Vijay Krishnan, who is now stated as Chief Technology Officer. Siddharth said Turing is functional in 150 countries, and has over 1.5 million software developers on its platform.

Details on its website suggest that it conducts live interviews and tests lasting more than five hours during its own vetting process, which includes checking for soft skills.

There has also been an increase in the number of IT programmes and courses in the country that have helped many aspiring developers build their aptitude: Turing CEO

Siddharth said Turing was functional in Pakistan for a while, but is now actively looking for software engineers.

“Seeing the rich developer talent Pakistan houses, we are actively looking for software engineers to provide them with a community where they can scale their careers by accessing remote job opportunities with leading firms in the US,” he said.

The CEO said Pakistan has also seen impressive growth in its IT industry in the past few years, producing some of the best software engineers in the region.

“There has also been an increase in the number of IT programmes and courses in the country that have helped many aspiring developers build their aptitude. Pakistani developers are just as competent as developers from any high-tech country. They simply need the right opportunities.”

Siddharth said the platform would help Pakistani developers connect with the top US firms, bridging the gap between foreign and local markets. However, the CEO did not share the number of Pakistani software developers currently on Turing’s platform.

He added that Turing has itself seen phenomenal growth, and raised a total of over $140 million in the Series D financing round from investors including UK-based WestBridge Capital, US-based Foundation Capital, Stanford StartX, and executives from Google, Facebook, Microsoft, and Amazon.

Siddharth said the round takes Turing’s valuation to over $4 billion.

“We plan on utilising this valuation to grow and build a category-defining company. We are experiencing a generational shift in how we work with the remote-first concept gaining quick, widespread popularity. We aim to leverage this shift by democratising opportunities for the global developer talent base and helping companies benefit from this talent without any geographically-inflicted limitations.

“Currently, Turing has 1.5 million developers listed on its platform from 150 countries, thousands of whom have already been connected with more than 300 top US firms, including Johnson & Johnson, Dell, Disney, Coinbase, Plume, and VillageMD. As we move ahead, our mission is to deepen our global presence by onboarding more talented developers from around the world, expand our customer base to include more top high-profile US firms, and rapidly scale our efforts to help our community of developers grow and succeed in their careers.”

A Turing official confirmed the development, and said the company is now looking at Pakistan as well as Bangladesh.

“Developers were already coming to Turing passively. But now we will be making marketing efforts in the country,” an official, who lives in New Delhi but associated with the company, told Business Recorder.

“We've already taken this step in India last quarter. Now our focus is on Pakistan, and next month, we will be enhancing our efforts in Bangladesh."

Based in Palo Alto, California, US, Turing was founded in 2018 by AI entrepreneurs, Jonathan Siddharth and Vijay Krishnan, and is valued at over $1 billion, according to the company.

Siddharth, the CEO and co-founder, while commenting on the development said Pakistan has some of the finest engineering talent in the world.

"They have the potential to bring significant value to the tech industry with their unmatched aptitude," Siddharth was quoted as saying in an official statement.

“We are, therefore, very excited to be able to connect such talent with top firms in the US for a rewarding career through Turing’s Intelligent Talent Cloud.”

“Boundary-less companies are the future and to prepare for this future, we are democratising opportunities for talented developers from around the world regardless of where they live,” he added.

Turing is an AI-backed intelligent talent cloud that aims to navigate employers and developers through the remote-first world by helping companies source the best, pre-vetted remote engineering resources signed up on its platform.

Since its inception in 2018, Turing has connected thousands of pre-vetted offshore software engineers with more than 300 top U.S firms including Johnson & Johnson, Dell, Disney, Coinbase, Rivian, Plume, and VillageMD, stated the company.

"Currently, Turing has over 1.5 million developers listed on the platform from 150 countries who are sourced, vetted, matched, and managed by its intelligent talent cloud, enabling companies to easily hire the best-available software talent from around the world within 3-5 days."

Executive Vice President Pakistan Freelancers Association Ibrahim Amin told Business Recorder that this is a positive development for the country’s IT sector.

The sector has seen significant growth in recent years. IT-related exports went up from $1.4 billion in fiscal year 2019-20 to a record $2.1 billion the next year.

However, growth is likely to slow down in FY2021-22 as exports clock in at $2.7 billion, according to the Pakistan Software Houses Association for IT and ITeS (P@sha). The government had set a target of $3 billion for FY22.

“As per the mandate given by the Ministry of Information Technology, the PSEB has launched its initiative to provide easy access to capital markets for small and medium IT based enterprises via Initial Offering on the GEM Board of the PSX,” it said in a press release.

GEM Board is a listing platform aimed at facilitating growth-oriented businesses where small, medium, or green-field businesses raise capital to fund their growth and expansion plans.

The PSEB said it aims to list 40 IT/ITeS companies on the GEM Board of PSX, to whom it will extend significant financial and technical assistance in raising capital via listing on PSX GEM Board.

“To incentivise these companies to get themselves listed, PSEB is bearing 70% of the cost associated with the GEM Board Listing, with only 30% of GEM Board Listing costs being borne by the Company.

“For the inaugural listing under the auspices of PSEB, AKD Securities Limited has been nominated for the initial eight (08) companies.”

The event was attended by PSX CEO Farrukh H. Khan who stated, “This initiative is a stepping stone to the existing GEM Board structure and would definitely create an environment that encourages small and medium enterprises to consider GEM board as a route for raising smart capital.”

Speaking on the occasion, Managing Director PSEB Osman Nasir said that Pakistan is on the verge of witnessing an IT revolution through technology startups riding the wave for the country.

“Considering this potential, PSEB’s initiative is commendable as it would provide an avenue for IT/ITES companies to execute their long-term goals through access to equity financing,” Nasir added.

Farid Alam, CEO AKD Securities Limited, said the brokerage firm has always been a promoter of new initiatives in the capital market which is also evident through its inaugural listing at the GEM Board.

“As the Financial Advisor to the project, AKDS would market the opportunity to the larger audience and garner their interest in raising capital through listing on this board.”

Talib Baloch, Program Director of PSEB, also attended the event.

“As per our mandate, PSEB has been constantly working on supporting IT/ITES companies through various initiatives. We believe that listing such entities on the local bourse would not only raise capital at micro level but also support the entire financial ecosystem,” said Baloch.

While the event, Women Tech Quest 2022, in its sixth year, looked to bridge the gap, it also brought to the fore issues that have discouraged female participation in the workforce.

The event

Over 1,200 women in their 20s currently either studying or working (often doing both) in the tech sector came together in Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad to not just compete for cash prizes but also to network, hear from speakers and attend workshops on mindfulness and wellness.

The event was organised by digital development company 10Pearls.

“We started the event to encourage women in tech who had left the industry and didn’t have the network or avenues to come back,” Syeda Sana Hussain, senior director at 10Pearls, told Business Recorder.

As with other sectors, women in tech also face pressure to quit work in an economy where female participation in the workforce remains on the lower side.

“When we held our first event, our winner was a woman who had been at home for 5 years. The competition helped her realize she hadn’t forgotten her instincts and her work.”

While it organises the event, 10Pearls also started promising participants contractual- and part-time work, as well as referring them to other software houses.

Over 4,000 women have so far grown in their careers courtesy the Women Tech Quest, but there still remains a dearth in the number of female coders in the country.

“This is because, starting from college, they face biases where all the coding work in group projects is taken by men while the women are left to design and test because they are considered good at documentation, managing and execution.

“It’s a systemic issue that starts at university level when students are doing final year projects,” Hussain explained.

This also leads to self-doubt, plus a major pay gap, because a coder or programmer who is a “pure technical resource” is paid a lot more.

Given the World Economic Forum has said closing the global gender gap could take over 100 years, many say nothing is going to happen overnight.

Another issue, Hussain said, is family restrictions.

“Even today it’s a struggle for girls to come out to these kind of events … but it’s so important that they come here and see the scope. They meet professional women – it opens their mind to the possibilities the tech sector offers.”

This includes flexible working hours, the ability to work from home, and the potential to freelance and earn in foreign currencies.

Zeeshan Aftab, co-founder and MD, 10Pearls, told Business Recorder one of the many issues is not just that many men think “women can’t work alongside them” but also women not believing in themselves.

“Mindset is a big challenge. If we can improve that – half the battle is already won.”

Aftab believes the impact on the community of Women Tech Quest has been “amazing”. There has been an increase in the number of women who apply to roles at 10Pearls and he feels the event instils more confidence in them.

“Half of learning is exposure. The event gives women a chance to visit a software company and see how things are done, and also meet with renowned personalities they wouldn’t get to know otherwise.”

One of the speakers at the event was Halima Iqbal, co-founder of Oraan, a startup that helps women access financial services that raised $3 million in September 2021.

She told Business Recorder last month was “unfortunately the first time we hired a woman developer.”

“Finding them is hard but these kinds of platforms ensure an early development of skills and is a very encouraging space.”

And that is evident from the sea of happy, chatty girls all around 10Pearls’ Karachi office. One of the winners of the coding stream, aged 20, is studying and also working as a full-time developer at ByteCorp, an Artificial Intelligence consultancy.

“I’ve been to other events but I feel very comfortable here because it’s all women. It easier to network and I want to come again next year,” she said.

As for future plans, she wants to get a scholarship to do her Masters abroad with the ultimate goal of working at Google.

The Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication (MoITT) added that the tax exemption benefit was the biggest demand of the sector.

"The other fiscal and non-fiscal incentives for the industry were proposed by the MoITT," it said.

Read Business Recorder's earlier report here: Freelancers: MoITT prepares incentive package

"Long-outstanding issue of IT companies regarding easy inflow/outflow of foreign currency has also been addressed as specialised foreign currency accounts (FCY) for IT/ITES companies and freelancers will be introduced to meet their operational needs."

The approval was made in a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Imran Khan on Tuesday. Officials of MoITT, Pakistan Software Export Board (PSEB), State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), Special Technology Zone Authority and Ignite National Technology Fund were also present in the meeting.

Faulty submarine cable causes internet disruption in Pakistan

According to the MoITT statement, the PM has directed to allow IT/ITES Companies and freelancers to retain 100% amount of remittances received through proper banking channels, in FCY Accounts without any compulsion to convert them into PKR.

Furthermore, there will be no restriction of outward remittances from FCY account for PSEB-registered IT Companies and freelancers.

PM Imran bets on IT sector to generate employment, dollar inflow

The prime minister has also directed the SBP to introduce financing streams for IT/ITES sector and freelancers keeping in view operational architecture and industry needs for these sectors.

"Recommendations of the Pakistan Technology Startup Fund was also approved by the Prime Minister as part of this historic package for the creation of a public-private partnership venture capital fund. Ignite National Technology Fund will create this Fund through Public private partnership."

Earlier, Business Recorder reported that the MoITT has prepared a package of fiscal and non-fiscal incentives for freelancers including the proposal of reduced sales tax rate, not exceeding two percent, as well as income tax holiday on exports income/ revenue/ receipts till 2030 and fast-track and simplified opening of foreign currency bank accounts to create a favourable business environment.

As per the report, the MoITT wanted to re-align the government strategies to attract a reasonable chunk from global spending on outsourcing and freelancing services in Pakistan, which, according to the ministry, will help create thousands of new jobs for freelancers in different sectors in line with the current government policy of creating high-end and well-paying white-collar jobs for youth employed in the digital economy.

The tournament had 4 days of league stage and 2 days of finals where South Asian team, Stalwart Esports, managed to grab the top spot with 204 points in the League Stage and MENA team Rico Infinity grabbed the title win with 130 points. Rico Infinity took home prize money of 40,000 USD.

The top 4 teams were to advance to the PUBG MOBILE Global Championship, but since DRS and Nigma Galaxy have already booked their spot in the tournament, the next 2 teams on the leaderboard ie, Cryptics and Deadeyes Guys, will get the slot and have a shot at the global stage.

Device partner, Oppo, played an active role in the success of the tournament with its immersive and fluid gaming experience.

Following the PMPL MENA & South Asia Championship will be the PUBG MOBILE Global Championship that is set to kickstart from November 30 with Grand Finals on 21st-23rd January. Both East and West will play League matches to book their slots for the League Finals and further to the Grand Finals. Both the regions will have 20 top squads competing for the prestigious title and a grand prize pool of 6,000,000 USD.

PMGC West (20 teams):

● PMPL CIS - 1 (NAVI)

● PMPL Brazil - 1 (Alpha7)

● PMPL Turkey - 1

● PMPL West Europe - 1

● PMPL LATAM - 1

● PMPL North America - 1

● PMPL Americas Championship Season 2 - 7

● PMPL Europe Championship Season 2 - 7

PMGC East (20 teams):

● PMPL Indonesia - 1 (GENESIS DOGMA GIDS)

● PMPL Vietnam - 1 (DXavier)

● PMPL Thailand - 1 (The Infinity)

● PMPL Malaysia - 1 (Team Secret)

● PMPL Arabia - 1 (Nigma Galaxy)

● PMPL SEA Season 4 - 4

● PMPL MENA & South Asia Championship Season 1 (with PMCO HTM) - 4

● PMPL South Asia -1 (DRS Gaming)

● (KR) PUBG MOBILE PRO SERIES SEASON 2- 1

● (JP) PUBG MOBILE JAPAN LEAGUE SEASON 1 - 1

● PUBG MOBILE RIVALS CUP KOREA vs. JAPAN - 1

● China PEL - 3 (TJB)

All the matches of PMGC will be live exclusively on YouTube.

The company stopped providing content for users in mainland China as of Nov. 1, according to a statement published on its website, which directed users of Yahoo and AOL mail to other links. Local Chinese media reported Yahoo's move on Tuesday.

"In recognition of the increasingly challenging business and legal environment in China, Yahoo's suite of services will no longer be accessible from mainland China as of November 1," a Yahoo spokesperson told Reuters in an email on Tuesday.

"Yahoo remains committed to the rights of our users and a free and open internet. We thank our users for their support."

Yahoo's move follows that of Microsoft Corp, which pulled the plug on Linkedin in China last month, marking the retreat of the last major US-owned social network in China. Linkedin cited a "more challenging operating environment and greater compliance requirements in China".

Yahoo had already greatly scaled back its presence in China over the past few years. Prior to Monday, it had still operated a weather app and some pages that showed news articles in foreign languages.

Yahoo entered China in 1998 and in 2012 struck a deal with Alibaba Group to sell its stake in the e-commerce giant. The deal also saw Alibaba obtain the right to operate Yahoo China under the Yahoo brand for up to four years.

Yahoo China later shut its email service and web portal but the brand retained a global research and development center in Beijing until 2015, when it was shut down.

Its departure comes as Beijing has imposed fresh curbs on its internet companies on areas from content to customer privacy as well as new laws. On Monday, its new Personal Information Protection law designed to protect online user data privacy came into effect.

In May, Verizon Communications sold Yahoo and its other media businesses to private equity firm Apollo Global for $5 billion.

The Chinese website of tech blog Engadget, which was also sold in the deal, was also unavailable on Tuesday and only displayed Yahoo's announcement on no longer providing content for mainland China users.

It is important to note that this new feature will be available for free to all subscribers. However, it will remain exclusive to Apple Music and only those who have subscribed.

Apple also claims that it will feature 75 million lossless audio songs in its catalogue by the end of 2021 for its users to enjoy, as reported by The Verge.

Those who want to switch on their lossless audio, need to install the latest version of Apple Music and open the settings on their iPhone. Audio Quality settings within the music section will allow users to opt for this lossless audio settings.

In addition to this, Spatial audio and Dolby Atmos audio are a big step forward for the tech giant, as this new technology will enable Apple users to listen to more immersive mixes through their AirPods or Beats headphones with the H1 or W1 chip.

Spatial audio will also be played on default in the latest iPhone, iPad and Mac devices, and Apple users would only need to go to their settings and turn Dolby Atmos to 'Always on'.

As lossless audio is gaining popularity amongst consumers, other music streaming apps have also jumped on the bandwagon. Amazon announced that Amazon Music HD will be free to Amazon Music's unlimited subscribers, while Spotify also shared plans on launching its HiFi tier later this year.

Moreover, Xiaomi now accounts for 23 percent share of the European region as compared to Apple's 19 percent, as reported by the Android Authority. The company also witnessed impressive 85 percent year-on-year growth in Europe as compared to Apple's 22 percent.

It also important to note that the Chinese company is a new entrant in Europe, whereas Apple had maintained its presence in the region for over a decade now. However, the product offerings by both companies are also different with Xiaomi offering on budget phones and its Cupertino rival focusing on the premium smartphone segment.

However, Apple still maintains the second place in Western Europe, accounting for 25 percent market share as compared to Xiaomi's 17 percent. Hence, most of the growth in Xiaomi's market share can be attributed to Eastern Europe.

Nonetheless, Europe is a key market for smartphones and this event marks a significant victory for the Chinese brand.

In addition to this, it is also necessary to investigate how other smartphone brands are performing in the region and whether Xiaomi would be able to cross Samsung, which is leading the European market with a 35 percent market share.

Furthermore, Oppo is also following Xiaomi's footsteps with 153 percent year-on-year growth in Europe and 197 percent in Western Europe this time around.

On the other hand, troubled with the US sanctions, Huawei is still struggling with a negative growth rate of 81 percent in Europe.

It is still unclear what actually contributed to Xiaomi's sudden growth and whether it was Huawei's sudden decline that the Chinese brand was able to use to its advantage in the European region.

When asked about what profit margins Microsoft earns from its Xbox consoles by an Epic lawyer, Microsoft's Vice President of Xbox business development Lori Wright responded that "We don't; we sell the consoles at a loss."

However, that does not necessarily mean that the company does not make any money from its console business. A Microsoft spokesperson explained that the console gaming business is traditionally operates on a hardware subsidy model in a statement to The Verge just hours after Wright’s testimony yesterday.

The spokesperson explained that the gaming industry is profitable and rapidly growing. Hence, Microsoft sells the consoles at a loss to attract new customers and generates profits through game sales and online service subscriptions.

While it is a known fact that gaming consoles are usually launched at a loss and eventually become profitable, it is still surprising that Microsoft has never achieved hardware profitability for its Xbox and relies on a combination of software, service, and accessory sales.

Moreover, Microsoft is also the odd one out in following this business model, whereas Sony's PS4 is expected to eventually became profitable and the Switch was also launched by Nintendo to be profitable quickly.

Recently, the smartphone maker introduced a formal support policy, according to which Galaxy devices, including both S and A series flagships, will be provided with four years of security updates, as reported by The Verge.

While Samsung's S8 and S8 Plus have reached the end of their support period, Samsung’s update page shows that S8 Active is still on the schedule for quarterly updates and its S8 Lite is still on the biannual schedule.

However, S8 was one of the most popular Samsung Galaxy devices. It effectively marked a major shift in design for Samsung smartphones with its wider edge-to-edge screen and minimal bezels. The device also came with an incredible camera and excellent hardware.

As the company was only updating S8 on a biannual basis anyway, this last update would not translate into a massive loss. However, it is still an evident sign that the time has come for Samsung's best phone to officially retire after four years of its debut.

The the American information technology multinational hopes to reach net zero emissions by 2040, which essentially means that HP will not be releasing more pollution that it can draw down from the atmosphere.

In addition to this, indirect emissions constitute the biggest share of HP's overall carbon footprint. According to reports by The Verge, the company's overall carbon footprint has also increased by 5 percent in 2019 as compared to the year before.

Other tech giants like Apple and Dell have also made similar commitments to combating climate change. Apple plans on reaching net zero emissions by 2030, while Dell plans to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

While HP's plans are more ambitious than Dell's, both companies hope to reduce pollution and electricity use from their supply chain and production processes.

With the aim of fighting climate change, HP also plans on employing electric vehicles and alternative fuels in its distribution and shipping processes. The company is also determined to push its suppliers towards more environment-friendly practices.

According to reports, the company also plans on ensuring that 75 percent of its total annual product and packaging content uses recycled, reused or renewable materials.

According to a Twitter thread by Mat Piscatella, a noted NPD analyst, PlayStation 5 is the fastest selling console in the United States history in terms of both unit and dollar sales.

He also adds that consumer spending on video game hardware, content, and accessories also reached a record high of $5.6 billion in March 2021. This was 18 percent higher as compared to consumer spending on these items a year ago.

However, it is important to note that while hundreds and thousands of people want to buy the PlayStation 5, which will further boost its sales, the video game console is still not available to many.

One of the reasons why Sony can not make more consoles available to its consumers is because of an ongoing global chip shortage, as reported by the Android Authority.

The PlayStation 5 as well as the new Xbox uses chips from Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), an American semiconductor company. However, AMD only designs these chips and outsources its production to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), which is finding it difficult to keep up with the rising demand for personal computers and gaming consoles during the pandemic.

It will be interesting to see how this sales tally increases for the PlayStation 5 in the coming months and whether it will be able to cross the sales of the famous PlayStation 2.

Being one of the major telecom distribution companies in the country, United Mobile is committed to meeting the needs and expectations of its customers by offering them high quality products and services. While it has played a huge role in advancing the growth of Pakistan's mobile industry, United Mobile hopes to bring high quality and internationally acclaimed smartphones for its customers in Pakistan through this partnership with OnePlus.

The Chinese smartphone maker OnePlus is known worldwide for its incredible smartphone design and technology. Despite its international popularity, the brand previously did not have an official presence in Pakistan. However, this new partnership with United Mobile will offer OnePlus an opportunity to make its mark in Pakistan.

OnePlus 8 Pro will be the first phone to debut in Pakistan as part of this new partnership.

Red Cable Club

OnePlus and United Mobile will also establish a special, membership-based Red Cable Club in Pakistan. This club will offer exclusive benefits to its members such as up to 50 percent off on out-of-warranty parts and services, and OnePlus original accessories.

In addition to this, Red Cable Club members will also be given access to new products before the launch date at exclusive prices, get priority service at customer care centers and enjoy a special Aftersales Service Package known as the Warp Support Service, where issues will be resolved within 4 hours.

All official OnePlus products will be available at retail stores across Pakistan and online retailers such as daraz.pk, ecart.pk, and surmawala.pk with free countrywide shipping.

While both smartphones come with identical hardware, they are different in size. Sony Xperia 1 III is the more premium offering with its slightly taller and heavier design, whereas Xperia 5 III provides the same experience in a more compact design.

Screen Size

The main difference between Xperia 1 III and Xperia 5 III is their screen size. Xperia 1 III features a 6.5-inch 4K OLED panel (21:9) as compared to Xperia 5 III's 6.1-inch FHD+ OLED screen (21:9). However, both phones have been upgraded with a 120Hz refresh rate panel as compared to last year's Xperia 1 II, which had a 60Hz refresh rate.

Snapdragon 888

Both of these new smartphones by Sony will also be powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 chipset, which not only offers better CPU performance, but a graphics uplift and incredibly fast integrated 5G networking.

Storage and Battery

Xperia 1 III comes with a 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, whereas Xperia 5 III sports an 8GB RAM with 128GB/256GB storage.

In addition to this, both phones will have a 4,500mAh battery with 30W wired charging. The company has also guaranteed three years of battery health on adaptive charging settings.

Camera

Both flagships also feature the same 8MP selfie camera in a thin bezel and three 12MP rear cameras: a 12MP main camera (f/1.7, OIS), 12MP ultra-wide sensor (f/2.2), and a 12MP periscope camera.

Pricing and Availability

Sony's new smartphones will only be available in the United States in the early summers of 2021 for now. Although the company has not released any information on pricing, the Android Authority expects that the new smartphones will stick to the same price range as their predecessors. Xperia 1 II was priced at $1,199, whereas Xperia 5 II costed $949 in the United States.

Moreover, it is important to note that sales did not only increase for the lowest-cost model, but the more expensive Galaxy S21 Ultra constituted around 40 percent of the S21 lineup sales in the United States, according to reports by the Android Authority.

The COVID-19 pandemic could be one of the reasons why Galaxy S20 had lower sales. The S20 lineup was launched at the start of March 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic had just started impacting many lives and livelihoods across the globe.

Price cuts for the S21 lineup may have also played an important role in the surge of sales for these smartphones. Samsung has been more willing to reduce S21 prices to increase sales unlike its strategy with S20.

According to reports, Galaxy S21 was sold a little below $900, which is around $300 less than its official price and $200 lower than the price of its S20 equivalent.

The company hopes to maintain its S21’s sales for the rest of the year by ensuring that it designs pricing strategies and promotional policies in such a manner that the phone stays relevant in the smartphone market for much longer.

According to Bloomberg, the company was involved in negotiations with the German Volkswagen AG and Vietnamese Vingroup JSC on possible sale of its smartphone division. However, those negotiations seemed to have failed.

In January, the CEO at LG Electronics’ also explained that the company is actively considering all the available options for this loss-making segment.

The company has also decided to halt its plans to launch new smartphones. LG’s rollable phone Rainbow has also being placed on an indefinite hold for now.

In addition to this, LG is also planning to relocate its workforce to other business divisions like automobile parts and household appliances. However, the company has not shared its final decision about the smartphone business with its workforce as yet.

The company might offer more details about this decision to its employees next month.

This new phone will be the third foldable phone launched by Samsung after Galaxy Z Fold and Z Flip and is expected to be revealed around the end of this year.

Although the phone's complete design is not finalized as yet, it can be confirmed that the phone will feature two hinges and will fold into three segments, as reported by the Verge.

Moreover, there are predictions that the phone's screen could have a more standard 16:9 or 18:9 aspect ratio, which will make it easier for app makers to design apps for the phone.

However, it is important to note that this would not be the first phone with multiple folds, as Xiaomi and Huawei have also been considering the multiple fold design for their foldable phones. Nonetheless, both of Samsung's competitors eventually decided to opt for the single-fold style.

The launch of a third foldable phone not only indicates the company's efforts in improving its foldable lineup by making something available for everyone, but also points towards the Samsung's ability to successfully navigate the chip shortages issue, which has been impacting the entire smartphone industry.

As producing foldable phones take more time and effort than normal phones, the South Korean smartphone manufacturer has to increase its production efforts, while maintaining an efficient supply of internal parts to ensure that its new foldable phones are available for sale on time.

According to a forum post by the OnePlus CEO Pete Lau, the first-ever OnePlus Watch is to be launched together with the OnePlus 9 Series on March 23rd with the aim of offering OnePlus users more convenience and seamless connectivity between all of their OnePlus devices.

However, this tweet by Unbox Therapy fully reveals the OnePlus Watch for the first time ahead of its launch event.

The OnePlus watch looks similar to other smartwatch designs with two buttons on the right and a standard watch strap.

In terms of features, The Verge reports that the OnePlus smartwatch might feature IP68 water resistance, and the OnePlus’ Warp Charge system, which will ensure a week of battery life with a 20 minute charge.

Moreover, the OnePlus smartwatch will also have 4GB of storage and will display notifications, calls and workouts for its users.

According to the Chinese smartphone manufacturer, at least one of the phones, most probably the Pro one, will get the 50MP ultra-wide camera, as reported by the Android Authority.

OnePlus Founder and CEO Pete Lau also confirmed this news on his official twitter account and explained how this ultra-wide camera will delivers distortion-free shots.

Pete Lau also compared the resolution of two shots taken with a conventional ultra-wide camera and the OnePlus 9 series camera for his twitter followers.

Although the OnePlus 9 series is not the first phone to feature the IMX766 camera sensor, it will be an upgrade over the 48MP IMX586 used for the OnePlus 8 Pro‘s ultra-wide camera.

In addition to this, the company also disclosed that it will be using the Sony IMX789 sensor for its main camera earlier this week, which will be the largest sensor in a OnePlus phone.

David Temkin, who is the Director of Product Management, Ads Privacy and Trust at Google, recently wrote a blog post explaining this move. "If digital advertising doesn't evolve to address the growing concerns people have about their privacy and how their personal identity is being used, we risk the future of the free and open web," he says.

While trends also changing and users are becoming more aware of privacy concerns, tech companies are now facing the question of either maintaining user trust or earning more ad revenue.

Temkin also quoted a study by Pew Research Center, which claimed that 72% of people feel that almost all of what they do online is being tracked by advertisers, technology firms or other companies, and 81% say that the potential risks they face because of data collection outweigh the benefits.

According to Temkin, Google's web products will now be powered by privacy-preserving APIs, which prevent individual tracking but still deliver results for advertisers and publishers.

Google will start testing for these FloC-based APIs next month and then, it will also test the data gleaned from those APIs with advertisers in the second quarter of 2021. The tech giant hopes to offer these new privacy controls within Chrome in April this year.

The Chinese automaker launched the first Mate X smartphone in 2019 and then, the lineup design was refreshed in 2020 with a single large screen that could fold in half with the display was on the outside of the device.

However, this new teaser shows that the new Mate X2 will fold the other way like Samsung’s Galaxy Folds.

The teaser image for the phone showed it opened at an angle with a glow on the inside of the hinge, according to The Verge.

This also indicated the 8pm (China time) of the launch event on the 22nd of February, 2021.

In addition to this, this new smartphone by Huawei will be powered by the company's own Kirin 9000 chipset and will feature a dual selfie camera. Huawei Mate X will also come with a 4400mAh battery with 66W fast charging support, as reported by the Gadgets Now.

The partnership is also directly in-line with the Indian government's goals to encourage investment in the country and eliminate roadblocks like import taxes, which serve as barriers to entry for many international companies.

According to recent tweets by Amazon's twitter account for India, the company is excited to set its first manufacturing line in Chennai, Tamil Nadu to directly contribute to the local economy.

The company hopes that its new manufacturing line in Chennai will product hundreds and thousands of Fire TV devices every year. Amazon also plans on scaling the capacity depending on the domestic demand.

While Amazon announced that it will be investing around $1 billion in local Indian businesses last year, this new announcement signifies the company's growing interest in the Indian market.

The Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra's most interesting feature is definitely the huge rear camera on the smartphone, which not only comes with a triple rear camera layout but also a tiny screen.

While the screen is too small for performing any touch interactions, it can still be used to take selfies with the main camera.

Moreover, Xiaomi's Mi 11 Ultra also offers an upgrade in terms of camera quality as compared to the Mi 11. The smartphone features a 50MP primary camera, 48MP ultra-wide snapper, and a 48MP periscope camera with 120x digital zoom.

Another notable feature is the smartphone's IP68 water resistance with significant ratings. While the Chinese smartphone maker has worked with splash-proof coatings before, this is the first time it will be offering water resistance to its customers.

The Android Authority also reports that this smartphone will offer faster charging speeds with its 5,000mAh battery, 67W wired charging, 67W wireless charging, and 10W reverse wireless topups. The Mi 11 Ultra is also expected to have a charging time of less than 55 minutes, which was Mi 11's 55W wired and 50W wireless charging speed.

While it is not clear at this point whether Facebook's smartwatch will run Google’s Wear OS, there are reports that the company is also working on building its own operating system for hardware devices and future smartwatches might use that instead.

The Facebook smartwatch will probably come with messaging, health, and fitness features like many other smartwatches in the market these days.

Although the social media giant has refused to comment on its advancements in the smartwatch project, it is obvious that Facebook is planning to expand its hardware efforts, especially with various augmented and virtual reality projects already in the works.

Currently, Facebook is in the process of developing its Oculus virtual reality headsets, Portal video chat devices, branded Ray-Ban smart glasses and a separate augmented reality research initiative known as Project Aria.

However, the company still deals with a lot of criticism about how it manages users' data. This might impact who buys Facebook's smartwatch and hands over his or her health data to a social media giant that does not have a good track record with protecting its user data.

As it is the case with almost all Google’s feature rollouts, the dark mode will be tested slowly before been made available for everyone. However, once it is out, the background of Google’s search pages will be turned into a very dark gray.

It is also unclear how widespread is the testing at this point. However, it also not confirmed if or when dark mode for desktop search might be officially rolled out more broadly.

“We’re always testing new ways to improve our experience for our users, but don’t have anything specific to announce right now,” according to Google's statement to The Verge.

Social media apps like Twitter and Instagram have also shifted towards the dark mode recently. Moreover, Microsoft is also testing changes to Word to make entire documents dark in the dark mode.

While, Google's new feature might not be new for its users, the testing phase will allow the company to gauge interest and figure out all the technicalities of this feature.