Thread by @kayzafar

1. A Pakistani tech company just launched a mobile game - Flick Pool - and it has shot up to #4 in world & #2 in UK, one of the most competitive markets. But read on to know why neither the game developer nor Pakistan will benefit from the millions of dollars this game will earn.

2. First of all, let me reassert that we have amazing talent in this country and building something that ranks in top charts world wide is a testament to that fact. What we don't have in abundance is growth capital and an enabling business environment.

3. Maker of this game works out of @NICLahore's Plug N Play center in @LifeAtLUMS. Thanks to @IgniteNTF funding, places like NICs address the formative needs of new tech businesses - physical space, mentoring & seed capital (they raised $100k in debt from an NIC mentor). But...

4. Companies like @Mindstormstudio, maker of this game, who have reached escape velocity fueled by early success of products like Flick Pool, need millions of dollars for marketing & a business environment that celebrates their success and makes it easy for them to do business.

5. We have neither in Pakistan! While seed stage funds like @47_ventures can provide small funds to catalyze product development and capture early customers, marketing a tech product globally requires several million dollars.

6. Secondly, games like Flick Pool make money by selling small in-app products & showing ads. That means being able to send & receive small payments globally. NOT easy in Pakistan! Our regulators think that everyone is laundering money & make rules to curb, not to facilitate.

7. So what happens as a result? Developers like Mindstorm end up signing away their winning products to international game publishers willing to throw marketing dollars at it. They make millions off of it & give peanuts to developers.

8. Similarly the games end up showing ads from ad networks based in countries where sending/receiving global payments is easy. Those ad networks make money. Even Pakistani advertisers end up paying precious foreign exchange to those networks to show ads on Pakistan built games.

9. Travesty continues. Those international game publishers end up slapping their own names on these Pakistani products obfuscating the fact that Pakistan produced the products that millions of people worldwide are enjoying. Instead they hear news of a bomb blast in Pakistan only.

10. Companies like Mindstorm lose millions of dollars in revenues & profits. Pakistan loses millions of dollars in precious foreign exchange from EACH ONE of the winning games its game developers produce. Eventually good developers leave the country also.

11. What's the solution? I have already done two threads on attracting foreign investment in Pakistan and the need for the government to invest in the Science & Technology sector. But for various industries underneath S&T sector, we can do specific interventions.

12. For mobile products development industry, government can:
A) Create an enabling forex movement environment
B) Invest in training more game developers, designers & marketers
C) Co-fund private sector venture capital fund
D) Give tax breaks and subsidies to mobile publishers.

13. Mobile gaming market alone is a $138B market and the best part is that it offers a very level playing field to all. Every game, regardless of where it is built, is distributed through 2 channels: App Store and Play Store. That's a massive equalizer!

14. Think about it, when you use Skype, do you ever wonder or care that it was built in Estonia? When you play Candy Crush, do you give a damn that it was developed in Malta. Can you even locate Malta on the map? Yet these companies are worth billions of dollars now.

15. I know our policy makers love the traditional industries that have stopped innovating & become addicted to gov support & rent seeking. But let's at least save a hug or a flirtatious wink for the tech industry w such immense potential to get us out of the economic mess v r in.