pakistan 
Today’s question is, will there be Google’s office in Pakistan anytime soon?
Google’s Regional Director for Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh, Farhan S Qureshi, said the company is always exploring opportunities but has nothing to announce regarding office opening yet.
Qureshi said after the COVID-19 pandemic, people had increasingly started using digital services and online platforms. This has also spiked the need for localising the digital giants in Pakistan, such as Google.
Qureshi reiterated that Pakistan needed to invest its resources to unlock its digital potential and train women and youth regarding digital literacy. He said the government needed to work with local YouTube creators to capitalise on their talents and upskill developers so they could compete in the global market.
He said every year, Google releases the list of its top trending searches that have a high spike in traffic over a specific period. “From 2021, search trends signify that Pakistan is a cricket fanatic nation. The top searches of the past year are from Pakistan’s cricket series with England and South Africa followed by the highlights of ICC T20 World Cup and PSL. We also saw that there is a big demand for both international and local movies and TV shows, with Khuda aur Mohabbat and Squid Game topping the charts.”
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He said Pakistani creators were sharing high-quality content, and building a local and international following alike.
Qureshi reiterated that all Google products were built with strong security features that protect information. “We work hard to protect you from unauthorised access, disclosure, alteration, or destruction of information we hold. Google uses encryption to keep user’s data private while in transit. Google offers a range of security features, like security checkup, safe browsing, and two-step verification to help protect your Google account.”
He said Google was proud of the work it had done to help digitise Pakistan.
