KARACHI: Google’s Think Apps, the first and the biggest offline event focused on apps and games, was held in Lahore, Pakistan. The event saw more than 500 developers, in addition to business and industry leaders from around the country, come together to learn how to bring Pakistani-made apps and games to the world.

Pakistan is making a strong entrance into the global gaming and app market. The country's standing in the international app economy has improved significantly over the years, with Pakistan’s developers moving up to 16th place in 2023 from 27th in 2018 in terms of app downloads.

In 2022, apps developed in Pakistan were downloaded a staggering 4 billion times worldwide, marking a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 30% from 2018 to 2020. In 2022 alone, a total of 65 apps from 24 local developers reached the top 10 rankings in the gaming and apps verticals on both the Play Store and App Store.

Farhan S Qureshi, Google’s Director for Pakistan, said, “Google will continue to invest substantially to nurture Pakistan’s developer ecosystem. The country has the potential to become a key player in shaping the future of the global app economy. I’m confident that Think Apps 2023 will enable even more local developers to create great games and apps, supercharge their growth, and scale globally with Google AI-powered solutions.”

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023