PAGE Blog Business Weekly Magazine
Interview with Saad Muhammad Arshed Malik – MD, Lamudi-Pakistan
Saad Arshed Malik, Managing Director Lamudi-Pakistan while giving an overview of the vision and scope of Lamudi especially in the property and real estate sector said that Lamudi’s vision is to bring ease of access to people wherever they are in Pakistan in terms of property searching. Our objective is to help individuals in the property markets to find their ideal home, land or commercial property with convenience.
Our aim is to empower consumers with the most detailed and up to date information regarding real estate market. Lamudi’s vision is to revolutionize real estate buying and selling in Pakistan and bring innovation and transparency to global real estate industry.
In terms of scope, Lamudi is currently operating in 32 countries around the world including Asia, Africa and Latin America. Our aim is to become the number one property portal all across the globe.
PAGE: Do you believe that tech startups will continue to grow and expand their markets in Pakistan?
Saad Arshed Malik: Tech Startups are definitely the future of Pakistan and they have demonstrated immense growth in Pakistan. There are quite a few gaps and no significant players currently operating in the e-commerce industry, so with young energetic and qualified human resource like Lamudi, online startups will continue to show massive growth in developing countries like Pakistan.
With 30 million Internet users, 15 million smartphone users and 12.8 million active Facebook users Pakistan remains to be an ideal country for these e-commerce enterprises to tap into. In addition to that, with the growing increase in demand for 3G and 4G services in Pakistan, there is a definite need for continuous innovation.
PAGE: Do you feel that online enterprises like lamudi have taken over conventional business models?
Saad Arshed Malik: It is not that we are here to take over the conventional real estate business models, there will always be a significant place for brick and mortar businesses. We are just providing another platform for users to access real estate information with ease. Conventional methods will continue to exist. Our aim is to just enhance the real estate market in Pakistan.
We believe that there will be a continuing balance between online and traditional offline business methods particularly in real estate industry.
PAGE: Would you like to brief us about the recent investment that Lamudi received? Where do you plan to utilize it?
Saad Arshed Malik: Lamudi has secured a fresh round of investment worth $31.4 million to solidify its business in Asian and Latin American markets. With this investment, Lamudi plans to enhance its presence in the 9 countries where it is currently operating.
Lamudi’s earnings grew by a staggering 460 percent last year, and with 2016 looking even brighter, we believe that if we hold off our expansion plans this year, we can attain massive profitability in 2016.
PAGE: Are you satisfied with the pace of growth and advancement of Lamudi in Pakistan?
Saad Arshed Malik: We are pleasantly surprised with the traction that we have received over the past few years in terms of suppliers including agencies and builders that are signed up with Lamudi. Top most players in the country have already collaborated with Lamudi and are satisfied with our services.
In terms of demand, traffic continues to increase rapidly. We plan to cash on global smartphone and digital revolution and become the best online real estate marketplace. With 24 million 3G and 4G users at presents and continuing increase in demand for online services in Pakistan, we are certain that this country has immense potential to grow and we hope to grow with it.
PAGE: In what ways are internet-based businesses helping Pakistani consumers in bringing down operational costs?
Saad Arshed Malik: Through strong technological standards combined with advanced marketing strategies, we build products that are superior in knowledge quotient. In our kind of business, generating lead is the most crucial element and in that sense we are helping our suppliers with another outlet to achieve maximum outreach all around the world. This certainly aids them in reducing their marketing costs, which is effectively making us a necessity for them.
PAGE: How do you compare the growth of Lamudi-Pakistan with its growth in more developed countries around the world?
Saad Arshed Malik: Pakistan’s Internet-based businesses have immense potential given the country’s booming Internet industry.
I believe that Pakistan’s growth will rival and possibly outpace other Asian countries. Lamudi-Pakistan is definitely one of top performing markets among all other countries.
As this country continues to grow we believe that we will grow with it as well. I believe that there is a massive room for growth and improvement for us down the road in this country.
PAGE: Can you highlight the achievement of Lamudi so far? Also what are your future plans for Lamudi?
Saad Arshed Malik: With its operations expanded to 8 cities in Pakistan, Lamudi has achieved 1 lakh plus active listings all across Pakistan and 900,000 plus listing worldwide. It has created more than 600 jobs around the world, signed up topmost builders in the country and has definitely become the fastest growing e-commerce portal in Pakistan.
Lamudi is a perfect example of consumer empowerment. At the end of the day, we are driven by making dreams happen in Pakistan. The financial security and happiness of our clients is the greatest measure of our success.
Profile: Saad Arshed Malik
Saad Arshed Malik is the Country Director for Lamudi, a global online real estate platform present in 32 countries with its headquarters in Berlin. In his role, Mr. Saad oversees functions such as: sales, marketing, finance, business development, and public relations.
Mr. Saad graduated from Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute (GIKI) in 2002 with a Bachelor’s degree in Electronics. For 5 years, worked in telecom sector with players operating in broadband services and telecom operations (Zong-China Mobile).
In 2007, Mr. Saad took a break from the corporate world and joined Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) to study for an MBA in General Management. After completing his masters, he joined Transworld-Orascom as Marketing Manager.
In 2011, Mr. Saad left Transworld-Orascom Group to pursue entrepreneurship and set up his own venture, a specialized portal in new product conceptualization and definition, product management and product marketing. After running the portal for two years, Mr. Saad joined Lamudi in 2013 to head up Pakistani operations as its Country Director.
In his free time, Mr. Saad likes to play tennis, cricket, football, and read books.
About Lamudi
Launched in 2013, Lamudi is a global property portal focusing exclusively on emerging markets. The fast-growing platform is currently available in 32 countries in Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Latin America, with more than 900,000 real estate listings across its global network. The leading real estate marketplace offers sellers, buyers, landlords and renters a secure and easy-to-use platform to find or list properties online.
Lamudi is a part of the Rocket Internet family, which is the fastest and the most successful online venture builder across the globe. With an exceptional team, that has been building online companies since 1999 and has created over 100 market leading companies in 40+ countries. We bring unrivaled expertise from launching of various ventures.
In Pakistan, we have successfully launched several ventures and employed over 200 people. Superior expertise and proficiency of an international company together with an acute understanding of the local market, we bring you the best online real estate market place in Pakistan.
Lamudi.pk caters to the needs of both real estate buyers and sellers. Our objective is to help individuals in the property market to find their ideal home, land or commercial property. We also provide state-of-the-art services and features for Pakistan real estate agents.
Our aim is to empower consumers with the most detailed and dependable information in the market. Lamudi’s vision is to revolutionize real estate buying and selling in Pakistan.
Lamudi.pk helps you to get in touch with the agents who have the direct mandate for the property from the owner. This brings increased efficiency to the property market in Pakistan. For the agents, we bring in quality leads, connections and tools to manage and develop client base.
