He had a vision to create a portal that would become the daily destination for a community of users seeking new and exciting entertainment experiences. He hoped to build an active online community around a unique culture that was founded on users' interests and passions. Within three years, he's succeeded where many others have failed.

With over 1.5million unique visitors and seven million page views per month, Urdu portal Hamariweb.com is ranked amongst the top 10 Pakistani websites (Source DoubleClick) and acknowledged by P@SHA in their ICT Awards for 'Best brand development' of 2009.

Sci-tech caught up with Abrar Ahmed, CEO, Webiz Media and the owner of Hamariweb.com and discussed the need, content and challenges facing his portal and what we should expect in the future.

Tell us about the portal?

Hamariweb.com was launched on August 14, 2007 to cater to the Pakistani audiences looking for local content. Earlier, people were visiting Indian portals more due to absence of a true local web portal. We felt this need and set out to combine all the features of what people wanted in their daily lives and localised it. We were the first to introduce an Anglo-Urdu type of website and now we offer a variety of services, tools and games.

Why did you opt for an online portal and not a traditional magazine?

I had been working for the US online market for 10 years but still hadn't seen the Pakistani industry follow suit in the technologies that were changing the world. So instead of waiting for someone to take the initiative, I decided to do it myself.

Secondly, the senior team of the portal has worked in US eCommerce market for 10 years and this extensive global exposure ensured that we would be more successful in the still nascent digital media space than traditional media.

What are the challenges that youre currently facing?

The biggest challenge is to remain relevant in a fast-paced, challenging and high competitive industry like technology. We consistently need to be innovative which ensures we're constantly changing content, revising sections of the portal, as well as launching new features in every quarter. This is very challenging, resource hogging and exhausting.

There's also the question of a disproportionate share of online advertising which goes to international players such as Facebook. They have global naming and easy ad management tools, because of which advertising on those sites is easier but it does mean lesser revenues for our local online markets.

How has the response been from advertising community?

The response from advertising community is actually mediocre. Although the online advertising revenues have been increasing every year, the digital space still ranks in the lowest priority for advertisers and local portals. What we need now are true online advertising agencies—those which have the guts to present the clear potential of online world.

What is your advice for people entering this field?

For businesses and entrepreneurs the online business world has plenty of space for growth and doing business and, like the Indian markets, we will have plenty of successful websites in each category. Pakistani online market is quite fertile for doing major online businesses, so the future is bright.

For young professionals and students patience, along with passion, is a must, as well as right direction of managing and moving upwards in any online venture. Young people are always in a hurry, but they should remember that great success always take time.

What is the future like for the portal?

The future is mobile and we've already launched a mobile version for Hamariweb.com where you can get services such as updated news in English and Urdu, live KSE feeds, Forex and gold rates, weather updates, educational results and live cricket score cards.

We plan to go into horizontal expansion with the launch of an e-tail store carrying local and international brands.