ASSIGNMENT NO.

ENTREPRENEURSHIP

Pakistan Institute of Engineering and Applied Sciences

Submitted by: Raja Abdul Wasay Minhas

Roll no:BS-EE-53220
Dated: 3rd March, 2020
 PakWheels.com:
Introduction:
Pak Wheels has been around in Pakistan for more than a decade and stands as one of the earliest
internet ventures from Pakistan. A 360 solution for people looking to buy or sell cars
and motorbikes, seek advice and be part of a group of like-minded enthusiasts. Pak Wheels is not
only a place a person can go to when selling or buying bikes and cars but it also provides useful
information to the general public in the form of various blogposts and connects likeminded car
enthusiast through their forum.
Origin:
In 2000, Hanif Bhatti the founder of PakWheels.com, came to Pakistan after spending more than
2 decades abroad and that’s when he decided to start this community, which later became what we
know today as Pak Wheels. The main reason that hanif Bhatti states for creating Pak Wheels was
simply that there was no such place or forum for Pakistani people where they can talk about cars,
gain information about cars and simply be passionate about cars which is a passion among many
in Pakistan, Hanif Bhatti states “I wanted to get in touch with my friends and people who were
passionate about cars.”

Figure 1 Hanif Bhatti founder of Pak Wheels

Initial period:
The venture started from the basement of Hanif’s home with no investment other than the cost of
purchasing the domain. Both of the partners never thought they would soon be launching a
business, which in the future, would gain money from the venture. The website was launched at
the spur of the moment without any homework or brainstorming on the business model. In fact,
money wasn’t even part of the equation. Both of them wanted to add value and create a high-
quality community.
Growth:
A modest amount of money was spent on domain and hosting. Since the founders were interested
in helping out the members of Pak Wheels, they treated the small community like a family and
soon people started joining in by the numbers. In a year’s time, Pak Wheels grew to become one
of the biggest communities of Pakistan. The growth was all organic, people were coming to the
forum, asking questions, getting answers, and these satisfied users were telling their colleagues
and friends to join the Pak Wheels Forums too. Facebook and any other social network were non-
existent at that time (2003-4). When the traffic soared, money also started coming in through
different sources mainly advertisements but as the website started to grow, the work requirements
grew right along with it, this was when the challenge began for the limited team. Hanif needed
help to manage the rapidly growing community. It was December 2008, there was a young startup
founder in Lahore, Raza Saeed, who was working on his services company Confiz, Raza Saeed
knew that internet population of Pakistan, no matter whatever the growth rate is, will eventually
grow and this venture can become more relevant at that time. It wouldn’t be just to say that Raza
had luck on his side, it was his foresightedness that led him to believe that in the upcoming years,
this venture could turn out to be useful for many Pakistanis. Raza along with his friend, Suneel
Sarfraz, invested in and acquired a major chunk of Pak Wheels right away. The offices shifted
from Karachi to Lahore, Raza took the lead and in the upcoming years Pak Wheels went on to
become one of the biggest independently curated communities on Pakistan Internet.

Figure 2 Raza Saeed CEO Pak Wheels

Pak Wheels at Present:

In terms of numbers, Pak Wheels is considered the most credible website not only for buying and
selling of vehicles but for vehicle-related news as well. The website is getting an astonishingly
high 20 Million-page views a month and counting. Recently, the venture also raised 3.5 million
dollars to fuel further growth and expand its horizon. What started as a two-person community-
based website now has a team of more than 60 individuals working day and night to help, and
sustain the ever-growing community of Pak Wheels.
Raza from the very first day had the vision to make it an internet company and streamline
everything properly so that they could identify new avenues for growth. When talking about
competitors, Raza believes Pak Wheels doesn’t have anyone to fear. The platform is doing
tremendously well when stacked against all of the competitors and it is the only community-based
website in Pakistan. After the investment, things have begun to take shape; new resources are
hired, each resource has a small project to manage and goals to achieve. There are proper vehicle
and auto parts reviews, the reviewers spend weeks testing a car to write about their experiences.
Future:
The startup is exploring new mediums for marketing, it doesn’t want to limit itself to a single
domain. In the future, we may also see its campaigns on a different medium online and offline
both. The motto of the company “Think Wheels, Think Pak Wheels” is going to set the tone for
how things will take shape in the upcoming years for the auto industry, auto enthusiasts, and the
internet economy of Pakistan. The international automotive industry is going very strong with an
average valuation of startups to be 4.2 Million Dollars. Over the decade, Pak Wheels has tried and
tested different models for revenue generation ranging from loyalty cards to featured ads, from
traditional ads to dealership packages all of these have worked for the startup. It is also organizing
auto shows all over the country which also helps in revenue generation and brand building. After
the first round of investment, the startup is focusing once again on the growth Raza Saeed on the
future of Pak Wheels states that Pak Wheels will stay focused in Pakistan and will introduce new
tools and services that would greatly benefit all the stakeholders of the auto industry in Pakistan
including the users, auto enthusiasts, automakers, dealers and auto industry as whole. By the end
of this decade, Pak Wheels aim to be a billion-dollar Pakistani company.
Impact on Auto-Motive Sector:
Pak wheels started with the idea of creating a community where various people can share and
obtain information about cars a passion that is present among many Pakistani people this small
community by the help of market strategy became a multi-billion dollar company and
revolutionized the process of buying and selling of cars and bikes in Pakistan. Pak Wheels has now
also become a credible source of information related to the auto-motive industry of Pakistan and
provides detailed reviews on the various makes and models present in Pakistan that greatly helps
a person when determining a car to buy. In short Pak Wheels is a tool that has greatly
revolutionized Pakistan’s auto-motive industry and plans to further revolutionize it by bringing
new and innovative ideas to the auto-motive industry of Pakistan.