Google launches first-ever App Growth Lab in Pakistan to support local app developers

Google has launched its first-ever App Growth Lab in Pakistan, an initiative aimed at identifying high-potential app developers, studios, and companies that seek to expand and grow their businesses.  

The four-month programme includes intensive education and support phases that enable participants to learn from Google experts in areas such as Ads, AdMob, Firebase, gTech, and Play, as well as industry leaders. 

The launch of the programme marks Google's commitment to growing Pakistan's app industry, both locally and globally.

Farhan S. Qureshi, Google's Regional Director for Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka, said that the project demonstrates Google's dedication to supporting the sustainable growth of the developer ecosystem in the country. "Through our ongoing efforts, we hope to support Pakistani developers in their pursuit of creating great applications for the world," he added.

The App Growth Lab programme focuses on four core pillars: build, develop, launch, and scale. The build component allows participants to identify the global app and gaming opportunity and understand different levers to set the all-round strategy for their company. 

The develop component brings a user-centric mindset to app and game product development and leverages best-in-class technology to set participants' apps up for long-term success. 

The launch component enables participants to learn strategies to win the launch, set up monetisation models, and maximize Google's tools for data to achieve measurable growth. 

Lastly, the scale component provides participants with knowledge of opening their app to the world by leveraging market and platform diversification strategies.

The programme will start in June and run for four months. Interested organisations, app, and development studios may apply until May 22, 2023. Game District's CEO Saad Hameed praised the programme, stressing that the Gaming Growth Lab Pakistan 2022 was one of the most insightful programmes they had attended, covering all domains of the mobile gaming industry, from basics to advanced, and optimising their games' performance by implementing all the intuitive knowledge learned from the programme.

According to a report by Data Darbar, a private markets intelligence platform, Pakistan's app industry experienced a 35% growth in 2022, with 3.52B downloads. Google's App Growth Lab is expected to further accelerate the growth of the industry in the country.