Google has opened its first office in Pakistan. What does Google see in Pakistan that we do not? We Pakistanis look at Pakistan and see debt.
Google looks at exactly the same country -- and sees something else. Google looks at Pakistani talent and finds it underpriced. A Pakistani programmer's salary is low by London, New York or Dubai standards-but his or her output is about the same.
Google knows that code does not carry a passport -- a line of software written in Lahore can perform exactly the same function as one written in California. That creates something economists understand very well: arbitrage. Pakistan has labour that is inexpensive locally but potentially valuable globally.
For Google, that gap is opportunity. For Pakistan, it could become foreign exchange. Google seems to have analysed the scale of the Pakistani market -- 240 million people where internet use has already reached around 57 per cent of the population.
That means Pakistan is no longer merely a future digital market -- it is already one. Every additional person who comes online becomes a potential consumer of search, Don't we tend to see population only as mouths to feed? Users become markets -- and markets attract investment.
From Pakistan's angle, a textile mill needs land, machinery, electricity, imported equipment and capital before it can employ another thousand workers. The digital economy, on the other hand, needs a laptop, connectivity, skills and access to a customer. Pakistan's demographic problem can therefore become Pakistan's export advantage.
Google is already putting money behind that proposition. In 2026, it plans to provide 150,000 Google Career Certificates across Pakistan, including training in artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, data analytics and digital marketing. The reality: Google is not training 150,000 Pakistanis out of charity - it sees human capital.Last year, Pakistan's IT exports reached a record $4.6 billion, growing around 21 per cent in a single year.
That sounds impressive. Now look at the other number: Pakistan accounts for only around 0.1 per cent of the world's digitally delivered services exports. That is one-tenth of one percent.
Somehow to us that appears as evidence of weakness. Google looks at it as evidence of headroom. Pakistan does not need 10 per cent of the global digital market.
It does not need 5.0 per cent. Even moving from 0.1 per cent toward 0.5 per cent would transform Pakistan's external account. This is why the government's $30 billion IT export target should not automatically be dismissed.
Today's number is $4.6 billion. The destination is $30 billion. Yes, the gap is enormous -- but so is the global market.Maybe the question is no longer what Google sees in Pakistan.
The right question ought to be why can't we Pakistanis not see it in Pakistan. The writer is an Islamabad-based columnist.