This week was a big one for having egg on your face – particularly if you are a QR code printed on a receipt or an ‘Islamic’ point-of-sale machine. But other than some of these gaffes by certain banks, there was a lot else going on. We look at how fintechs are trying to reinvent all the wrong things, how the government should consult McKinesy for their reports on anti-state twitter, and how businesses are expressing their patriotism. All this and more from Profit’s Ariba Shahid.
Mind boggling innovation
So the QR code by which a DIGITAL payment can be made will be printed on a piece of PAPER… Almost fell for it. https://t.co/jeJtlpc1tn
— Mubariz Siddiqui (@MubarizSiddiqui) August 12, 2021
What a time to be alive. In order to make a digital payment you still need someone to print out a QR code for you. While this is an utter waste of time, we find it important to point out that nearly every time this scribe has tried to make a QR payment or use NFC to pay, cashiers have ended up clueless and annoyed. We’re not even bringing up how bad the issue of interoperability between different QR platforms is. Let’s hope the environmentalists take this one up and put this initiative out of its misery.
Tip of the hat
Just got this text from my Doordash driver… pic.twitter.com/teCtjE53xv
— Roshan Patel (@roshanpateI) August 12, 2021
Got to respect the hustle. Never stop. Door dash delivery today, multimillion crypto startup tomorrow. The hustling attitude is all you need to get far in life. Mad props to this guy. We bow our hats in respect.
Occam’s razor
Tech dudes out here reinventing prepaid cards but with worse unit economics and calling it fintech
— Anabasis Capital (@AnabasisCap) August 12, 2021
Prepaid cards are not a form of disruption. Come on, VCs, save your dad’s money. Your unit costs are not great, your consumer acquisition costs are off the charts. We know this isn’t exactly Occam’s razor, but we do think some things are simple and should stay simple. There’s no point trying to reinvent the wheel, and fintechs should probably stick to, well you know, doing actual innovation.
Anti-state aesthetics
To call the ‘Deep Analytics’ Report Orwellian is an insult to Orwell. This is a 6th grade homework project that grown men were made to announce through a press conference.
It’s about as ‘deep’ as a puddle and is as intellectually stimulating as the back of a shampoo bottle.— Salaar Khan (@Brainmasalaar) August 12, 2021
While this isn’t exactly business or economic related, we feel the government needs some McKinsey consultants or people of the sort that can at least work on the presentation and aesthetics of a report and make it seem formal even if the content is well… um let’s just leave that up to your imagination. That said, a place like McKinsey would probably als have no moral qualms about sponsoring a government report trying to implicate people on twitter for being ‘anti-state’ – nor would they have issues with implicating pro-state tweeters caught in the landslide just for using certain hashtags.
Sharif family extravaganza
Entire Sharif khandan is embroiled in legal cases and pandemic is raging on.
Meanwhile, Junaid pic.twitter.com/lserLfAzhq
— Eurus (@Hexatiouz) August 12, 2021
Aag lagi basti mein, Junaid safdar apni masti mein. What a time to get married! Your mom’s on bail, your uncles are wanted in the country and your granddad is an absounder. But hey, if there’s anything we learnt during the pandemic, it’s that there can never be a moratorium on weddings. Weddings must go on. Now it is only a matter of time until we find out if this is going to be a big fat wedding or a smaller, classier, affair. If the Downton Abbey style wedding invitation with horses and roses is anything to go by – it will be the former.
11/10
Via WhatsApp pic.twitter.com/jPpVvjc08j
— DMKM – without a crystal ball (@2paisay) August 13, 2021
Sometimes we find it cringe when businesses try too hard to seem patriotic. This display, however, is something we appreciate. 11/10 for creativity.
Sugar daddies
Imran Khan is probably right when he says that sugar mills behave like a ‘mafia.’ Some of the information shared in the recent judgement by the @CCP_Pakistan is just insane. There is collusion all over the place. https://t.co/3H4nNMVtp9 pic.twitter.com/tgCugpXvdm
— Ahmed Jamal Pirzada (@ajpirzada) August 13, 2021
These sugar daddies are not sweet and are not giving you money. They’re robbing you blind.
Cancel culture
Oh no. pic.twitter.com/87E1tkTDHw
— 《B a k a》 犬。 (@Miatadoge) August 12, 2021
It’s 2021, you can get canceled for nearly anything on the internet. However, never did we think that an app or program would start cancelling us. Turns out they’re very much capable of doing so. Oh well.
Working women
This is important – in Pakistan, 83% of women approve of women working, but women think only 61% would approve.
57% percent of men approve of women working – prbly better than many of us would have guessed.
The next time someone objects, let them know they are in the minority. https://t.co/FsRjrLqRTk
— Nadia Naviwala (@NadiaNavi) August 10, 2021
Nadia Navi points out a sad fact. While women approve of other women working, they feel society doesn’t really approve of it. It is kind of true considering only 57% approve of women working. Not that you should need the approval of someone to work or live your life either way.
