Pata Lagao: ‘social directory’ to hit the net on Jan 1

A website listing the main businesses and entertainment facilities in Karachi will be launching on New Year's day.

KARACHI: The idea felt like a revelation when the three young men were trying to find a new coffee place at Khadda Market - and failing miserably. Why can’t there be a single place where we can find restaurants, salons, malls, cinemas and other entertainment services in a city? If you have the extra requirement of not spending eight hundred rupees on a single meal, your search has become a thousand times harder.

It was this feeling of frustration that inspired Khalil Shahab, 21, Uzair Muhammad, 22, and Bilal Khatri, 22, to create a website where you can find businesses and entertainment in a city.

In June, the three men were out in the field to gather data that would help them launch www.patalagao.com, a website that doest not cater exclusively to the moneyed. Scheduled to launch on January 1, the website is going to be a “social directory”, as Khalil, also director for marketing and sales for their business, calls it.

The website will have information on businesses and entertainment of Pakistan’s three major cities, Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad. Pata Lagao also ventures into listings for those visiting or living in Dubai.

“We don’t want to just list places for fine dining. We also want to provide information to those craving a good bun kabab or looking for the best shawarma place in town,” Khalil explained.

Khalil, who is studying in Dubai, said Pata Lagao will set itself apart from competitors with its comprehensive selection options. For example, while searching for a restaurant on the site, the user will be able to sift through by city, then by neighbourhood, by cuisine and by price. The founder also boasted of a “highly interactive interface”.

Anyone visiting the page can write restaurant reviews and give ratings. “We will, of course, be moderating the activity and reviews that are uploaded will be checked for content and language,” Khalil added.

A restaurant that is given a bad review will also have the opportunity to contact the person who has written the review. “It won’t be anonymous,” he promised. Anonymity would make it very difficult to regulate users and comments.

A graduate in electronic engineering from Iqra University and the director for research and development, Bilal Khatri said: “We have Google-map integration, meaning you can easily get directions for any location on the site,” he said excitedly. “You can either log in to the page via Facebook or you can register directly with us free of cost and win giveaways.”

“We want to give people what they want, even if it is a list for the best mechanics in town,” Khalil said.

“We don’t have any real competitors,” Bilal added confidently. “We also plan to have bloggers linked to our website, which is nearly complete, so that traffic on their (bloggers) webpages can also increase through their interaction on Pata Lagao.”

You can get in touch with the young group through their page on Facebook.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 23^rd, 2010.