Summary : I think this is proof that having alot of money to burn is NOT the answer to everything, and whether one has funding is not much of a factor for early success nowadays. The service I am reviewing is an example of how NOT to launch a tech startup.

Nilaam.pk was a “much anticipated” website if the all the press coverage was to be believed and according to nilaam.pk itself was the answer to all the world’s problems…This was supposed to be launched on April 18th but it seems they launched it earlier? either that , or they are testing their “php pro-bid” software out on their production server (a big no no no isn’t it?). Anyhow, here starts my user experience: When i go to their site i find this: (click to maximize)nilaam.jpg

Then I go , well since I’m a power user, I might want to try the full URL, so I do , and the site pops up (finally). By now 97% of all users have moved onto beliscity, myshop, lootmaar, whatever. I hang on, only to be greeted by a “meet men and women ad” that links to some iffy website on top of the auction pages. HMMMmmmm. Ok enough of this. I switch to another site as well. Game over.

I’m not being mean, these are my comments after cutting them some slack (the splash page earlier was also reminiscent of an experiment gone bad in 1995). By also using the overused slapstick slogan “Pakistan’s 1st auction site”, (akin to saying ‘Pakistans first pink soap’) which frankly is an insult to the Pakistani web surfer’s intelligence, they seemed to have made things worse for themselves. Pakistanis have been using ecommerce and auction sites for awhile now, thank you very much…and the first impression is the last impression. Good bye Nilaam, and good luck. (you also seem to need some engineers and domain experts)

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