PayPal Saga: A Shocking Statistic
Here is some very interesting (read: shocking) statistic for you: (accurate as of 15th January, 2010).
- Number of Countries in the World: 192 (as per United Nations) [i]
- Number of Countries in the World: 195 (if we include Kosovo, Vatican City, etc.)
- US State Department Recognized Countries: 194
- Number of Countries in which PayPal Operates: 189[ii]
- Number of Countries that do NOT have Paypal: 5 (as per US State Department’s count)
- GDP Ranking (as compiled by IMF) for Pakistan for the year 2008 out of 179 Countries is # 48[iii]
- GDP Ranking (as compiled by World Bank) for Pakistan for the year 2008 out of 182 countries is # 46[iv]
- Internet Users in Pakistan: 18.5 Million (as per December 2009)[v]
- Internet users (as a percentage of the population): 10.6%
As of now, PayPal operates in 189 countries, that is like only six countries where Paypal does NOT operate:
- Cuba
- Pakistan
- Iran
- North Korea, and
- Afghanistan
- Syria
So lets see, Cuba has an embargo on trade with the US – has been for past 40+ years, so that is okay.
Iran, North Korea and Syria are “Axis of Evil” countries. So that’s understandable.
Afghanistan – is where the US is fighting it main battle $200+ Billion lost – okay so that is also understandable,
Pakistan – Ah! Pakistan. US’s Non-Nato Ally. Why the heck is Pakistan left out? I mean for crying out loud, even Somalia and Yemen have access to Paypal? Bloody Yemen! Bloody Somalia! Bloody Rwanda!
You know what? That makes me – Bloody Angry!
Why the discrimination – I have no idea. Reminds me of the song by the Pet Shop Boys, “What Have I Ddone to Deserve This?”
Here are the list of countries where PayPal is operating:
- AL Albania
- DZ Algeria
- AD Andorra
- AO Angola
- AI Anguilla
- AG Antigua and Barbuda
- AR Argentina
- AM Armenia
- AW Aruba
- AU Australia
- AT Austria
- AZ Azerbaijan Republic
- BS Bahamas
- BH Bahrain
- BB Barbados
- BE Belgium
- BZ Belize
- BJ Benin
- BM Bermuda
- BT Bhutan
- BO Bolivia
- BA Bosnia and Herzegovina
- BW Botswana
- BR Brazil
- VG British Virgin Islands
- BN Brunei
- BG Bulgaria
- BF Burkina Faso
- BI Burundi
- KH Cambodia
- CA Canada
- CV Cape Verde
- KY Cayman Islands
- TD Chad
- CL Chile
- C2 China Worldwide
- CO Colombia
- KM Comoros
- CK Cook Islands
- CR Costa Rica
- HR Croatia
- CY Cyprus
- CZ Czech Republic
- CD Democratic Republic of the Congo
- DK Denmark
- DJ Djibouti
- DM Dominica
- DO Dominican Republic
- EC Ecuador
- SV El Salvador
- ER Eritrea
- EE Estonia
- ET Ethiopia
- FK Falkland Islands
- FO Faroe Islands
- FM Federated States of Micronesia
- FJ Fiji
- FI Finland
- FR France
- GF French Guiana
- PF French Polynesia
- GA Gabon Republic
- GM Gambia
- DE Germany
- GI Gibraltar
- GR Greece
- GL Greenland
- GD Grenada
- GP Guadeloupe
- GT Guatemala
- GN Guinea
- GW Guinea Bissau
- GY Guyana
- HN Honduras
- HK Hong Kong
- HU Hungary
- IS Iceland
- IN India
- ID Indonesia
- IE Ireland
- IL Israel
- IT Italy
- JM Jamaica
- JP Japan
- JO Jordan
- KZ Kazakhstan
- KE Kenya
- KI Kiribati
- KW Kuwait
- KG Kyrgyzstan
- LA Laos
- LV Latvia
- LS Lesotho
- LI Liechtenstein
- LT Lithuania
- LU Luxembourg
- MG Madagascar
- MW Malawi
- MY Malaysia
- MV Maldives
- ML Mali
- MT Malta
- MH Marshall Islands
- MQ Martinique
- MR Mauritania
- MU Mauritius
- YT Mayotte
- MX Mexico
- MN Mongolia
- MS Montserrat
- MA Morocco
- MZ Mozambique
- NA Namibia
- NR Nauru
- NP Nepal
- NL Netherlands
- AN Netherlands Antilles
- NC New Caledonia
- NZ New Zealand
- NI Nicaragua
- NE Niger
- NU Niue
- NF Norfolk Island
- NO Norway
- OM Oman
- PW Palau
- PA Panama
- PG Papua New Guinea
- PE Peru
- PH Philippines
- PN Pitcairn Islands
- PL Poland
- PT Portugal
- QA Qatar
- CG Republic of the Congo
- RE Reunion
- RO Romania
- RU Russia
- RW Rwanda
- VC Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
- WS Samoa
- SM San Marino
- ST São Tomé and Príncipe
- SA Saudi Arabia
- SN Senegal
- SC Seychelles
- SL Sierra Leone
- SG Singapore
- SK Slovakia
- SI Slovenia
- SB Solomon Islands
- SO Somalia
- ZA South Africa
- KR South Korea
- ES Spain
- LK Sri Lanka
- SH St. Helena
- KN St. Kitts and Nevis
- LC St. Lucia
- PM St. Pierre and Miquelon
- SR Suriname
- SJ Svalbard and Jan Mayen Islands
- SZ Swaziland
- SE Sweden
- CH Switzerland
- TW Taiwan
- TJ Tajikistan
- TZ Tanzania
- TH Thailand
- TG Togo
- TO Tonga
- TT Trinidad and Tobago
- TN Tunisia
- TR Turkey
- TM Turkmenistan
- TC Turks and Caicos Islands
- TV Tuvalu
- UG Uganda
- UA Ukraine
- AE United Arab Emirates
- GB United Kingdom
- US United States
- UY Uruguay
- VU Vanuatu
- VA Vatican City State
- VE Venezuela
- VN Vietnam
- WF Wallis and Futuna Islands
- ZM Zambia
[i] Source: http://geography.about.com/cs/countries/a/numbercountries.htm
[ii] Source: Paypal (www.paypal.com) and navigate to Sign-up Page (countries list extracted from there).
[iii] Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(nominal)
[iv] Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(nominal)
[v] Source: http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats3.htm#asia
I'm an Internet addict - no other way to describe me. CEO of a Web Hosting & Datacenter, Entrepreneur, Motivator-Mentor, Internet Marketer, Digital Thinker and with that comes digital tinkering. Love life! Engineer by education. Passionate about making a living on the Internet and all that it has to offer. Blunt and in your face. Practical joker. Love books, music (all types of music, but especially vintage jazz), 4x4, movies, humor, gourmet food, cigars, fine wine and martinis! :)
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This post was mentioned on Twitter by babushka99: Paypal in Pakistan – A shocking statistic: http://bit.ly/4v4TJ4 — Must RT if you’re affected by PayPal…
Why can’t we make our own money transfer platform? Why beg PayPal to include us???
(a) Because it a universally accepted payment medium. (b) I have no qualms on us making our own payment system – but that is not the approach (IMHO). You don’t see us making our own chips or our own internet, or our own fuel if others were not to provide it. We have a ‘right’ to ask why it is not being provided in Pakistan. There must be a reason for this (c) We need to apply pressure on PayPal to find out why they are not including Pakistan in the list of countries where PayPal is provisioned.
Even if you did make your own money transfer system, would it be globally accepted and universal as PayPal? I highly doubt it.
I’ve been trying to do something about it for many years. This is not understandable – We have foreign banks operating like RBS, Standard Chartered, Barclay’s etc. We have VISA/Master Cards – Something should be done about it.
We have un-countable useless dept. for every sector like education, medical etc. even separate boards for only attesting and stamping already original documentation. Pakistan govt. should do something about it. Can’t we contact Shaukat Tareen or someone in banking sector or some online banking law professional to do something about it.
I think that should be the right way.
I agree with what you are saying. But I think it is imperative to know the “why”. Why is Paypal not considering Pakistan. This is not a government-to-government issue. Paypal and Ebay (the entity that owns Paypal) are US companies. We need to ascertain from them first hand as to what the issue is. Without having any ‘a priori’ knowledge of that basic fact, I think it would be a futile effort to raise hue and cry against any government office/official in PK.
You’re very right, Our officials will take DECADES to recognize the issue. I appreciate your efforts regarding this. I hope this problem solves ASAP.
I use MoneyBookers but they doesn’t operate in USA and are not so usable as PayPal.
Your Facts are not correct regarding paypal, Paypal doesnt fully support in all countries. Most of the countries are listed as sending money only, there are less countries which can use Paypal to Send Receive or Withdraw to a Local or U.S. Bank Account or a card. Checkout more details at offical paypal website https://www.paypal.com/worldwide/
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Shit Shit and alot more shit. My almost clients ask first do u have paypal account to received payment and my answer always no. Due to this i lost 40% new customers. We should do something to make this available in Pakistan. Faisal works about statistics is good but we need to find possibilities to make paypal available in pakistan.
@Chit Chat:
(a) I have never said or mentioned in any of my posts regarding countries which can receive money, send money or do both. The issue being discussed right now is purely availability of Paypal.
(b). The facts are NOT incorrect. Go to http://www.paypal.com and click on Sign-up, the 189 countries where Paypal works – are in the drop down list.
(c). When we can’t even receive money via PayPal, because there is none, then we have an issue (I believe).
Next time you unilaterally decide to shoot down a post just for the sake of it – do us all a favor and re-read through what has been written and if not to cumbersome for you, through in a little appreciation for what others are doing.
Good work Faisal but I think you need to rally some support. Had a quick look at the Facebook groups on this topic and membership runs to a couple of hundred people at best. Your stats are shocking and it is about time Paypal either started operatiing in Pakistan or went on record to explain why they continue to exclude PK. I was looking to see if the capital of 419 scams i.e. Nigeria had Paypal but it seems to be missing from both lists.
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@Anjam
Try
http://apps.facebook.com/causes/266093/2180278?m=6d54c0aa
The member count is 5200+ right now. IMHO, what we need is someone (preferably a Pakistani – I am sure more than one work there) working at Ebay/Paypal to get us the unofficial word.
Who the hell gives a shit about paypal.
whether they do business in pakistan or not?
there are 10 different payment gateways that work just as fine.
If they dont’ want our business. So be it.
Hi, I work on the internet myself, and you can only imagine how tormenting it can be not being able to open a PayPal account. You’re doing some excellent work in at least making the point across. We’ll do our best to publish this page to as many people as we can but I don’t really think PayPal will take any step towards the right direction.
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by jehan_ara, MazharHasan, PoPaT, Siliconstani, Usman Ilyas and others. Usman Ilyas said: RT @babushka99: Paypal in Pakistan – A shocking statistic: http://bit.ly/4v4TJ4 — Must RT if you're affected by PayPal [...]
Shocking indeed. And mind you India can send recieve AND withdraw money!! our Honor and diginity demnands that we immediatly demand that paypal either include us or delete India or we will explode a nuclear bum in slummabad!!! (thats how we porkis negotiate!! Shoot ourselves if anyone refuses us anything)
And we will of course declare jihad on amirkhans because they are one of our sponsors who bugger us off and on.
But then whats the use of having paypal? to send money to the terrporists around the world!! We have hawala for that hein?
so no worries!! We are NOT blocked!!
Saudis chini and amirkhans give money for the buggering in cask after we submit!! So that does not require paypal!!
So really we do not need the kufr thing. – sour grapes hein?
You guys need to start a movement to get Pakistan on the right track; Paypal will follow automatically. Get out of the anti-American, anti-Indian, “the-world-is-out-to-screw-us” siege mentality; clear the garbage from your textbooks and your minds; realize that you are up shit creek and work towards getting out of it. Everything else, including regular power supply and paypal will follow. Stay on the same belligerent course recommended by your rapacious and stupid army and you will go further up the creek and not just paypal, everyone else will also pull out. Good luck.
I give a shit about it – and I suspect many others. What part of “that Paypal is the de facto services payment method with the largest user base in the world” don’t you understand?
@Bilal Can you list some C2C payment services please that are widely accepted?
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One update is that “Nigeria” is not on the list. Nigeria was in fact a country served by Paypal, but taken off its list of countries served due to the Nigerian 419 (Advance Fee Fraud) issues. They were removed from the list in 2001. SO back then, even they had it!!!
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Who cares about PayPal, we get our money from third party transfer. Ask them to make a transfer to a American Pakistani in Amreeka.
he will transfer it back to Pakistan. If the Amreeki Paki takes 20% cut, don’t worry we have come a long way from the days of Mr. 10%.
@The Post Above. Again, you’re missing the point. A lot of people do care about it, and sadly your solution is highly impractical and not pragmatic at all.
Don’t take a myopic view to this all.
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Well,
we are a Pakistani Company running Online stores for 4 different vendors.
All on 2Checkout.
Works without any problems with Pakistani Bank accounts.
I’m sure there are other gateways like e.g. Cybersource that works just as well.
I had emailed PayPal support about this a year back or so and they had replied that Pakistan’s banking and money system is not up to international standards and the government of Pakistan has to place legislation in this regard for PayPal to consider bringing Pakistan into its fold.
I think the government has to take this issue up with PayPal and apprise them of the things they require.
Pakistan should be accepted by PayPal now.
Do you have a copy of your communication with them? I for one cannot believe our banking system and the legislation is worse off than Somalia, Yemen, Rawanda, etc.
Again, you’re missing the point. It is NOT about other alternative payment systems. Its pure and simply about PayPal.
PayPal also does not support following countries:
Serbia
Montenegro
FYR Macedonia
Moldova
…
They are all European countries.
We are even not being privileged to know the “REASON”. If somebody in IT field have good and personal relationship in the government of Pakistan or Ministry of IT , They can make the ministers to take personal interest and Interact (Officially) with PayPal in order to know at-least the “REASON” so that we can find out solution for it.
I also haven’t heard this issue on Pakistani Electronic Media. I tried to make my friend (From Dunya News) to raise the issue, But Unfortunately they were not able to understand the issue that How important it is.
Reason: follow the chain of command at paypal and you will find more than one disgruntled indians somewhere in the middle, who want to keep to EXCLUDE Pakistan (it is not a question of INCLUDE). yes conspiracy theories can sometimes be factual
but it is not too difficult to fix, if the right set of people care to act on it
Bangladesh is also not in the list
Doesnt matter why things r these ways? What matters is how to change them?
As Faisal writes Pak has “18.5 Million” internet users. Why not advertise the issue, unite people and send petitions directly to paypal… (Sorry i dont believe “a lot” in govt officials)…
We often discuss amongst ourselves, write blogs, comment when we come across irritating issues… why not stand up and do our bit as software profs?
As Mohiuddin says, media guys cudnt realise the issue… Why not sit n make these guys see some sense?
well as for wht i knw it is not pay pal that is creating the problems but our goverment since paypal is saying that the banks and state bank dos not have the platform and infrastructue for secure payments..they say they r very mch ready
One else country where PayPal does not operate:
Belarus (BLR)
Cross posted in http://propakistani.pk/2010/04/14/paypal-in-pakistan/
PayPal is already going to be doing some form of a pilot roll-out with Easy Paisa – they have been in discussion already.
With respect to Pakistan, the issue hinged more on internal disagreements within Paypal as what sort of roll-out to have for Pakistan. One of the fears of Paypal being introduced with direct deposits was anti-money laundering.
However, like it was cited on TGP, they are doing their ground work, they have setup an internal think tank to look at this market and more importantly, are looking at advanced features where by direct linkages to bank accounts and branchless bank account can also be covered. Yes, this would mean that they (Paypal would be deploying their own Payment gateway). You should write to Faisal Khan (http://faisalkhan.com) and check with him. He is being very mum about it – especially since he got contacted by Paypal (from his website you will see, he’s been writing to them for over 9 years to ask them to come here).
In addition a lot of efforts on the web like Fouad Bajwa and others have made it it clear to Paypal, that Pakistan’s time has come.
The discussion again and again on various boards, that the issue is our government, etc. is not true. There is a lobby within Paypal that did not favor Pakistan (might I also suggest the same lobby has made sure Bangladesh also does not have Paypal – make your guess!)
It has nothing to do with infrastructure (well barring the payment switch that Paypal sees a void in – as per their own standards, which they will also deploy themselves). Our infrastructure is quite excellent. To summarize:
- Paypal has setup an internal think tank
- A business case is being made for Pakistan
- Paypal will be setting up its payment gateway swtich here
- Trial with Easy Paisa are under works which at present is exchanging of framework information
- Paypal has already engaged a law firm
- Paypal has already engaged two technology consultants on their payroll (who are Chartered Accountants and are very well versed with technology)
- This is NOT a result of any one Pakistani’s effort or campaign, etc.
- The advance team has already visited
- Those in the know how are VERY quiet and have signed NDAs, etc. and hence are not talking much.
- UBL and other banks are also in touch with them and vice versa
- Full Services would probably be rolled out next year Q2/Q3 (2011) is the aim
- A lot of documentation was scanned emailed to PayPal US regarding our laws, etc.
- PayPal USA is directly looking after this.
- Folks who claim they are directly helping Paypal enter Pakistan like Fouad Bajwa, Zahid Jamil, Irfan Qureshi, Monis Rehman, Javid Bukhari, Ambreen Merchant, Abid Z. Chishty, Jehan Ara, Sabeen Mahmud, etc. is all lies.
- Paypal came here on its own.
- 6 Pakistanis who are working very high up in Paypal internally have been discussing this amongst themselves for a long time and then decided to take this initiative.
- Because of the security / travel ban, the ‘goras’ from Paypal could not visit Pakistan. But 2 of the Pakistani were part of the advance team.
- Singapore and UK office are providing ‘very’ limited support.
- Paypal knows VERY well what sort of license (or lack thereof) they need, and have been put in touch with the RIGHT people.
- I don’t know why EVERYONE in the industry wants to take credit for bringing them here – that is simply not true
- The kind of people they have hired for lawyers, technology consultants, payment architects, system architects, chartered accountants, and even lobbyists, I was HIGHLY impressed. These are just the right kind of people for the job. Discreet. Humble. Seasoned. Knowledgeable.
- They also under disguise – because Paypal barred them to do so, met outside for coffee/lunch, with all the top heads of all the cellular companies, via friends. The friends not knowing who they actually are.
- Next team visit is scheduled for immediately after Eid.
[...] ones they don’t operate in are Cuba, Pakistan, Iran, North Korea, Afghanistan and Syria. This post from Faisal Khan provides the details. We have been trying to find out why this is so. Several people have tried to [...]
Egypt is also not supported …..
As per my knowlege Paypal and Payoneer are both owned by Israel and they don’t like Pakistan so they won’t be a good solution for Pakistanis. I have heard that they are trying to avoid trades with muslims so that they muslims don’t benefit from international trade.
These may just be rumours but what I am looking at for the past few years, this is now proving to be true.
2checkout is the only best international solution so far and can anyone tell me how to withdraw $2000+ from their account to Pakistan without using payoneer?
Thanks!
Faisal Brother, I know its bad, Pakistan don’t have access to paypal but its sad, you are saying YEMEN and SOMALIA bloody, Both are muslim countries but in bad condition. Why we take things to meanless site ? if Yemen have paypal, that’s great thing, its our Muslim Country and famous for its vintage civilization.
Thanks!