MangoBaaz - Pakistan's BuzzFeed is all about no hate & lots of love

An Alternative Pakistan

Tell Ahsan that what he is doing is groundbreaking and that he is helping the world see the real Pakistan - breaking that image of it being arguably the world's most dangerous country - and he really doesn't take it as a compliment.

"Honestly, we don't really care much for showing 'a positive image of Pakistan'. In doing so would imply that we need to be apologetic to the rest of the world for something that most us have nothing to do with," Ahsan tells Catch.

"Our focus has always been to create content for Pakistanis, by Pakistanis and to focus on providing a counter-culture narrative. I think by just seeing the diversity of what people in Pakistan care about, others will automatically realise that it's not the most dangerous country in the world - it's a place where people are trying to get by their day-to-day activities, just like any other country in the world."

Team MangoBaaz

Ahsan and his friend Ali Gul co-founded MangoBaaz last year.

"Since then, we've grown our team to eight people working full time and a growing team of some amazing people who work with us as contributors."

The website was set up in April 2015.

"But that was more so an experiment then. It wasn't until August when we really started to turn it into a real venture," says Ahsan.

"We came up with the idea while I was still in San Francisco but Ali Gul had moved back to Pakistan. Having been best friends since we were 15, we talked frequently over WhatsApp/Skype. One of our conversations led us down the path to discussing the media landscape in Pakistan and how there weren't many digital media companies that catered to the younger audiences of Pakistan.

"After looking at several new media models, particularly Vice, BuzzFeed, Mashable, Refinery29, we thought there was an opportunity to build something similarly progressive for Pakistan."

Mission MangoBaaz

MangoBaaz is an online platform that amplifies the voice of an alternative Pakistan. Their mission is simple.

"We want to publish sharable content that shows an alternative Pakistan and provides a glimpse into our immensely diverse society," the team reveals in its About Us column.

"It's a platform that allows us to express our genius to an audience of like-minded individuals. And so, we're just going to build it."

WhyMangoBaaz?

A different Pakistan

MangoBaaz has become popular in record time, so what's their strategy to generate traffic?

"For starters, we have a great team of content creators who are always trying brainstorming ideas that they think are relevant to our audience - whether it's based off their experiences or something that they say/heard.

"One of the most important ways, though, has been to listen to what people are saying. There's a lot of noise on all the different social media channels and over time we've been training ourselves to pick up on topics that are most relevant to our audiences and turn them into stories."

But MangoBaaz also tries to experiment.

"Another really important strategy is simply experimentation. We try out various things that we think might be of interest and let the audience tell us if it's what they want or if it's just meh. This helps us to better understand our audience and therefore create more engaging content for them."

Yet there is a balance in posts. There are sections on humour, social engagement, people, entertainment.

"Humour always gets read more, but social engagement is critical for us in understanding our audience better," says Ahsan.

So where does Ahsan see himself in a couple of years?

"As a company, hopefully we become the platform most Pakistan's Millennials identify with. Personally, I hope I'm still employed at MangoBaaz!"

What about threats from the less tolerant sections of society? How would he handle that?

"Definitely (there is a scope for threats). However I think there are more opportunities than there are threats. If you look globally, there seems to be a convergence of old and new media. Case in point, Disney invested $200 million in Vice, NBC invested $200 million in BuzzFeed, and most recently Turner led a $45 million investment in Refinery29. So while there will be several competitors popping up, it's more exciting to see the opportunities that open us courtesy of being an internet company."

Ahsan's genius is something we can all get behind. Especially his genius at dispelling hate and spreading love.