Bilal Munir

Early life and background

Munir says he is from Faisalabad. He said his only aim was to be the topper. He said he placed third in ICS across Faisalabad, and that he received 2 lakh rupees from Shahbaz Sharif for topping. [1]

Education

Munir said he was a student at Punjab College and was very good at assembly language. He said computer science was his subject from the start. He said he started at Fast Lahore in 2014, and that there was no real research, only a curriculum, and that he then shifted back to Faisalabad. [1]

He said his family once told him to start a business and drop his degree. He said he had to travel back every week because his father could not wait more than a week. He said he completed his degree, and that on the day of his graduation he was in Dubai. [1]

Early online work

Munir said he used to manage celebrity pages. He said earlier websites he built earned him nothing, and that about 82 of his AdSense accounts were banned. [1]

Video Wali Sarkar

Munir's first YouTube videos were about technology, including assembly language. He said an unboxing video got 1000 views, after assembly language videos got 200 to 300. He said the channel was named Video Wali Sarkar from the start, and that someone suggested that he use the name. He said the problem was that he was reviewing cell phones but not reviewing tech. [1]

He said brands at the time did not believe in sending review units, and that because of Video Wali Sarkar, products came to him, since he wanted products to review. He said he bought a charger, made a video about it, gave his email for anyone who wanted one, and received over 100 orders. He said fame came early but his earnings started at a much later stage. He said brands took him to other countries to show their launch events. [1]

E-commerce business

Munir said he wanted his own platform to control which products he highlights. He said his business was started because his vision at the time was Video Wali Sarkar, and that it started in 2018. He says he has an e-commerce business, and that its main strength is launching products for brands. [1]

He says his business started the concept of flash sales, which companies do internationally, and asked brands to set their lowest price from the first day of a sale. He said it sold 2,000 units of a Rs. 21,000 phone in nine minutes. He said the Spark 7 Pro was the first exclusive phone the business launched, and that it was completely assembled in Pakistan. He said the business has done multiple sales in which 3,000 to 4,000 units went in a single sale. [1]

He said Video Wali Sarkar and his business had separate offices at one point. He said his average return rate is 7 to 8 percent. He says he started giving review units to YouTubers whose videos did not yet drive sales. [1]

Views

Munir said his vision was to be financially independent through a business he can sustain. He says sustainability is the first thing on his mind for a business, and that he wants to make his own products. He says his first goal is to remove himself from his businesses. He says he wants his businesses to be bigger than him, and run as businesses, not as an influencer's brand. He says a company grows as more people grow inside it. [1]

He says he judges a coder hire on whether they deliver the code asked for. He says what a person does outside work is not his concern. [1]

On creating content, Munir says he knows that what happens quickly has a greater chance of falling. He says that when money arrives through controversy on YouTube, a person's mental growth does not happen. He says he avoids chasing perfection in his videos and does not make each video aiming to beat his last one. He says his first aim is to publish as much needed content as possible. [1]

He says YouTube was uncertain as a career when he started, though his own career was not. He says YouTube has become an established business, though growth is still happening. He says new creators are pushed to copy the style their audience first saw, and that a tech reviewer does not need to beat another creator to succeed. [1]

He says Pakistan's phone cycle is about a month and a half, against six months in the US. He says most Pakistani users buy phones in the 30,000 to 40,000 rupee range, and that Pakistani buyers are mostly bargain buyers. He says SKUs in Pakistan are very random, while the rest of the world is standardised, and that every six months Haier changes the colour of the same imported model and issues a new SKU. He said he could not find a decent YouTube review of an air conditioner in Pakistan. He says consumers are happy with a basic DSLR and good audio. [1]

He says a product launch has to reach consumers directly. He says customer satisfaction comes from the whole buying and unboxing experience, and that a customer who had a good first experience becomes willing to trust other products. He says he is ready to give a good customer experience once he has a margin. He says a free delivery offer means the seller has priced the product higher. [1]

Personal life

Munir describes himself as a workaholic and as not a very optimistic person. He says that ten years from now he will still be working, because he wants to work. He said he was better at English than at Urdu. [1]

Timeline

2014

Started at Fast Lahore.[1]

2018

His business started.[1]

Appearances

Frequently asked questions

References

1. How Bilal Munir built VideoWaliSarkar from scratch . Thought Behind Things , 2021-06-16.