Nepalese Cloud Workers

In Nepal, one fifth of the population is unemployed. And according to the International Labor Organisation more than 2 million Nepalese work abroad.

The Finance Ministry says the country’s unemployment rate is a major concern.

But one private company is likely to become one of Nepal’s biggest employers –  hiring at least 5,000 people by the end of this year with online jobs.

The company, Cloud Factory, is located in a Kathmandu Valley suburb.

Its three-story building has a large room on every floor – each lined with hundreds of rows of computers. Inside, one hunderd young people are tapping away at their keyboards.

But Cloud Factory’s CEO Mark Sears, says there are 1,200 more working online at the same time.

“It is a factory in a cloud,” he says. “There is cloud computing, there is cloud storage. And we do cloud labor.”

“Our workers are free to work whenever they want, wherever they want. And that's the opportunity for businesses around the world to send all their computer works up into the cloud. And we have a large distribute workforce of the people that work on that.”

Cloud Factory provides digital goods and services for big companies across the globe.

Mark had the idea for the business when he met Nepal’s young software developers five years ago.

“They have got a better education than they ever had before.  They speak English, they write English. They know how to use computer. They are on the internet. They are connected. They are using Facebook and other sites,” he explains.

And that gave him enough reason to build Cloud Factory.

“It's a matter of job creation.”

Undergraduate student Praful Shakya joined Cloud Factory five months ago to become financially independent.

“Being a teenager, I just want to live my life full, roaming around with my friends and visiting new places,” he says inside his bedroom. The walls in his room are covered with pop singers, from Bob Marley to James Blunt.

“I am almost 20 years old and I was really dependent to my parents. And I didn't feel good about it. I told my mother that I have to buy stationery and bought jeans from that money. That was a really bad experience. I knew my mother will not give me money to buy jeans because I had new pair of jeans last month.”

Praful now earns a living from the comfort of his bedroom.

He sets himself up in front of his computer, logs onto the company’s page and studies a small graph with handwritten notes –  his to-do list for the day.

And today’s task is filing out census forms, where he needs to fill out the name, age, and other basic information.

Praful smiles as he finishes the task in just 10 seconds. And immediately, 1 Nepali Rupee is added to his bank account.

“Earning money staying at home... what else do we need?”

Another cloud worker, 20-year-old Roji Lawalati, has a degree in business administration but hasn’t been able to find a job in her field for two years.

“In Nepal, it’s so difficult to get a job. They don't even give you importance if you don't have someone in the management team or you have to be extremely talented.”

And working for Cloud Factory, she does her job online at a restaurant.

“I have increased my typing speed. There is a weekly meeting you have to attend. You can get to know each other, discuss with each other about the life and stresses. And we make action plans every week based on the principles given to us and we apply that in our lives.”

Roji earns up to 200 US dollars a month from Cloud Factory. And to Nepal standard, it’s a
very competitive salary for a anyone starting out at a private company.

CEO Mark Sears is convinced that other developing countries can follow the Cloud Factory model.

“We have the goal of over the next five years, connecting one million people in developing countries to sustainable basic computer works. And out of that, we estimate, hope and plan for 150,000 people in Nepal to be connected over the next five years. We wake up some days and feel like million people are really really big. It's crazy, it's impossible. But especially lately we believe that one million could even be small. We are seeing our clients be so happy with the work that we are doing even at this early stage. We believe that there is definitely enough working demand to drive enough employment for a million people.”

And just recently Cloud Factory opened a new branch in another city in Nepal.

The company says it aims to employ thousands of Nepalese youth from remote districts over the next five years.

Cloud workers like Praful Shakya can continue working at home. And he’s happy that he doesn’t have to rely on his mother for money anymore.

“Yes I bought my cell phone collecting that money,” as he laughs. “I didn't buy the cell phone, I earned it.”

“There are many things I have bought from working. This guitar stand, mobile, and some clothes. My next plan is to buy a Gibson Guitar. May be it will take 500 dollars. It takes time but I am sure I can do it.