Even though Pakistan is well on its way to become a digital landscape, there’s still a long way to go.
Recently, Hootsuite, which is a global social media management platform, released a report: “Digital in 2017” with statistical pointers indicating social media and digital trends of about 238 countries.
The report states that currently 50% of the world’s population is connected to the internet. The global usage of social media has increased by 21% and the world is quickly shifting to their mobile phones when it comes to using social media. In fact, 91% of all social media users now use their mobile to gain access to their favorite platforms on a daily basis.
Releasing the report, Hootsuite quoted Simon Kemp of We Are Social:
Given this latest data, it’s probably time for us to stop referring to social as ‘new media’, and integrate it more seamlessly into our day-to-day activities.”
Digital Trends In Pakistan
With a total population of more than 190 Million, there are currently more than 140 million mobile phone subscribers in Pakistan. Apart from this, more than 35 million of the total population is subscribing to Internet usage across the country. The number of active social media users in Pakistan has also surpassed 31 million.
The report studies the growth trend with reference to 2016 stats, and concludes that the digital growth has significantly surged with 20% increase in internet users. There has been a 35% rise in social media users whereas active mobile users have increased by 47% over the year.
The interesting observation is that, despite all of this surge in internet usage and socil media penetration, the total usage of laptops and desktops has significantly decreased in Pakistan. In fact, it has decreased by an astounding 22%. While 31 Million of Pakistanis are subscribing to and actively using social media platforms, 70% of us are subscribing to the same via our mobile phones. There is a 13% rise in web traffic by mobile devices since January 2016.
Based on cellular connections, about 97% of the population prefers to subscribe to prepaid plans while 29% of internet users approach the web via 3G/4G connections.
In another recent country profile report “A Digital Future” published by the Global System Mobile Association (GSMA), the report found that by the year 2020, a whopping 90% of Pakistani population will have access to 3G networks while an impressive 80% population will have access to 4G.
We do feel pleasure in reporting that currently, more people are taking an interest in using social media platforms for learning and also for expanding their businesses which means that though slow and steady, a ray of progress is definitely significantly visible.
