Pakistan holds the position of being the 4th largest country in terms of population density in Asia, just behind Indonesia, India, and China.
The number of internet users in the country is 35.1 million, representing 18 per cent of the 194 million population. About one million people in Pakistan use the internet on their phones. With only 18% of the people who are online, a large number of the population is still to go online soon in the country.
Digital Marketing Agencies such as Hootsuite and We Are Social put together the numbers that showed internet users in Pakistan have swelled by 20 per cent in 2016. Active social media users grew even more rapidly – registering growth of 35 per cent year-on-year. There has been 10% increase in the number of internet users and 21% growth in terms of social media profiles.
It shows that Pakistan is just like any other emerging market, and the overwhelming majority of web traffic is via mobile. Newest data have shown that mobile phones account for 70 per cent of the overall action that is a 13% increase from last year. However internet usage from PCs have significantly dropped by 25% to a 27% usage.
In another report by the PageFair, it is reported that about 12 million internet users are now using ad-blockers to dodge digital advertising. 32% of internet users in Pakistan now have ad-blockers installed on their devices that range from smartphones to tablets to desktop computers. This shows an increase of almost 65% compared to last year’s figure.
The number of ad-blockers globally is now 615 million after the addition of these number. Ad blockers leads to tens of billions of dollars in losses for publishers annually. Critics have argue that internet users break an unwritten pack with websites and digital publishers by blocking ads which are their main source of revenue. However this black lash has come due to the unnecessary and annoying pop adds and videos and audios that play automatically.
