Digital takeover in Pakistan

Pakistan has over 20 million online audiences. Will this increase in digital user numbers impact the Education sector?

The scope of digital landscape in Pakistan is on the rise. The internet penetration in Pakistan is 15% of the total population of 29.1 million, which implies that every seven minutes 80% of the internet users spend more than an hour online daily. The average session lasting from seven minutes on an average of four websites.

Over 6.3 million users are below 25 years of which 29% female and 71% male. As a record, Pakistan sent 237.6bn SMS in 2012 – boasting a 35% increase in total messages exchanged. This marks a steady to date increase of 68.6 % in the mobile penetration across Pakistan. Facebook in Pakistan gained the last million users in 175 days, whereas Twitters has over 1.8 million users. Only 11% Pakistanis use the internet, but on the brighter side there is a huge market in terms of the remaining 89% that can be accessed, tapped, and utilised. This 11% is not a small number as it is more than the total population of many western countries, so the market size it still very robust.

Giving the latest statistics, the use of digital will boost e-business; create new digital and social media marketing and business opportunities in Pakistan.

In Pakistan with a continuous growth in usage of the internet, wide population of audience is going viral and connecting worldwide; youngsters are most frequent of the internet users.
It is now of utmost importance that all of the industries in Pakistan, whether small or large keep up with the latest trends in digital media marketing. This will help them tackle their target market more easily and effectively, optimizing cost and operations while achieving maximum impact.

Focal industrial sectors include; advertising, FMCG, transportation, health and education, geo-disposed companies, government, and law-enforcement agencies.Digital marketing is turning the wheels; it has become a necessity.

Measuring the impact of the internet on the Education sector from a student’s perspective; 33 % of the student population relies on the internet to choose an institution to study abroad. As a second choice, 22.4% of the students rely on their career counsellors for this information.