Mobile & Smartphone

Statistics of Pakistan 2015

Pakistan, unfortunately, is not known to be a data-rich

environment. In fact, many companies hide behind this fact,
and have been unable to break their inertia of data-centric
decision making. I want to change this. For this purpose, I have
aggregated the latest data available on digital, mobile and
social media in Pakistan.
Following is a comprehensive list of almost every data point
openly available pertaining to mobile penetration and
smartphones in Pakistan, and my two cents on what these
statistics mean for marketeers:

Mobile
Total Internet Users: 39 Million [15% population penetration]
Growth of Internet Users (Jan, 2014 March 2015): 47%
Mobile Phone Users: 149.2 Million [79% population penetration]
Growth in Number of Mobile Subscription (Jan, 2014- March, 2015):
15%
Percentage of Pre-Paid Mobile Connections: 97%

 Active Mobile Social Users: 16.2 Million [9% population

penetration]
Growth in Number of Active Mobile Social Users (Jan, 2014- March,
2015): 113%

Share of Web Traffic by Device (Jan, 2014 March 2015) via We Are
Social

Market Share of Cellular Companies via Tech Juice

With Mobilink and Warids merger, they will serve to an

aggregate of 45 Million users.

Smartphones
Total Smartphone Penetration: 4.5% which makes 9 Million
Pakistan predicted to have 40 million smartphones by end 2016
Smartphone vs Feature Mobile Phones: 31% of mobiles purchased in
the country were smartphones in 2015

via PhoneWorld

Smartphones will comprise of 55% of Pakistans total mobile phone

imports by the end of fiscal year 2017-18
Average Mobile Data Connection Speed in mbps: 1.5
3G/4G Subscription: 18 Million in the first 18 months of subscription
launch
By 2020, subscribers of 3G/4G to increase to 110 Million
Share of 2G/3G/4G: Share of 3G has seen a sharp increase, compared
to 4G

via Phone World

Latest Monthly Growth Rate of 3G/4G Subscribers (September

2015): 14.43%
Top 5 Mobile Apps:

via Grappetite

Top Operating Systems:

Age of Smartphone Users:

Monthly Mobile Budgets of Smartphone Users:

16% smartphone users regularly buy paid apps while remaining 84%
contents with free apps
Messaging Apps hierarchy by population:
1
Whatsapp
2
LINE (over 5 million users)
3
WeChat

What This Means for Marketeers

1. Think Mobile. No point in viewing your brands website
or social account on desktop anymore. It has to be mobile
optimized otherwise its no point being out there at all.
Heres a website where you can check if a website is
mobile optimized.
2. Snackable Content. Considering the increasing social
mobile users, your brands content needs to be
consumable within a matter of seconds. Imagine your
fan/consumer tapping his phone away, his attention span
rock-bottom. Your content needs to attract him enough to
add to his experience by enticing him to interact with it.
Otherwise, your social is a lost battle.
3. More Video Storytelling; Shorter is Sweeter. Unless
your content is earth-shattering, refrain from long-form
videos. Mobile has given people more choice then
theyve ever had before. Video storytelling is a powerful
tool, so use it often and use it well. Align content that is
relevant to your audience and consumer insights.
4. Mobile has changed how people shop. And mobile has
done that just through e-commerce, but also through instore search. Mobile is the first step of Pakistan moving
from a linear traditional marketing funnel to a two-way
consumer decision journey. Think cross-platform
marketing when you think about your shopper, whether
your product is a planned purchase or an impulse

category. Now is the time to start thinking about

multichannel experiences in Pakistan.

5. Keep your customer at the heart of your mobile

strategy. If you start with your customer, it will
inevitably lead to a customer-centric framework. Use this
customer-centric thinking to align mobile experiences
your brand offers with customers behavior. Invest time
and energy in watching, tracking, understand and
responding to changing consumer trends.
6. Be courteous. You can use mobile to become a part of
your customers life, to keep him informed of your
offering, but if youre sending text messages in the
middle of the night, or sending push notifications around
the clock, then youre terribly wrong. Mobile users are
open to interaction with brands, but keep it respectful and
honestly, just use common sense.

7. Mobile is Always-On. Mobile is the first thing we see

when we wakeup, and the last thing we see before falling
asleep. Putting an approval process on a digital platform as
if it were a conventional broadcast property will cause
inefficiencies in time production and management. So, when
youre thinking about your content management system on
mobile, think of digital like an always-on sports game. No
one wants to watch a game in which players are asleep or
waiting for God to throw a miracle on the field. If mobile is
where your customer is going, then thats where you need to
be.
Note: All data relates to 2015 unless stated otherwise.