More internet users unlock new challenges
PHOTO: AFP
Experts believe that empowering the country’s rural population with access to the internet has ushered in the next stage of the technological cycle – the need for quality content.
A research paper titled ‘Unlocking Digital in Rural Pakistan’, conducted by Google in collaboration with Kantar, shows that almost half of the rural population is now online. This is a big step for a nation of over 210 million people, where nearly 60% of the population lives in the rural area and is deprived of some of the most basic necessities. According to the World Bank, for example, 64% of the population residing in the rural areas of the country don’t have access to safe drinking water.
Google Country Director for Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, Farhan S Qureshi said, “Research shows that some 62% of Pakistani internet users, aged between 18 years and 24 years, watch YouTube once a month or more. The same study also found that 48% of the population living in the rural areas are now online and YouTube was popular among 78% of them.”
“55% of the content created by Pakistani YouTubers was watched abroad,” he added.
Speaking to The Express Tribune, Si Global CEO Noman Ahmed Said explained, “The number of Pakistani people surfing the web in recent years has increased and people in the rural areas are also taking advantage of the internet, but still there is a lot to be done.”
“It might now be helpful to encourage people from our rural areas to start their own channels to educate people in areas of their expertise – for instance, a farmer who successfully harvests his desired amount of grain may earn an additional income by sharing his experiential knowledge with the world. For this, it is important to educate the masses about the benefits of using social media platforms,” he added.
“Even though people in Pakistan have been using YouTube increasingly, it is important to consider the nature of the content being consumed, explained Said, adding that, “Entertainment videos are consumed more readily than productive, educational ones.
If YouTube can manage to market their videos and platform in a way to motivate these masses, a lot of untapped potential will be realised.”
“YouTube’s algorithm still has a long way to go with regards to quality control. Even though YouTube Kids was created in 2015, and purported to provide safe content for young children to watch, Bridle (2017) found both human-created and bot-created content that used child-friendly characters such as Peppa Pig and Marvel superheroes and placed them in extremely violent and disturbing situations,” he lamented.
“Although YouTube is toughening its approach to policing content for children, with 400 hours of videos being uploaded to YouTube every minute, vetting malicious content is proving to be difficult,” said the Si Global CEO.
Daraz Chief Marketing Officer, Muhammad Ammar Hassan was of the view that YouTube was one of the most effective advertising platforms on the internet. “With its increasing penetration in rural areas especially, it has helped Pakistanis become more e-commerce savvy,” he said.
“The numbers of our latest 11.11 campaign are a testament to this. Around 51% of the orders we received were from outside of Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad (KLI) while almost 40% of our sellers belong to semi-urban areas,” said Hassan.
Director of YouTube Partner Development and Management (APAC), Marc Lefkowitz said, “The number of creators in Pakistan has grown so much over the past few years that there are over 5,400 Pakistani YouTube channels with more than 100K subscribers. That is an increase of 35% over the last year. Over 350 of these channels have more than a million subscribers.”
“The platform intends to continue extending its support to Pakistani creators so they can pursue their passions and build careers in a responsible manner,” added Lefkowitz.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 26th, 2022.
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