Data Darbar, a company that studies information and markets, teamed up with Begin, a streaming service from the United Arab Emirates, to share their yearly State of Apps report. This report tells us interesting things about Pakistan.
The report says Pakistan is one of the top 10 countries where people use Android phones the most. It also gives a detailed look at the mobile apps used in Pakistan and talks about important trends and ideas that are changing the industry.
In 2023, Pakistan had around 3.51 billion mobile app downloads, which was nearly the same as the previous year’s 3.52 billion downloads, according to Data.ai. But, money spent by people in Pakistan on these apps increased to over $87 million from $82 million before. Globally, there was some adjustment in the mobile app industry. The number of new app installations grew by only 0.8% to 257 billion, while the amount of money people spent on these apps increased by 2.4% to $171 billion.
Natasha Uderani, who is one of the founders of Data Darbar, mentioned that after being the fastest-growing major market for two years, Pakistan’s new app downloads slowed down a bit in 2023. This was also seen in many other countries like Egypt, Indonesia, and Vietnam.
However, due to the decreasing cost of broadband, Pakistanis are now using more mobile data than before. This means that mobile apps will become even more important for Pakistan’s digitalization, and the number of app downloads is expected to increase again in the future.
Meta and Byte Dance were the most popular app publishers in Pakistan, with TikTok being the most downloaded app with around 32 million installations in 2023, followed by WhatsApp Business. This trend matches the global trend where these two big tech companies remained on top. Among games, Ludo apps were popular, reflecting offline gaming habits moving online.
In terms of categories, entertainment and finance apps performed well, with 172 million and 144 million downloads, respectively. Jazz’s Tamasha was the most downloaded entertainment app, while Telenor’s Easypaisa led in finance apps.
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Jonathan Mark, the chief commercial officer of Begin, a premium streaming service based in the UAE and launching in the GCC region and South Asia, noted that the increasing popularity of streaming and finance apps in Pakistan reflects a broader trend towards using mobile devices not only for entertainment but also for banking services.
He mentioned that as people become more comfortable with technology and demand more digital services, we can expect to see further growth and innovation in these areas, as well as in other types of apps.