Internet use in South Asia still lags behind most of the world, with only 48 percent of the region’s population having access to the internet. This number is even lower in Pakistan, standing at a mere 35 percent.

However, in the case of Pakistan, internet penetration is rising steadily, if slowly.

According to the Data 2020: Pakistan report by DataReportal, an independent research establishment offering freely available annual publications with insights and data analyses, internet users in Pakistan rose more than the country’s total population.

With a mere 2.0 percent growth in total population, Pakistan saw a 17 percent growth in internet users, driven in no small part by an increase in the number of mobile phone users in the country (mobile phone penetration in Pakistan stands at 75 percent of the population).

This contribution of mobile phone use in the increasing internet penetration in Pakistan is understandable considering that mobile phone users also tend to have faster internet: average mobile phone speeds in Pakistan clock in at 14.85 MBPS, compared to an average speed of 9.49 MBPS for fixed internet connections. It is no surprise, then, that an assessment by the GSMA, an international body of worldwide mobile phone operators, referred to the mobile phone use in Pakistan as being at the heart of the country’s drive to a better economy.

Mobile internet users represent about 76 percent of total web traffic in Pakistan.

With increasing internet use in a country where the median age is 22.8 years, among people constantly on the move, demand for content has inevitably changed.

A few additional statistics from the DataReportal report provide a significant hint at what platform is capturing young Pakistani imaginations in 2020: YouTube ranks as one of the top two most visited websites in the country. In fact, YouTube is the 4^th most Googled search term in Pakistan.

This is, of course, hardly surprising as YouTube itself revealed in 2018 that as many as 70 percent of Pakistan’s internet-using population was tuning in to watch content on the popular streaming platform. What is interesting, however, is the rise in the platform’s influence as well as the number of local content creators – such as popular v-loggers Irfan Junejo and Shahveer Jafri – who now boast subscriber counts in millions.

While v-loggers offer bespoke content tailor-made for their own niche audiences, the wider trends in YouTube content consumption run the gamut from news and talk shows to sports, dramas and music.

The top 10 YouTube channels in Pakistan, as of September 2020, by subscriber count and video views, SocialBakers

In fact, the list of the top 10 most subscribed and watched YouTube channels is led by the streaming presence of some of Pakistan’s leading traditional media channels, such as ARY Digital and HUM TV, for their popular dramas.

Additionally, in a country where readily accessible music streaming services like Spotify are still not widely accessible and services like Netflix aren’t widely affordable, YouTube offers a free and quick means to listen to music and watch TV shows on the go.

The word “song” is the most-searched query on YouTube in Pakistan, followed closely by “movies” and “drama.”

Combined with the list of the top YouTube channels in Pakistan, this list shows that most people log onto YouTube primarily to watch popular entertainment content produced by traditional media giants: dramas by ARY Digital and HUM TV. This is followed closely by music from Coke Studio, which has dominated the musical imagination of Pakistanis in the last decade, owing greatly to its leveraging of YouTube as a platform, where people can listen to the show’s songs and watch behind the scenes footage.

The fact that people in Pakistan, by and large, tune in to the same sort of content dominating the airwaves on TV suggests a change in media consumption habits: people use YouTube because streaming offers the convenience of accessing whatever they want and whenever they want it, especially when on the go. In this regard, YouTube has clearly come to help already established media houses expand their audiences and diversify their revenue streams.

With growing internet use in Pakistan, driven in no small part by an expanding mobile phone user base, YouTube is fast becoming the premier platform for online content in Pakistan. This in turn has created a market for more immediate, youth-centric content that ranges from music videos to gaming streams and flashy personal v-logs.

However, as internet penetration in the country continues to grow, content consumption patterns in Pakistan remain in favour of traditional media powerhouses, who have merely expanded their reach in Pakistan, where a predominantly young and increasingly tech-savvy population appears to be better served by YouTube for the convenience it offers.

The writer is a Lahore-based researcher, photographer and culture enthusiast. Find him on Instagram @ab.mueed