ISLAMABAD: Around 87 percent of Pakistani people have the awareness to buy and sell goods or services over internet/apps but do not know how to use these platforms as skills were a barrier to greater uptake.
A report After Access: ICT access and use in Asia and global south conducted by LIRNEasia, an information and communications technology (ICT) policy think tank that is involved in “pro-poor, pro-market” research in Asia-Pacific since 2005, has revealed that in Pakistan awareness of transport/taxi platforms was relatively high.
As per details, when Pakistanis were asked have they heard about opportunities to buy goods or services over the internet or apps, 38 percent of them replied they were aware of transport services, 14 percent goods, and products, 6 percent were aware of tickets and appointments (movies, railways, doctors), 4 percent accommodation and 3 percent replied they were aware of hired help.
Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of LIRNEasia, Helani Galpaya and her research team members Ayesha Zainuddin, Tharaka Amarasinghe and others announced the report in a briefing to Pakistani media persons held in Colombo, Sri Lanka.
In her presentation, Helani Galpaya said this effort was meant to collect a range of household, individual and small and micro-enterprise ICT data.
The data will be able to offer deeper insight into demand-side barriers to digital equality. The compiled indicators will meet threshold compliance of the WSIS-initiated Partnership for Measuring ICT for Development.
The research will provide a detailed understanding of users, citizens and consumers in all their diversity, what and what not people are using their mobile devices for, use of social networking and other services, awareness and use of platforms, whether these services stimulate take up and are a gateway to open Internet use or whether they are Internet ghettos for the poor, extent to which people use mobile wallet/financial services and reasons for people being offline etc.
In Pakistan, 2000 households and individuals were surveyed from 100 census enumerator areas in (October-December 2017) and sampling methodology was designed to ensure representation of 98 percent of target group (population aged 15-65) at a national level with 95 percent confidence interval and a + – 3.3 percent margin of error so the data can be extrapolated to those groups on a national level with statistical confidence.
The survey further revealed that mobile ownership was at 57 percent of the 15-65 population in Pakistan while the urban-rural gap seems to have been bridged, the gender gap in mobile ownership persists.
Just 43 percent of Pakistani women aged 15-65 have a mobile phone, as compared to 68 percent of men in the same age group.
In Pakistan, 22 percent mobile owners have a smartphone, 25 percent have featured phone while 53 percent owned basic mobile phone. Due to low smartphone penetration, the use of apps seen among Pakistani mobile owners was 42 percent.
The type of apps used was fairly limited while social media, chat and voice apps were the most common. Among internet users, the urban-rural gap was relatively small (13 percent). Pakistani women were 43 percent less likely to use the Internet than men.
Those who used the Internet said the main limiting factor on their use was a lack of time to use it (49 percent) and the data cost (18 percent) while 22 percent indicated there was no limitation on their Internet use.