Our place in the global mobile apps ecosystem

As Pakistanis, it takes some effort to find hope in times like these. In the last few weeks, those associated with capital markets have found it in the spectacular rally of the KSE-100 index. Some may be excited about the two recent acquisitions: Aramco buying a 40 per cent stake in GO and Etisalat scooping up Telenor’s local operations. Others traditionally looked up to the flows in venture capital, though that is long gone and will take a while before truly bouncing back. There are more reasons, albeit a little less mainstream or obvious. For me personally, it has been Pakistan’s position in the global mobile apps ecosystem. Over the last two years straight, it has been the fastest growing market by downloads, outpacing even the likes of India or Indonesia. According to Data.ai, an app intelligence platform, the country recorded 3.5 billion downloads in 2022 — placing it in the ninth position globally. This also makes us by far the biggest volumetric market in the Middle East, North Africa, Afghanistan and Pakistan (MENAP) region. The next two countries on the list, Egypt and Saudi Arabia, are behind by 877 million and 1.7bn downloads, respectively. Put another way, Pakistan accounted for over 35pc of all installs in the region. However, the story was completely different in monetary terms where our consumer spending of $82.9m was even lower than Oman’s.