Pakistan

Economy & income

Currency

• Pakistani rupee (PKR, ₨/Rs)
• ~278.5 per USD (14 Jul 2026, Wise/TradingEconomics) — managed float
• unusually stable through 2025–26 (up ~2.2% over the trailing 12 months) after the sharp 2022–23 devaluation, helped by an IMF programme, remittances and tight FX controls

GDP per capita

• ~$1,700 nominal (2025 est., IMF WEO; total GDP ~$408bn — the world's 5th-most-populous economy but low per-head income; growth only ~2.5–3% in FY25 after the 2022–23 balance-of-payments crisis)
• ~$6,950 PPP (2025 est.; total PPP GDP ~$1.67tn)

Average salary

• Wide spread by source — wage.is puts the typical wage at ~$140/mo (≈PKR 39,000)
• salary-aggregators (remotepeople/trulypakistan) cite an average ~PKR 82,100 ≈ $295/mo
• Real earnings are far lower for most: ~80% of workers are informal and high 2023–25 inflation (20–30%+) gutted purchasing power
• Numbeo's Pakistan sample is moderate but urban-skewed (flag)

Median salary

• ~PKR 70,700 ≈ ~$254/mo (aggregator estimate, 2025) — but no clean official national median wage is published
• the vast informal majority earns well below any formal-sector figure, so treat as indicative only

Minimum wage

• Federal minimum wage PKR 37,000/mo ≈ ~$133/mo (set FY2024-25, effective Jul 2024 and explicitly left UNCHANGED in the FY2025-26 budget)
• Sindh, Punjab & KP legislated a higher PKR 40,000/mo ≈ ~$144/mo for unskilled workers
• Enforcement is weak, especially in the informal sector

Cost of living

• Low — food, rent, transport & services are cheap in USD terms
• but persistent high inflation and rupee weakness have raised local cost pressure
• Numbeo/Expatistan samples exist for Karachi/Lahore/Islamabad but are urban-skewed (flag, 2026)

Digital landscape

Population

253 million (Jan 2025, DataReportal Digital 2025 Pakistan; ~34% urban / 66% rural) — the world's 5th-most-populous country, very young and fast-growing

Internet users

45.7% (~116M users, Jan 2025) — a large ~54% (~137M) offline majority remains, concentrated in rural areas & among women

Social media users

26.4% (~66.9M identities, Jan 2025; ~70.4% male / 29.6% female — one of the widest male skews in the world, reflecting the digital gender gap) = ~57.8% of internet users

Mobile connections

• 190M cellular connections = 75.2% of pop (Jan 2025)
• ~74% of connections are mobile broadband (3G/4G)
• access is overwhelmingly mobile-first

Devices

• mobile ~51.7% / desktop ~47.8% / tablet ~0.6% (StatCounter, Jun 2026) — the high desktop reading is a measurement artifact (shared office/cybercafé/proxy PCs)
• real personal access is overwhelmingly mobile (~92% Android)

Ad spend

• Modest for the population (low monetization)
• Statista puts the Digital Advertising market at ~$202M (2024) — Search ~$96M (2024), In-App ~$70.7M (2025)
• PACRA's Feb-2025 media sector study shows digital at ~PKR 35.8bn ≈ ~31% of the total ad market in FY24, growing ~21% CAGR
• Figures vary by definition (flag)
• social/Meta, YouTube & search dominate digital

Top social platforms

TikTok huge youth reach — ad-tool reach reported ~54–67M 18+, treat as inflated; periodically banned/throttled by PTA over 'immoral content' but always the top short-video driver

YouTube ~55.9M ad reach — video, music, drama, how-to, news

Facebook ~49.4M — still the mass social graph, Pages, Groups & Marketplace/social-commerce

Snapchat ~37.5M — unusually large in Pakistan; core youth messaging & AR

Instagram ~18.8M — urban/aspirational, English-leaning, brand & fashion

LinkedIn ~15.0M members — professional/B2B, urban

Messengers

• WhatsApp (the default 1:1 & group messenger nationwide — business & family; Meta doesn't report its ad reach)
• Facebook Messenger (~12.6M — bundled with Facebook)
• Snapchat (~37.5M — heavily used by youth for private chat, not just posting)
• imo (low-data international voice/video to Gulf/UK migrant diaspora)
• Telegram (growing — channels for piracy, deals, crypto P2P & betting tips)

Payments & behaviour

Payment methods

• Mobile-money wallets (branchless banking) — the dominant digital rail: JazzCash (~40M+ users) and Easypaisa (59M registered / ~20M monthly active, Dec 2025) lead; 80M+ active wallet accounts nationally. Users cash physical rupees into wallets via agents to shop online
• Cash-on-delivery (COD) — still the default & most-trusted e-commerce method, especially outside big cities (large unbanked base, low card trust)
• Raast — the SBP's instant P2P/person-to-merchant rail; transactions more than doubled in FY25 and it's being wired into wallets & apps as a low-cost real-time option
• Debit/credit cards (Visa/Mastercard/UnionPay + local 1LINK/PayPak) — a small, mostly urban share of online checkout
• Bank transfers & internet banking (banked urban middle class)

E-wallets

• JazzCash
• Easypaisa
• SadaPay
• NayaPay
• Raast (SBP instant rail); gateways: PayFast, Safepay, 1LINK/PayPak

Cash on delivery

High — COD remains the preferred e-commerce method nationally, but wallet prepay (JazzCash/Easypaisa) and Raast are steadily taking share in Karachi/Lahore/Islamabad

E-commerce

• Low-to-moderate but growing
• Daraz is the clear leader
• card penetration is very low so the whole funnel is built around wallets + COD
• last-mile logistics (TCS, Leopards, M&P, Trax) are improving

Notes

• Wallet-first + COD market — any offer/checkout MUST support JazzCash/Easypaisa and cash-on-delivery
• Cards are marginal
• Wallets double as the settlement layer for grey betting & crypto P2P too

Audience & culture

Languages

• Urdu (national language & lingua franca — ~9% native but understood almost everywhere; essential for mass creative)
• Punjabi (~37% — largest mother tongue, esp. Punjab)
• Pashto (~18% — KP & north-west)
• Sindhi (~14% — Sindh)
• Saraiki (~12% — south Punjab)
• English (official co-language; business, higher education & the urban elite — converts in premium/urban ads)
• Balochi (~3%) & others

Religion

Muslim ~96%+ (Sunni majority with a significant Shia minority; Islam is the state religion), Hindu ~1.6%, Christian ~1.4%, Ahmadi ~0.07% & others (2023 census) — socially conservative

Median age

• ~20 years (2023 census / UN) — one of the world's youngest, fastest-growing populations
• a massive Gen-Z/youth base

Key seasons

• Ramadan + Eid al-Fitr (the single biggest shopping, food, clothing & gifting spend window)
• Eid al-Adha ('Bakra Eid' / Qurbani — livestock & 2nd-biggest spend)
• Independence Day (14 Aug — national/patriotic retail & content)
• Winter wedding season (Nov–Feb — huge apparel/jewellery/beauty spend)
• Cricket — PSL (Feb–Mar), Asia Cup & ICC World Cups (engagement & grey-betting spikes)
• Rabi-ul-Awwal / Eid Milad-un-Nabi; Black Friday & 11.11/12.12 (Daraz sales)

Cultural notes

• Young, mobile-first and video-native (TikTok, YouTube, Snapchat & Facebook)
• Cricket is the #1 national passion & engagement driver
• WhatsApp is the communication backbone
• Highly price-sensitive
• family, community & religion are central — keep creative modest & Urdu-first
• A big Gulf/UK/Saudi migrant diaspora & remittances shape spending

Where to find creators

• TikTok (dominant youth)
• YouTube
• Instagram (urban)
• Facebook
• StarNgage / HypeAuditor / vidIQ rankings

Media landscape

Creators & public figures

Top creators

Celebrities

Hania Aamir ~17M Instagram

Actress — the most-followed Pakistani celebrity on Instagram; dramas & films

A

Ayeza Khan ~15M Instagram

Actress — top TV drama star, a leading female endorser

Mahira Khan ~12M Instagram

Actress & UN Goodwill Ambassador — Pakistan's biggest film/TV female star

Atif Aslam ~11M Instagram

Singer — one of the most popular musicians in Pakistan & across South Asia

Babar Azam ~6.4M Instagram

Cricket — star batsman & former captain; a top national sports icon & endorser

Shahid Afridi ~5M Instagram

Former cricket captain, philanthropist & one of the country's biggest brand endorsers

Affiliate & traffic

Hot verticals

• Nutra COD (weight-loss, potency, joint, hair, skin — grey health claims)
• iGaming / sports betting (cricket-driven, grey despite the ban)
• Sweepstakes & CPI app installs
• E-commerce COD (gadgets, fashion, beauty)
• Finance (nano-loans/remittance/forex — grey)
• Dating (mainstream/heterosexual only, grey)
• Crypto (grey P2P, now semi-legalising)

Active networks

• Global CPA & multivertical — Advidi, MaxBounty, Mobidea, Adcombo (nutra COD), Dr.Cash (nutra)
• Push/pop & native ad networks — Adsterra, PropellerAds/Monetag, RichAds, Galaksion
• Betting/iGaming affiliate programs — 1xBet, Melbet, Betwinner partners (offshore, grey but big cricket money)
• Daraz Affiliate Program (e-commerce) + local agency/social-commerce arbitrage — few Pakistan-only networks

Payouts

• Tier-3 low payouts — nutra COD carries low AOV + high delivery-rejection (returns eat margin)
• betting FTD CPA ~$5–25 (RevShare common on cricket LTV)
• CPI installs cents
• finance CPL low
• The relatively stable rupee (2025–26) makes local-currency payouts less volatile than in most Tier-3 peers

Competition

• Very high volume with among the cheapest CPM/CPC in Asia
• heavy grey-vertical presence, fraud/quality risk, and a Facebook + TikTok-dominated buy

Seasonality

• Cricket calendar (PSL Feb–Mar, Asia Cup, World Cups) spikes betting & engagement
• Ramadan/Eid spike e-commerce & late-night content
• winter weddings lift retail/beauty
• remittance & salary cycles matter

Traffic sources

• Facebook / Meta ads
• TikTok (youth, cheap)
• YouTube & Google
• Push & pop (Adsterra, PropellerAds, RichAds)
• WhatsApp / Telegram channels & Facebook groups
• SEO & in-app; VPN-driven flows for betting

Good to know

Capital

Islamabad

Major cities

• Karachi
• Lahore
• Faisalabad
• Rawalpindi
• Gujranwala
• Peshawar
• Multan
• Islamabad
• Hyderabad
• Quetta

Time zones

Single zone — Pakistan Standard Time (PKT, UTC+5), no daylight saving

Android vs iOS

92%

Android 92% iOS 8%

Phone brands

• Infinix (~14%)
• Samsung (~13%)
• Vivo (~12%)
• Oppo (~10%)
• Tecno (~9%)
• plus itel, Xiaomi, Realme & a small Apple share — Transsion budget brands (Infinix/Tecno/itel) dominate the mass market (StatCounter, Jun 2026)

Top e-commerce

• Daraz (Alibaba-owned leader — COD + wallet pay)
• Telemart & iShopping (electronics)
• PriceOye (phones/electronics)
• Symbios
• Foodpanda (food/q-commerce)
• Facebook/Instagram social commerce (huge informal channel) + OLX/dubizzle classifieds

Peak activity

Evenings ~20:00–00:00 PKT (peak after dinner ~21:00–23:00) plus a lunch bump; during Ramadan activity shifts to late night (post-iftar & pre-suhoor). Weekend is Sat–Sun; Friday midday dips for Jumu'ah prayers

Creative taboos

• Blasphemy / any disrespect to Islam or the Prophet (death-penalty & mob risk — the hardest red line)
• alcohol & pork
• nudity/immodesty
• LGBT (illegal)
• India–Pakistan & Kashmir
• sectarian (Sunni–Shia, Ahmadi) tensions
• and military/PTI–Imran Khan politics (PECA 2025 risk)

Also worth knowing

1. TikTok + YouTube + Facebook are the big three and Snapchat is unusually strong — build mobile-first vertical video in Urdu;
2. JazzCash/Easypaisa wallets + COD are mandatory for checkout — card penetration is tiny;
3. cricket (PSL & the national team) is the #1 engagement & grey-betting driver — sync to match calendars;
4. among the cheapest traffic in Asia, but low payouts, thin COD margins & high delivery-rejection make it a pure volume game;
5. blasphemy & political red lines are severe — keep creative modest, apolitical and Urdu-first