Pakistan Consumer Boom Driving Media Advertising Revenue

[Riaz Haq]

Rising buying power of rapidly expanding middle class in Pakistan drove the nation's media advertising revenue up 14% to a record Rs. 76.2 billion ($727 million), making the country's media market among the world's fastest growing for FY 2015-16. Half of this ad spending (Rs. 38 billion or $362 million) went to television channels while the rest was divided among print, outdoor, radio and digital media.

Media Ad Revenue by platform. Source: Aurora

Digital media spending rose 27% in 2015-16 over prior year, the fastest of all the media platforms. It was followed by 20% increase in radio, 13% in television, 12% in print and 6% in outdoor advertising, according to data published by Aurora media market research

HUM TV channel had the highest revenue at Rs. 3.84 billion, followed by ARY Digital's Rs. 3.802 billion, PTV Sports Rs. 3 billion, Geo Entertainment Rs. 2.93 billion, Geo News Rs. 2.6 billion, Urdu1 2.5 billion, PTV Home Rs. 2.5 billion, Samaa Rs. 1.9 billion, and Dunya News, ARY News and Express News Rs. 1.8 billion each.

The television channels with the highest revenue increases in 2015-16 were: Samaa (88%), Geo News (82%), Geo Entertainment (81%) and ARY News (76%).

Global Advertising Growth 2016. Source: Magna

The current media boom in Pakistan started in early 2000s when Pakistan had just one television channel, according to the UK's Prospect Magazine. Today it has over 100. Together they have begun to open up a country long shrouded by political, moral and religious censorship—taking on the government, breaking social taboos and, most recently, pushing a new national consensus against the Taliban. The birth of privately owned commercial media has been enabled by the Musharraf-era deregulation, and funded by the tremendous growth in revenue from advertising targeted at the burgeoning urban middle class consumers.

Pakistan has managed to significantly reduce poverty and rapidly grow its middle class since 2001 in spite of major political, security and economic challenges. The foundation for the rise of the middle class and the electronic media boom was laid on President Musharraf's watch by his government's decisions to invest in education and infrastructure projects and deregulate the media that led to the expansion of both human and financial capital. My hope is that the continued improvement in security situation and implementation of China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) related projects will bring in higher long-term investments and accelerate Pakistan's progress toward prosperity for all of its citizens.

Related Links:

Haq's Musings

Credit Suisse Wealth Report 2016

Pakistan: A Majority Middle Class Country

Pakistan Mass Media Boom

State Bank: Pakistan's Actual GDP Higher Than Officially Reported

College Enrollment in Pakistan

Musharraf Accelerated Development of Pakistan's Human and Financial...

China-Pakistan Economic Corridor

[Riaz Haq]

Pakistan Tech Firm, Marketer for P&G and Colgate Plans IPO

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-02-08/pakistani-digita...

Symmetry Group plans share sale, expand international business
Firm help client targets nation’s 124 million internet users

(Bloomberg) -- Symmetry Group Ltd., a Pakistani technology company founded back when most of the country’s internet users were on dial-up connections, plans an initial public offering in March that could raise about 430 million rupees ($1.6 million).
Most Read from Bloomberg
The Karachi-based company, which specializes in digital services including marketing and whose clients include the local units of Procter & Gamble Co. and Colgate-Palmolive Co., will sell 78 million shares at a fixed price of 5.5 rupees a share, according to Chief Executive Officer Syed Sarocsh Ahmed. The offering will include 71% new stock, and the rest will consist of existing shares sold by the founders.
Symmetry was started in 2003 by Ahmed and his brother, Executive Director Syed Adil Ahmed, with an investment of 150,000 rupees — equivalent to about $2,580 at the time. They sold ads on websites and gave free consultations to Pakistan’s largest media houses, which were not geared for digital marketing.

“We saw a gap,” said Adil, whose experience includes a stint at Yahoo Inc. “Digital marketing was happening globally, it was the next big thing. It was not happening in Pakistan at that time,” he said in an interview.

The company now focuses on the digitization of marketing, sales and other consumer-centric functions. It generated net income of 71.3 million rupees in fiscal 2022, according to a document seen by Bloomberg News. That’s an increase of 24% on the previous fiscal year, Bloomberg...