ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has 96 million YouTube users who collectively watch around 560 million videos every day, placing the country among the leading markets globally for viewership, Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) Chairman Hafeez Ur Rehman told a parliamentary committee on Tuesday.
Addressing the National Assembly Standing Committee on Information Technology, the PTA chairman presented statistics on the use of major social media and messaging platforms in the country.
He said TikTok had 100 million registered accounts in Pakistan, while around 150 million Pakistanis watched content on the platform.
WhatsApp, meanwhile, has approximately 100 million accounts in the country, with users making one billion calls and exchanging 12 billion messages daily, he added.
During the briefing, Federal Minister for Information Technology and Telecommunication Shaza Fatima Khawaja said growing use of social media and artificial intelligence (AI) was driving a significant rise in data consumption.
She said no spectrum auction had been held since former prime minister Nawaz Sharif left office. His government had introduced 4G services, while the present government had conducted an auction for 5G spectrum, she added.
According to the minister, around 1.8 million people in Pakistan were using 5G services. The technology was being introduced in 24 cities, with further measures underway to improve network performance and service quality.
Shaza Fatima also pointed to infrastructure theft as a factor disrupting telecommunications services, saying entire mobile towers, diesel supplies and generators had been stolen in some incidents.
