Leveraging Original Programming to Drive Web3 Adoption in Pakistan

Pakistan's young population and high mobile penetration rate are among the many factors that make the country sandwiched between Afghanistan and India primed for high adoption of emerging technologies, with blockchain potentially playing a significant role in modernizing many of Pakistan's traditional industries. However, key gaps continue to exist in Pakistan's desire to transition into a developed economy with full acceptance of Web3, with some of these factors including differing forms
of governance throughout the country, pockets of armed conflict, and more.

With these many complications, Pakistani-based original programming offers a unique opportunity to simultaneously address two critical existing points of frustration on the way to true Web3 adoption: mass education of technology and social acceptance of emerging technologies. Being able to leverage homegrown programming to spread education and awareness will help build an invaluable bridge between Web2 adoption and Web3 principles in Pakistan.

Current market conditions for streaming and digital payments in Pakistan

The existing video-on-demand (VOD) market in Pakistan seems small, with one market projection of revenue in the space anticipating just under $150 million dollars in 2022, a seemingly insignificant number to the expected $38 billion of revenue in the United States during the same period. However, as Pakistan continues to develop critical telecommunications infrastructure, this number will certainly rise, giving increasing importance to streaming video platforms in everyday life.

Telecommunications companies have played a significant role in helping to bring the digital world and other Web2 services to Pakistan. Popular digital payment providers through primary regional service providers like JazzCash and Easypaisa are extremely popular in Pakistan. However, both
JazzCash and Easypaisa do have their own difficulties, primarily due to the fact that their services are tied to SIM cards, resulting in a larger demand for cross-platform digital payments services.

Private payment providers and the Pakistani government are playing a huge role in filling this void. Superapp NayaPay, which enables virtual and physical Visa card integrations, split payments, and POS payments, among others, raised $13 million in a seed round in February 2022, following on the heels of the January 2021 announcement of the Pakistani government's Raast (direct way) payments system through a joint initiative between the State Bank of Pakistan and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

With this in mind, it becomes understandable that while the Pakistan startup ecosystem is booming, more work needs to be done in terms of increasing VOD availability and digital payment capabilities, which help comprise a country's preparedness for Web3.

Education and society

Despite these promising leaps of progress on the media and digital payments front, Pakistan still significantly lacks in consumer education, a fact compounded by the steep learning curve within the world of Web3. In terms of formal education, UNICEF ranks Pakistan as the world's second highest number of out-of-school-children (OOSC), with nearly 44% of the total population in the 5-16 year age group not attending school.

Agriculture remains the top employer of all Pakistanis, comprising 23% of value added to GDP. By comparison, China's agriculture was at a similar percentage in 1991. However, China's capacity to harness its productivity to outpace capital growth during the same period bodes well for Pakistan, particularly with digital innovations helping to drive faster roadmaps towards productivity and industrial optimization.

This can be seen in the public and private focus of making Pakistan a central hub for information technology (IT) professional services, with Pakistan leveraging both formal and freelancer professionals for growth. This utilization of different types of available workforces is crucial for Web3 adoption, enabling mass participation and buy-in into a digital world that leverages skilled users in all manners.

Streaming media landscape in Pakistan

Therefore, it becomes clear that participation in a Web3 world and a corresponding digital asset ecosystem in Pakistan will be most enabled through the increased user education and acceptance of Web3 principles, with this being enabled through content-focused streaming services. Having the ability to have such a provider to promote content, alongside ancillary effects like helping to focus digital payments providers on VOD-specific payments, will enable Pakistanis to solve existing and future issues with digital payments, formal education, and societal acceptance of Web3 concepts en-masse.

Netflix has a long coveted market share in Pakistan, lowering its prices in the country in October 2021 in a bid to increase subscribers despite encountering significant issues removing content from its platform through the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PERMA) in 2020. Regional media companies Indian platform Zee5 have had better success with specific series, with Pakistani-focused shows like Zindagi Gulzar Hai (Life is Beautiful) and Qatil Haseenaon Ke Naam (An Ode to Murderous Beauties) debuting in May 2022 and December 2021, respectively.

However, both international and regional platforms continue to fall short in delivering content to Pakistanis. Popular services like Pi Pakistan's Tapmad, which launched in March 2017, offer primarily live content, leaving a potential opportunity to capture market share in Pakistan-specific original programming. One example of a platform that has the potential to achieve fill this void is startup PikchurTV, a streaming service startup that has already released its Pakistani original series Phaatak (The Gate). “We’re aiming to bring global and local awareness to Pakistani-focused media,” says PikchurTV CEO Saihaam Khan. “Having the ability to create locally-specific content will encourage more Pakistanis to get online and potentially help drive increased participation in Web3.”

Having the ability to release truly localized content while achieving compliance with local media authorities is a key value proposition of PikchurTV, with this original digital content helping to nudge Pakistanis into the era of Web3.

Conclusion

From its young population to a growing digital payments ecosystem, Pakistan seems poised for success in the future world of Web3. However, properly achieving consumer education and societal acceptance of Web3 concepts will continue to pose challenges for not only Pakistan, but for many developing countries. In this respect, a unique opportunity for Pakistani-based original programming to help bridge the divide between the current and future Web3 states exists, enabling better positioning and education for the future.