Pakistan reports high YouTube viewership and cement price shifts

Pakistan has reached a significant milestone in digital consumption, with YouTube viewership ranking first globally due to 560 million daily video views. According to PTA Chairman Major General (Retd) Hafiz ur Rehman, approximately 96 million people in the country use YouTube. Additionally, TikTok has 100 million accounts and 150 million viewers, while WhatsApp facilitates 1 billion daily calls and 12 billion messages.

Federal Minister for IT Shaza Fatima Khawaja noted that demand for data is rising due to social media and artificial intelligence. While 5G services are currently being used by approximately 1.8 million people across 24 cities, infrastructure challenges such as the theft of telecom towers, generators, and diesel continue to affect mobile network services.

In the commodities sector, retail cement prices showed a downward trend in most Pakistani cities during the week ending October 29. In northern regions, the average price per bag was 1,604 PKR, compared to 1,611 PKR the previous week. In southern regions, the average price was 1,572 PKR, representing a slight increase of 0.03 percent from the previous week.