Pakistan losses over $5 million with Twitter Ban. The ban continues since 17 February 2024 and the government claims that it is placed in the pretext of national security. Although, several tech savvy Pakistanis are using VPNs to access the portal. Yet, X, formerly Twitter remains inaccessible in Pakistan. Surprisingly, the ban is not permanent. The Portal shows activity in some parts of the day meaning that it isn’t blocked permanently. The users can still access the website. However, it depends what time the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority opens its access or closes. The ban is not publicized in any way by the government.
According to DataReportal, there are a total of 111 million internet users in Pakistan. Moreover, there are 71 million social media users in Pakistan. Pakistan has introduced strict social media rules in the past few years. Thus, the country can utilize its legal system to counter any major threats to its national security. However, the current ban exists for over two months and it affects several thousand citizens in the country.
Earning from Content Creation
Earning from Content Creation is a huge chunk across the world. Globally, the partial content creator economy stands at US$27.3 billion for 2023. The content economy is spread around several portals, niches, genres and types. It includes content focused websites, YouTube channels, Instagram, TikTok and several other portals along with Twitter/X. If we oversee the complete usage and earning, the global content creator economy stands at around 44 billion dollars. Moreover, the global content industry is expected to reach $51 billion by 2027.
With such a large chunk across the world, Pakistani content creators already lack behind in several ways. There are limited opportunities for Pakistanis living in the country. It includes lower levels of skills, unavailability of latest gadgets and low value of rupee for getting access to international portals. Moreover, the global portals are reluctant to enter Pakistan’s market due to challenges in terms of legal battles, bad governance and poor economic trends.
While fighting all these challenges, Pakistanis still try to produce content on the internet for global audience. The content is placed on several portals including YouTube, LinkedIn, Meta, Twitter/X, TikTok and other portals. Moreover, there is a huge industry in the web niches which engages audience through these social networking platforms.
Influencer Marketing Programs
The Influencer Marketing Programs are a high earning tool for several creators. The influencers market the products of other businesses to generate a separate income stream. For instance, the global Instagram influencer market stood at $2.3 billion in 2020. This revenue is increasing every year with more new accounts coming in, new products shifting to global influencer engagement and worldwide increase of influencer marketing.
In Pakistan, the influencer marketing is relatively new. Still, we find several creators trying to produce awesome content to engage the global users.
X in Pakistan
There are a total of 4.65 million users of Twitter/X in Pakistan. The statistics show that these include both the individual and other accounts. The other accounts can include corporate, private, philanthropic, media or other business accounts. Although, X does not offer payouts in Pakistan as yet. The 4.65 million accounts is a big number and the government needs to engage with X for introducing monetization in the country.
Even without monetization, X users can earn through multiple activities on the portal. These include Brand Partnerships and Sponsorships, Affiliate Marketing, Selling Services, Freelancing Activities, Content Creation, Twitter Spaces and Social Media Management.
One of the significant usage of X and other social networking platform remains news and information delivery. These portals remain a major source of traffic for news and business portals which usually earn almost $500-$1000 each month. With a nominal estimate of 10,000 creators earning $500 every month, the current blockade is resulting in losses of $5 million each month at the least.
