Google Pakistan Digital Media Consumer insights

Pakistani users are shifting their Internet into a new gear in 2014, which will be the year mobile Internet overtakes desktop Internet, according to a new survey sponsored by Google.While desktop is dominant with 91 percent owning a PC at home, 45 percent also own a smartphone or tablet. 18 percent cite the latter as their primary device. Mobile devices are gaining momentum: 86 percent use PCs to access the Internet daily, 77 percent use smartphones, 73 percent use feature phones and 59 percent use tablets daily.

This trend follows a decline in the prices of smartphones and tablets, and anticipated launch of 3G services. Internet-capable feature phones are expected to continue to play an important role, too. An additional factor is the unreliability of the electricity supply which is also helping to promote the usage of tablets and smartphones in Pakistan.

“We think 2014 is the year mobile Internet overtakes desktop Internet in Pakistan. Consumers are really starting to embrace smartphones and tablets,” said Tania Aidrus, Manager for Asian Growth Markets, Google Asia Pacific.

These findings come from a survey of over 1,000 Pakistanis by research firm IDC on behalf of Google. The “Pakistan Digital Consumer Study” conducted earlier this quarter took a look at the life of the connected Pakistani consumer.

Pakistani digital consumers are engaging more with the Internet than ever before: of those surveyed, 70 percent spend time daily on the Internet while 60 percent say it is also where they liked to spend most of their personal time. Watching TV (41 percent) and reading the newspaper (24 percent) combined ranked lower than the Internet.

The study revealed that home is the preferred location for Internet access — even for mobile-only users, who prefer to use their home wi-fi connection. The average hours spent on the Internet are 2.25 hours a day on weekdays and 3 hours a day on weekends.

The top three activities in Pakistan both on desktop and mobile Internet are: social media, email and general search. Interestingly, digital Pakistanis like to learn on their smartphones with educational content coming in fourth. Also popular on smartphones are online banking, researching financial services and investment, and bill payments -- pointing to a near future where digitally literate Pakistanis make the Web work for them.

The main challenge of Internet proliferation in Pakistan are the quality and reliability of connectivity -- including poor speed or bandwidth availability, perceived value-for-money, customer service quality, limited choice of plans and frequency of service interruptions. The unreliability of the power supply is also a factor.

With digital Pakistanis living more of their lives online, the main opportunities are related to the economic contribution of the Internet, especially for small-medium businesses, as well as nutritious and local Internet content: education, research, financial services.

There are over 2 billion Internet users today. Throughout the 2000s, the Internet has been defined by developed countries, but it is now being defined by massive, developing countries like Pakistan.

“Emerging markets are starting from mobile, so if we lower Internet access barriers to consumers, businesses and communities, then we can expect growth far more rapid than what we’re already seeing,” said Aidrus.

As other markets have demonstrated, growth on the Internet encourages growth across the economy. More businesses online means more information for people and incentives to create better networks and content that better reflect local culture and needs. That will make the Internet more valuable and the economy stronger for Pakistan.

About Google Inc.

Google is a global technology leader focused on improving the ways people connect with information. Google’s innovations in web search and advertising have made its website a top Internet property and its brand one of the most recognized in the world.

Google is a trademark of Google Inc. All other company and product names may be trademarks of the respective companies with which they are associated.

Media contacts:

Google

Zeffri Yusof

E-mail: zeff@google.com  

Crack Down of Google and Microsoft against Child Abuse imagery

Crack Down of Google and Microsoft against Child Abuse imagery. The Google and Microsoft, the two leading search engine companies in the world, have started a crackdown against child abuse imagery over the internet. Both the companies have joined hands to clean up the internet searches related to child abuse images. It’s a vital step of the companies to make internet searches more safe and effective.
To overcome the issue both the companies have blocked approximately 100,000 search results over the internet related to illicit child abuse. The companies also warned that the child abuse imagery is illegal. After the blockage of the illicit content online no one is any more able to search those keywords related to child abuse rather they will be told that the sexual abuse of children is illegal.
This step of tech giants is regarded by the Prime Minister of U.K. David Cameron, who appreciated the new move by Google and Microsoft, but to do more to prevent people getting access to illegal images are also the words of the PM.
The executive chairman of Google, Eric Schmidt said that his company has cleanup the google searches and block approximately 100,000 search terms that might be related to the sexual abuse of children.He said of the people looking for such type of abusive queries they they will find no results that link to illegal content.
The present step of cleanup abusive child imagery is limited to English countries only, but the companies will move further by blocking it on the global scale and 158 other languages in the next six months. Similar changes are also happening with Microsoft’s Bing. The company said that they are closely related with google to solve the issue and their Bing search engine will also produce effective results.
The two companies have introduced new algorithms (software instructions ) that will put a stop to searches for child abuse imagery and Google is also testing technology to recognize and remove illegitimate videos. In a groundbreaking move, YouTube engineers have created new technology to identify videos made by paedophiles. The tech giants also have asked the help of UK’s National Crime Agency and Internet Watch Foundation in this regard.
The communications director of Google, Peter Barron said that the cleanup system is extremely effective and it would make the searches much more difficult to find  content related to sexual abuse of children online. The company is also showing warnings at the top of its search results for 13,000 queries.
The blockage or removal of the illicit child abusive content by Google and Microsoft is criticized by the different online rights campaigners, who said these precautionary  measures were more about preventing damage to the companies' reputations, and would not be very effectual in protecting children.
Despite criticism the step of  Google is significantly better. The company is doing its utmost to make the internet a safer and more accessible place for the people. I think it is a good move of the governments and tech giants to work together to eradicate child abuse content from the internet.

What is your opinion comment below:

Google’s Android OS at the Top, Windows Starts Getting Success

Google’s Android OS at the Top, Windows Starts Getting Success. A recent survey conducted by IDC has revealed that the Google’s Android OS Platform is leading and at the top while the Microsoft Windows OS is getting success gradually. It is unveiled that the Android based Smartphones are leading and four out of five smartphones sold across the world in the third quarter of this fiscal year.
Google's Android OS market share increased to 81 percent, which was 74.9 percent a year ago. It has surpassed the Apple’s iOS, used on its iPhones. Although iPhone sales rose to 25.6 percent from a year earlier, but the growth was slower than the overall market. Apple's share also fell down in the same period last year to 12.9 percent from 14.4 percent.
On the other hand the Windows Phone grabbed the number three position with the 3.6 percent market share, up from two percent a year earlier. The Windows Phone sales rose 156 percent, with more than 90 percent made by the Finnish company Nokia. Nokia’s handset division is set to be purchased by Microsoft.The downfall can be seen in Research In Motion Limited (RIM)s BlackBerry. The market shares of the BlackBerry fell from 4.1 percent to 1.7 percent a year ago. Although, RIM has introduced the new operating system BlackBerry 10 but the sale of its BlackBerry device fell 41.6 percent from a year ago.
Despite the rise and fall of market shares of different smartphone company’s market share the overall smartphone market rose 39.9 percent year-over-year in the quarter, to 261 million units. The IDC survey further revealed that the average sales price of a smartphone fell 12.5 percent in the quarter to $317. The IDC analyst Ramon Llamas said that the Android and Windows Phone start to make continued to make considerable trade, despite their difference in market share, in the third quarter of the year. He was of the view that Price is the significant key behind the success of both competitors. 
Both the companies Google and Microsoft have a wide range of collection available at the very low cost. These products are affordable enough for the mass market and role of mass market is most important in the prosperity of entire market.
Despite the introduction two new iPhones namely iPhone 5S and iPhone 5c in the month of September the market share of Apple was probably affected by the weak sale of products, at the end of the quarter of this year. The IDC survey said that despite the downfall in market share Apple sold nine million of the new devices in the first weekend, suggesting a strong fourth quarter.
The large devices namely Phablets’ sale up from the 3 percent a year ago, accounted for 21 percent of the smartphone market, said IDC report. The IDC's Ryan Reith said that the increase in the sale is most probably due to all the successful Android vendors, who have added one or more five- to seven-inch phablets to their product collections. He further mentioned that the inability of Apple in contributing the growing market is the absence of large screen devices in the third quarter of the current year.

Google brings Helpouts, for assisting you via Videos

Google brings Helpouts, for assisting you via Videos, Google  has  brought the Helpouts tool. It’s a unique tool or service launched by Goolge that assist you if you want to learn anything online. Google Helpouts is a new marketplace that connects people to experts who can help them in learning things. For instant if you want to learn a new language? Want to play an instrument? Want to learn how to apply makeup? Want to solve your tech problems?
Google Heplouts is here. It's a live video based helping service that offers you assistance in learning how to do anything you want. 
How Google Helpouts work?
It's a face-to-face personal interaction between you and someone who can hopefully teach you what you need to know. If you will search and browse through a number of topics. It will assist you and connect with an expert -- or Helpout provider, as can be called as the set up a one-on-one Google+ Hangout session.
Google described the Helpouts service as the latest way to get and give personalized help over live video.Google said that their goal is simple. They want to help people and want to enable everyone, no matter where they are or what time it is, to easily connect with someone who can help.
Using Google Helpouts service the users can select the providers based on availability, price, ratings, reviews or qualifications.
Its definitely a unique service by Google, though not free. Unfortunately you will have to pay for availing the service. But if the experts get late for 5 minutes for the start the session will be free. It is also a money back service, If the user is for any reason discontented with the session, Google will provide a repayment.
Google will take 20 percent of the money made at each session as a transaction fee, apart from for Helpouts related to health care. You can visit Google Helpouts here and select your desired category for having assistance in learning……

For further updates stay tuned with us…..

India to Have YouTube on TVs: Pakistanis still waiting for its restoration

It is a big regret for Pakistan not to have YouTube in the country. Numerous times we heard that government has made plans, devised policies or software to filter YouTube and it will soon be restored in the country. But nothing happened like that and now it’s more than a year our government and IT is unable to restore the social video sharing site in the country. It seems that our institution has not enough capability to address with the issue and they just made castle in the air. Look at our neighbor country namely India, who has done tremendous progress in almost every field. I think like our country they don’t prefer to ban the one that creates panic instead they try to solve the matter with technical expertise. It can also be said that our government has not enough power or you can say enough authority to pressurize the concerned authority (Google) to address the issue.

Our Government and Pakistan Telecommunication Authority had several times negotiated with Google regarding the blasphemous content on the You Tube but nothing comes out. It seems Google is not ready to hear Pakistan.

Now our neighboring country India to have You Tube on its TVs and Pakistan is not capable enough to have it on PCs and other devices. Recently, Google has decided to boost its Video sharing website YouTube in India via Televisions. Google is in talks with direct-to-home cable providers to bring the service to televisions screens, said Francisco Varela, its global director of platform partnerships.

According to him Video Services are rapidly growing in India and they want to boost in further to grab more revenue, because You Tube play integral role in Google’s revenue and it had fetched more than $50 billion in 2012.

Already Available on Samsung, LG and Sony smart TVs the Google’s YouTube will now be accessible at major DTH players including Dish TV, Tata Sky, Airtel Digital TV, Videocon D2H, Reliance Digital TV and Sun Direct.

Google slashes the Nexus 4 price in the US and UK

 Google has slashed the price of its LG made Nexus 4 smartphone. Google gives a $100 Price cut on the device the 8GB version is now available at a price of $199 while the 16GB will can be yours in $ 249 in the US.

The UK version has also dropped down in cost, with an 8GB Nexus 4 now costing £159 while the 16GB version of the phone contains the $199 price tag for the unlocked version. The price drop is available in other countries as well including Germany, Australia, Spain, Korea and Canada. The price drop has only been applied to the play stores. The Google Nexus 4 designed by LG runs on Qualcomm Snapdragon (TM) S4 Pro Processor and a 1.5 GHz quad-core CPUs.

Other features include Android 4.2, Jelly Bean operating system, HSPA+ (up to 42 Mbps),  4.7-inch WXGA True HD IPS displayPlus (1280 x 768 pixels) , 16GB memory, 2GB of RAM, 8.0MP rear camera and 1.3MP HD front facing camera,  2,100mAh Li-Polymer battery with 15.3 hours talk time and 390 hours standby time, Wireless charging capability, NFC, Wireless display and gesture typing.

A cheaper Nexus 4 can be picked up at the Google Play store.