I've heard good evening from Nepal. I must stay from Nepal uh myself USA Kata. Uh I am from the Himalayan kingdom of Nepal and today I am going to present on the need of digital marketing and technology in a developing country. Nepal.Uh Currently, I'm working in the position of Chief Executive Officer for NRN infrastructure and Development Limited and I am very much thankful and humble to women take global Conference 2023 for this opportunity to share the thinking and what's going on in the digital marketing in the arena of the developing country like Nepal and special thanks to Anna for this opportunity.

Saying sir, I would like to start my presentation. Let's just talk about the Nepal about a bit about Nepal. Nepal is a beautiful country with a cultural heritage and cynic Bety. However, while talking about the digital things and about the marketing things, Nepal is still a developing country with limited resource and infrastructure. This is where digital marketing and technology can play a significant role in boosting Nepal's economy and social development at the no sale according to the latest tests, if we see that Nepal has approximately 17 million internet users, which accounts for 58.3% of this total population.

This increasing trend in the use of the internet has created a huge demand for digital marketing and technology in Nepal. Let us talk a bit about um uh OK. Is that my presentation in the full mode? Ok. Thank you. Thank you for the correction, right? Uh OK. Uh And if we talk about um well, I think some technical thing is gone over there. I'll again reshare my screen. Sorry for the technical problem. I'm resharing it. Is it feasible? Yes. OK. OK. Digital marketing is the site of the marketing strategies. We all of us know that fact and es especially used to promote the products and the services. These channels can be the websites that we come across normally. WW dot Social media, S TT P social media platforms that we are aging. Either it be the linkedin, either it be the Facebook, either it be the tiktok or either it be the different Instagram or the different platforms and email marketing shorting optimizes se Os and the paid advertising. Digital marketing allows business to reach a wider audience and increase brand awareness and it has really done a great magic in the current global arena. Why is the importance of the digital marketing? So globally going on in today's digital age and especially the techno transformation.

Digital marketing is critical for business to remain competitive, you know, however, developing countries are especially lacking their infrastructure and resources to support. Strong digital marketing strategy is eight in the loopholes. This slide will explore the importance of digital marketing in today's business landscape.

Why why is digital marketing important for accelerating the growth, the vital role of the digital marketing and technology in Nepal's developing economy. You can see her why digital marketing is important in Nepal because it's cost effective. Digital marketing is more cost effective than the traditional marketing method.

You know, in the traditional marketing method, you have to reach out to the audience uh to meet them. Uh as the infrastructure things are not suitable. Uh the time stay of the time to reach out to the audience is really really very critical and time consuming cost. So it's not cost effective. So rather than the personal methods. So like the TV, radio one in one interview or the newspaper advertising can be expensive, especially for the small businesses. So digital marketing on the other hand, can be done at the most, most lower cost and is cost effective. And another is the increase in the internet penetration. If you see the scenario like in the developing countries like Nepal, Nepal has seen a rapid increase in the in internet penetration. If you do the Google search or any type of source A I source, then you can see that there is a rapid increase in the internet penetration. According to Nepal Telecommunication Authority, the internet penetration rate in Nepal is 63.92% which is really high. This means that there is a large audience that can be raised through the digital channels and it enhances the cons customer and the consumer investment. Digital marketing allows business to engage with their customers in the real time through social media.

Business can respond to customer queries quickly and the feedback also can be got quickly like the sorry monkey, sorry or all these things, you know, so it can find out the customer satisfaction and build a trust why digital marketing, digital marketing is for the purpose of like driving sales and boost brand awareness.

It offers targeted marketing and measurable result in Nepal. Digital marketing can help business expand their reach and compete in the global market. Let's talk a bit about the technology in Nepal and how it is going on. You can see here and I I already elaborated that the mobile phone usage. Nepal has seen a rapid increase in the mobile phone usage according to the research uh Nepal Telecommunication Authority, one of the government authority, there were 34.22 million people uh mobile phone users in Nepal in 2021. This means that business can reach a large audience through the mobile marketing.

And there is the ecommerce, ecommerce. If you talk about the ecommerce, ecommerce, is it in the very early stages? Uh and it's it not in the mind of the people and it's growing, but it is growing rapidly. According to a report, ecommerce sales is expected to raise 2.6 billion Nele rupees by 2025. This presents a very well drawn opportunity for businesses to sell their products online and reach a wider audience if we talk about the Alibaba and other market. Nowadays, uh Many of the ecommerce are trying to reach them out globally and trying to do uh the JV with them. And let's talk a bit about the payment system. Payment systems are right are the most essential part of the commas. Nowadays, the wallet is becoming very popular. That means like if they are really becoming so popular and nowadays, uh people have started not to started not putting money in their post though it was very much popular before COVID. After the COVID, the techno enhancement has been very much rapid and the payment system has also been changed. Digital payment system are also in the early stages but they are growing rapidly. This presents an opportunity for businesses to offer online payment option and make it easier for customers to purchase their product. And in the case of the education also di digital technology is revolutionizing education system in Nepal, online learning platforms.

Like uh most of us are already familiar with the Coursera um Edex like that. Different platforms like Vida and the other platforms are really, really uh becoming so most popular. And uh because they are much more accessible, affordable and people who have the easy access to the internet, they can, that can help them easily and in the affordable way. So digital technology is also improving the quality of the education. Let us talk a bit about the challenges.

What are the challenges? Because uh if you do the sort analysis, there are the strength opportunities, trade, um weakness and a lot of challenges. So we can we, we have to find the the possibility and positivity in the possibility, you know. So let us talk a bit about the challenges. There are the challenges in the digital landscape in Nepal, the digital landscape in Nepal is rapidly evolving with increased internet penetration that we talked earlier and the smartphone uses. However, challenges, society limited digital literacy and poor infrastructure.

If we talk about Nepal, Nepal is such a landscape country where there are so many rural areas with a lot of mountains surrounded by the mountains. So the infrastructure has really been a hindrance for the growth of the digital market in Nepal and easy access of the internet.

Moreover, and the an obstacle is faced by the marketers, marketers in Nepal, face obstacles like limited access to the digital tools, lack of the skilled professionals, limited budget allocation in the digital marketing. A is it in the uh it to to be in the growth sector? You know the challenges hinder the growth of the digital marketing in Nepal infrastructure. We already talked about digital literacy is still low in Nepal, especially in the rural areas. This can make it challenging to adopt digital marketing and technology in these areas. Lack of the awareness is the major thing. Many businesses in Nepal are still not aware of the benefits of the digital marketing and technology and they are still adopting the traditional methods because they are used to with it. So this can make it challenging to convince them to adopt those strategies how to overcome this digital marketing and technology bottlenecks in the developing countries challenges and the solution you can see here the photo like uh it's really thinkable to, to how to overcome of all these challenges.

Developing countries like Nepal face any challenges when it comes in digital marketing, including limited essays of the internet, which we talked all also low levels of the digital literacy and the lack of resources. This slide will discuss the challenges in details. We already talked about the internet infrastructure, Nepal faces challenges with limited infrastructure, internet penetration and inadequate internet infrastructure. Many rural areas lack access to high speed internet, making it difficult to implement and benefit from digital marketing strategies. Might you are quite sorry to hear that.

Oh, is the internet thing? Uh so much uh like uh not easily accessible, it's not easily accessible. Likewise, the ISP internet service providers, they are not able to provide the uh wide range of the broad networking systems. And it has really been a hindrance uh in the city area somewhat by paying, we can get the facility. But in the rural areas, because of the infrastructure is really a great bottleneck. And the limited digital literacy, there is a significant digital literacy gap in Nepal, especially among the older population and those living in the rural areas, lack of the awareness and understanding of digital technologies can hinder the adoption and effective implementation of digital marketing strategy.

But eight nowadays uh because of the number of the mobile smartphones, uh people, all these people also though they are not literate, even they are used to with like um Facebook, tiktok, uh this type of social media, they are somewhat familiar with and thanks to the technology and it's going on, it's just paving the way and the language barrier is always there.

Nepal is a linguistically diverse country with numerous languages spoken across different reasons. Himal paar and Thai this poses a challenge for digital marketing ipo as content needs to be localized and translated into the multiple language to effectively reach the target audience. Localized content creation is another challenge.

Developing relevant and engaging localized content can be a challenge in Nepal creating content that resonates with the local audience, with the Multilingual people addresses their needs and align with the cultural nuances requires a deep understanding of the local market and consumer behavior.

Another constraint is the financial constraint, which is also the major constraint because without finance, nothing is going to happen. Limited access to the financial resources and investment capital can be a major major bottle for the digital marketing initiative in developing countries like Nepal, implementing advanced technologies and running effective online advertising campaigns often requires significant financial investments which may not be readily available to all the business that come across and and there is access to the technology and devices each and everyone do not have easy access to the technology and devices.

While the use of the smartphone is though increasing in Nepal, there are still segments of the population that lack access to the technology devices that is required for effective digital marketing, limited access to the computer smartphone and other digital devices can impede the reach and impact of digital marketing equals.

And another is the regulatory hindrance, the regulatory environment surrounding digital marketing and technology in Nepal really is very challenging, complex regulation, lack of the clear policies, outdated laws that can also be the barriers to innovation and hinder the growth of the digital marketing strategy.

And and there is the trust and the security concern if many people are just suspicious. Oh, shall we open the uh like uh bank accounts, online tet accounts online? Um There are the concerns related with the online privacy, data security and the cyber threat that can also discourage users from engaging with digital marketing campaigns, building trust and ensuring data security are really, really important. And these are very much challenging and that needs to be addressed very well. So how to overcome these obstacles. There are so many challenges, obstacles, but it we can overcome that how to overcome the obstacles to overcome the obstacles faced by the marketers in Nepal. It is important to invest. We talked earlier about the financial things. So it is important to invest in the digital literacy. And many of the people are coming up with the start of things and policies to be implemented and formulated in the state of things which can add the digital literacy and training programs for prospers partnership with digital agencies and optimizing digital marketing strategies can help overcome all these obstacles.

Successful digital marketing strategy in Nepal includes social media marketing c content marketing. These strategies can help increase brand awareness, lead generation and customer engagement. So what is to be done at the very outset? The thing to be done is revolutionizing Nepali business, digital marketing and technology sources stories.

Let us hear of some of the sources stories. Also though there are a number of problems, there are a lot of challenges but it we also have sources stories and the importance of the digital marketing. Digital marketing is the future of advertising and Nepali business are embracing it with the increasing use of the social media that we talked earlier. Smartphones, business must arrive to say and still relevant. Digital marketing provides businesses with the tools to reach a wider audience and increase the revenue.

This start some success stories like case study of the Dra. The R. Nepal is the country's largest online marketplace through targeted social media campaigns and innovative digital marketing strategies. They have seen tremendous growth over the years. Their success story is a testament to the power of the digital marketing and very much elaborated by most of the digital marketing practitioners here in Nepal. Another is the case study of the F one Soft International Appliance Soft International is a leading software company in the Nepal.

They offer innovative solutions for online payment system, gateway payment solution and banking software. Through their use of the cutting edge technology and digital marketing campaigns. They had become a leader in the industry after the number of years of working out in the field of the digital marketing software technology and techno transformation and the challenges faced by the Neli business. Despite I talked about the success story of the Terra about F One soft though many are eight struggling and that is really challenging. Nepali businesses still face a lot of challenges when it comes to the digital marketing and technology, limited access to the high speed internet.

As we already talked about the I SPS and the lack of the digital literacy among the population are some of the obstacles business must overcome it. We can see the opportunities. You know, there are a number of opportunities. I I often remember uh one story um often talk and popular in the internet. Like uh someone was talking lately about uh the esco uh where there is a uh lacking, something is lacking. There is always the opportunity someone was elaborating about the scope of uh uh like uh shoes in the uh African country where the people were not uh wearing shoes and they were not used to with the shoes, you know, like white, like white. The there is tremendous opportunity of technology advancement here in our country. And in the developing country like Nepal, Nepal has a vast untapped potential in sector society, healthcare, education, agriculture, which is the major resource of the country. So by leveraging technology in these sectors, Nepal obviously can improve the quality of life for its citizens and boost economic growth. We talked about the successful examples. Despite the challenges, there are different several successful examples of how technology has leveraged in Nepal.

This include the use of telemedicine to provide health care service in the remote areas. And during the COVID also because of the digital literacy techno enhancement and the use uh in the healthcare sector, uh the healthcare service provider, they were able to provide the service through the home care. So uh provide the healthcare service in the even in the remote areas, the use of the elearning platforms to improve education outcomes and the use of the mobile money to increase increase financial literacy and inclusion. So, uh so I'd like to conclude that digital marketing and technology can play a very significant role in boosting Nepal's economy and social development. With the increase in the internet penetration, mobile phone usage and the ecommerce, there are significant opportunities for business to reach a wider audience and grow their customer base. However, there are also challenges in adopting these strategies, society, limited infrastructure, lack of the awareness, lack of the uh internet, eg accessibility to the internet facility, low digital literacy.

It is essential to address these challenges and promote the adoption of digital marketing and technology in Nepal to realize the full potential. So Nepal has the potential to become a techno enhanced technology powerhouse in the region. But it requires concentrated effort from all the stakeholders around and especially we want some effort from the developing countries also so that the O can be raised different types of the main program. So by addressing the challenges and leveraging the opportunities, Nepal can unlock its potential for growth and development through technology. Thank you so much for your kind attention. If you have any suggestions, questions, comments concerns queries, the floor is open, you can write in the question answer session or in the chat box. Thank you so much.