Podcasting Trends in India 2019–20
The year 2020 marks not just a new year for the industry but the advent of the audio decade in India. The Indian podcast industry is all set to boom as communication is becoming more content-centric with each passing day. The rise in awareness about the term ‘podcast’ gave way to the understanding that all non-music audio content is essentially a podcast — Be it the news or cricket commentary someone consumed through radio, or The Hanuman Chalisa, Quran and The Guru Granth Sahib playing on loop in shops and houses across the country.
2019 has been a banner year and in some ways the commercial birth of podcasting in India. While podcasts were gaining momentum in 2018, the explosive growth and evolution of audio content in 2019, added podcasting to the list of mainstream content sharing platforms.
India is expected to have 1 billion mobile users by 2020, 96% of these being smartphone users. This, coupled with high commuting hours, a pre-existing relationship with radio, and a large number of languages in a location that is under-represented online today, make India the perfect breeding ground for audio content. While 10 years ago, there were no Indian podcast platforms, today many platforms including the likes of Hubhopper, Indus Vox Media (IVM) Podcasts, and Audible Suno have taken charge of the podcasting story of India.
Podcast listening has increased markedly in India in the past few years. Monthly listeners (defined as people who listened to at least one podcast in the last month) totaled 4cr at the end of 2018, up a sharp 57.6% from 2.54Cr in the previous year. This made India the world’s third-largest podcast-listening market (after China and the US), although it ranks much lower on a per capita basis. Growth is set to continue over the forecast period with listener numbers set to increase at a 34.5% CAGR to 17.61Cr by 2023. The podcasting industry in India has found a sweet spot — people listen to them on long commutes, while getting ready, on morning walks, doing chores and more. Podcasts bring them their daily dose of laughter, fiction or news — the latest in science, technology, economics or public policy. “The advantage of podcasts is that they don’t steal your time,” says Gautam Raj Anand, Founder & CEO of Hubhopper
With fierce competition in the market, music streaming platforms also repositioned themselves as audio streaming platforms by including podcasts of various genres — pop culture, science, technology, business and more. Global music streaming company Spotify launched itself as Spotify — Music and Podcasts in India. Domestic music streaming companies — Airtel’s Wynk Music, Times Internet’s Gaana and of course pioneers JioSaavn also began including podcasts in their offerings.
“We have seen a niche segment of our users who are very regular listeners of podcasts and this number although pretty small in the percentage of our user base is seeing continued growth,” says Prashan Agarwal, CEO Gaana
The full report contains more information on the listening and content trends of 2019, and the trend forecast for 2020. Click here to read the Podcast Industry Report in detail
