It’s the smallest piece in digital leisure, but it surely’s progressively stepping up a gear. Over-the-top (OTT) audio content material accounts for about 2.3% of the full time spent by Indians on on-line leisure choices, in line with a December 2021 report by RedSeer Administration Consulting. That is led by music. However different, smaller items in OTT audio like audio tales and podcasts are gaining traction, and drawing growing curiosity from paying shoppers, advertisers and traders. Final week, Kuku FM, a homegrown, audio-content platform, introduced a $19.5 million funding spherical
Two components are shaping this bounce in spoken-word content material. The primary is the stay-at-home tradition introduced on by the pandemic, which kicked in round March 2020. The second are homegrown, audio-only platforms like Pocket FM, Kuku FM and Pratilipi, which gathered momentum in early-2021 and are opening up this market in newer methods. They’re content material in languages past English in a giant means and at new codecs like brief tales. Some additionally lean on content material generated by customers (versus content material generated by skilled creators).
Google Tendencies information permits a relative comparability of what customers are trying to find. Search information from India for the final three years exhibits that Audible, which streams audio variations of books obtainable on Amazon, has persistently led in search curiosity. However since early-2021, audio platforms that pivot round non-English languages like Pocket FM and Kuku FM examine properly with Audible in search curiosity. Karnataka and Maharashtra, that are extra city in nature, lead search curiosity in Audible. By comparability, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand lead for Pocket FM and Kuku FM.
Past English
In accordance with Lal Chand Bisu, CEO of Kuku FM, lower than 100 million Indians can devour content material in English. Provides Kartik Sharma, a Jaipur-based radio jockey and writer of RJ Kartik Motivation, a podcast: “I’m a Hindi-speaking RJ. But additionally, the essence of sure content material is healthier delivered in a regional language.” Therefore, whereas the ten most-popular podcasts on Audible are all in English, these on Spotify and HT Smartcast (whose promoters additionally publish Mint) are a mixture of Hindi and English, and people on Kuku FM are all in Hindi. Pocket FM and Kuku FM enable for user-generated content material, and in a number of Indian languages.
Value is another excuse for his or her rising reputation. An Audible subscription prices ₹2,388 per yr ( ₹199 monthly) for one audio e book monthly, with the choice to buy extra, and a few podcasts. Pocket FM and Kuku FM, however, value ₹399 per yr, with entry to all audiobooks and podcasts.
Startup Enterprise
Startups within the audio-platforms area are additionally drawing investor curiosity. On this set, the utmost funding has been obtained by Pratilipi, of $81.6 million, in line with offers database Crunchbase. This Bengaluru-based firm, based in 2015, helps audio tales and user-generated content material in 12 languages. Kuku FM and Pocket FM, each based in 2018, have additionally raised exterior funds.
Kuku FM, which says it has 500,000 paying customers, began with podcasting in an interview format. It then moved to user-generated content material. Finally, it discovered stability in a enterprise mannequin that pivots round long-form sequence content material—sometimes, 20-100 episodes—and consumer subscription. Says Bisu of Kuku FM: “Advert revenues are very tough in India, as 90% of the market is captured by Google and Fb. We requested 3,000-4,000 customers in the event that they had been keen to pay, and we obtained a optimistic response from 85%.”
Quick Ahead
The RedSeer report cited above estimated India to have 95 million month-to-month lively customers of podcasts on the finish of 2021—a year-on-year development of 34%. A PwC report, titled “The International Leisure and Media Outlook 2020-2024″, is bullish on development of spoken-word content material in India. It initiatives month-to-month podcast listeners to develop at a median 30.4% within the subsequent 5 years, helped by low subscription charges and information tariffs, voice search, and enterprise fashions that mix free-to-use and subscriptions.
In India, PwC estimates that revenues from this section will improve about 90% from $0.9 billion in 2020 to $1.7 billion in 2024. That’s about 5 occasions the expansion estimated globally, the place too consolidations and realignments are occurring. On 18 February, Spotify acquired two firms specialising in applied sciences associated to advertising, promoting and analytics for audio content material. Play on.
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Supply: Live Mint