India third largest consumer of podcasts

Country will likely have 95 million monthly listeners by the end of 2021, a 34 pc jump from last year.

Pallavi Dubey | NT

Bengaluru: By the end of 2021, India will have 95 million monthly consumers of podcasts, a whopping 34 per cent increase from 71 million active users in 2020. India is now the third largest consumer of podcasts in the world after witnessing a steady uptick in usage over the last few years.

According to a recent RedSeer analysis, the total time spent in Oct’21 – Online Entertainment was around 2290 billion minutes. Social media accounts for 885 billion minutes followed by messaging, OTT streaming, news apps, and Shortform App. In October, podcasts accounted for 2.5 billion minutes.

“They are an easy and convenient medium to update yourself anywhere - during your daily commute, for instance. You don’t have to keep your eyes glued to the screen either,” says Drishti Sahay, a podcast listener.

Platforms like Headphone and Khabri devoting more resources towards providing high-quality content and investing in stronger UGC filtering and recommendation engines, has opened the doors to a variety of content, from true crime to poetry. MoodyMo Awaaz, hosted by Bengaluru- based Mohua Chinappa and Asif Jukaku, is an honest attempt to capture the inner resilience and emotions of people who have suffered due to the patriarchy. “The podcast market is growing tremendously with 57 million podcast issues monthly, making India the third largest consumer of podcasts in the world,” says Chinappa. “The podcasts market in India will be worth INR 75 cr by 2023. It proves audio is a preferred medium as one can listen to it on the move. There are many voices that need to be heard and don’t make it to mainstream platforms.”