Enjoying a Sunday brunch, playing Pokemon on your phone, or watching a sitcom. These are just common things we do. Using portmanteaus in our everyday life is quite common too. Portmanteaus, combo words where breakfast and lunch become brunch, pocket, and monster become Pokemon, and situational comedy becomes sitcom. That’s an interesting topic for small talk the next time you are with your friends at a poker table.
But moving on with the topic of portmanteaus, there’s one in particular that has become a part of everyone’s life these days. What started as broadcasts made for iPods by Adam Curry and Dave Winer in 2004 quickly became “podcasts”. In the last 10 years, podcasts have caught our imagination in a big way. Today, we have a podcast on any conceivable topic, from stock market analysis to tips on poker hands.
Podcast Popularity in Numbers
For something with barely two decades of existence, podcasts have amassed a massive fan following. It was estimated that there will be more than 460 million podcast listeners by the end of 2023. They listen to one or more of the 5 million podcasts floating around in the digital space. These podcasts have 14 episodes on average, which is 70 million in aggregate. By the end of this year, there will be more than 500 million podcast listeners in the world.
Average podcast listeners spend around seven hours a week listening to their favourite podcasters. Most of these podcasts are between 20 to 40 minutes, the optimal duration to fit into our busy lives and our shrinking attention spans.
Podcasts had a breakout in the US but have gone on to amass the largest number of listeners as a percentage of internet users in Sweden and Norway. Morning is the preferred listening time, and mobiles are the preferred devices. And you thought that those joggers were only listening to music!
The number of podcast listeners has grown at a CAGR of 14%. Chile, Argentina, Peru, Mexico and China have seen the most growth in recent years. It seems that the global popularity of podcasts bounced from the US to Scandinavia before hitting Latin America.
With its 33% market share, Spotify dominates 60% of the podcast market along with Apple. And before you ask, yes, the Joe Rogan Experience is number 1 on global charts. Often vying for the first spot is the former US first lady Michelle Obama with her podcast.
Desi Vibes on Podcasts
The global podcasting market was valued at over $18.5 billion in 2022 and was expected to grow at a CAGR of 27.6%. The Indian podcasting market is considered to be a sleeping giant by many, which may not seem very promising since people use the same term to describe Indian football. But podcasting in India is indeed growing at a healthy rate, considering it is in relative infancy.
An industry study estimated that podcasting in India will grow at a 12.3% CAGR to a value of $7.9 billion by 2027. Back in 2019, PwC conducted a survey that predicted that the number of listeners in India would increase at an even faster CAGR of 30.4% between 2020 and 2024. Back then India had 57.6 million monthly listeners, behind only the US and China globally.
57.6 million is only 4% of the Indian population, whereas 55% have internet access. Mathematically, that is a scalability of more than 13X!
Outlook and Possible Future Significance
The future success of any industry can be gauged by its acceptability among the upcoming generations. Based on recent studies, it was found that 48% of global podcast listeners are below the age of 35. Gen Z listeners are twice as fast in discovering new podcast preferences, and 47% of them are monthly listeners. When checked among little ones between the ages of 6 and 12, 94% of the children who listened to a podcast claimed that they learnt something new while listening to it. 63% of these children are familiar with podcasts.
It is estimated that by 2030, more than 1.2 billion people will be listening to podcasts. The $23 billion podcast industry market itself is expected to grow to $131 billion by 2030.
Tuning In
For card game enthusiasts, listening to a podcast about card games can help them improve their rummy tricks and poker hands. And even go on to impress their opponent while playing on popular poker platforms like Pocket52. A poker pro, on the other hand, could look at the podcast boom in India as an opportunity to start a show of their own.
Podcasts have brought back the radio-like charm into audio-visual content. It offers a sorted and streamlined mode of entertainment, which can be a welcome respite to listeners who are tired of the chaotic side of social media. From that perspective, the global podcast revolution is set to continue for years to come.
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