Regional languages and markets have been the buzz word for every brand and every marketer for some time now. New addition to the list of the growing language ecosystem is news. According to a Kantar-Google report, one out of every two Indian language internet users consumes news online. What’s even more interesting is that 53 percent of these online news consumers reside in rural areas, which accounts for 384 million people.
The report also said that there are around 153 million active online news consumers in Indian languages, who consciously access news through various sources such as news apps, websites, and YouTube. Among these, the majority are rural users, constituting 59 percent (91 million) while urban users constitute 41 percent (62 million).
“In a world where content can be translated into multiple Indian languages at scale, the opportunity with Indian language content, unconstrained by geography, is no longer regional but global. Content businesses including digital news publishers have the potential to unlock new growth avenues by better engaging with an evolved and affluent cohort of Indian language digital news consumers,” said Sanjay Gupta, country head and vice president, Google India.
“As a growing digital economy, we need to come together and build new propositions and brands across mediums to engage with consumers who are seeking authentic, reliable and high-quality content,” he added.
Contrary to popular belief of a monolithic and homogeneous regional consumer, the Indian language news consumer is a diverse group. The same report shows that one in every two Indian language internet users consumes news in India, and consumers with different language preferences exhibit distinct content preferences.
For instance, while entertainment, crime, and national, state, or city headlines are the top core news genres preferred by readers, readers of Malayalam news have a higher preference for international news and education. On the other hand, Bengali readers tend to prefer sports news.
An Indian language consumer uses as many as 5.05 platforms on an average to access news online with YouTube (93 percent), social media (88 percent) and chat apps (82 percent) emerging as popular pathways to news. 45percent online news users in Indian languages discover news via news publishers’ websites or apps.