A "niche" medium, podcasts, is quietly occupying the minds of young people and becoming spiritual companions for youth groups and content practitioners.
If there are any media forms and channels that can be tapped and have the opportunity to explode in addition to books/newspapers/magazines, TV/long and short videos, podcasts may be that potential stock.
On the vertical podcast platform "Small Universe", you can find high-quality content from various industries such as technology, culture, interviews, and business, with high overall content quality, user reputation and fan stickiness.
The "double high" advantage has also made podcasts, a seemingly high-end and niche market, gradually attracted the attention of many institutions and capital.
A vertical but not niche business
After researching podcast users, you will find that the overlap rate between this group of users and users of short video platforms such as Douyin is very low.
As a heavy user of podcasts for many years, I have found that there is only a difference between listening to podcasts and not listening to podcasts, and I rarely see this state of listening occasionally or casually.
However, there are still many people who are not familiar with this medium of "can't stop after using it", and they can't tell the difference between radio and podcasts. But while both are audio forms, the cores are very different.
Translated from English podcast, podcast is a combination of the words "iPod" (an old Apple audio player) and "broadcast". At the beginning of the millennium, many listeners used their iPods to listen to audio programs, and because of the radio nature of such programs, podcasts got their name.
According to The Paper's interview with Yang Yi, the former anchor of "Left and Right" and the former CEO of JustPod, Yang Yi gave his own definition of podcasting and found "a greatest common divisor - that is, podcast-style audio programs".
It can be seen that a podcast is actually an audio program, similar to the video program seen by a TV station or video platform, except that it is presented in audio (only sound and no picture). At the same time, because there are "programs" to limit, podcasts are different from other audio formats such as music, audiobooks, and paid knowledge courses.
As for the difference between podcasts and radio, it is also easy to understand, domestic radio programs mostly appear in the form of channels, and a certain channel broadcasts a certain program in a certain time period. However, podcasts are flexible in time, rich and diverse in content, and the anchors tend to have more distinct and personal views, as well as more emotional interaction with fans.
To some extent, we can think that podcasts pay more attention to whether the content meets user preferences than radio station programs, and we can also compare the difference between TV shows and short videos to the difference between radio and podcasts.
At present, according to the nature of the platform, podcast channels can be divided into three types: one is to insert podcast channels on the audio platform, and podcast business is being developed on Himalaya, Lychee, and Dragonfly FM platforms; the second is vertical podcast platforms, such as Small Universe, Apple Podcasts and other APPs; and the third is music streaming platforms, such as NetEase Cloud and QQ Music, which have also opened up the podcast ecology to attract more creators to produce high-quality content.
It can be seen that almost all voice-related pan-audio platforms are deploying podcasts, which shows its potential.
The explosion of podcasts is actually due to Apple's development of the "Apple Podcasts" APP in the iPhone system, simplifying the hardware cost of listening to podcasts.
Although there is no need to compare everything with Europe and the United States, the American media did start early and go further in exploring the medium of podcasting. In China, the ecology of Chinese podcasts is still in its infancy, and the market size and content richness are far less than those of graphics and videos, and are often considered to be relatively niche.
Of course, today, podcasts are not so niche in the domestic market. According to data from ListenNotes, a global podcast industry website, the number of Chinese podcast users has exceeded 100 million, and the growth rate of podcast users is still strong in 2023, when the growth rate of various media is gradually slowing down and even stagnating, exceeding 15% for two consecutive years.
Chinese podcasts have developed to the present, although vertical but not niche, and are still growing rapidly.
A stronger attraction to young people
The platform vigorously develops podcasts, which is naturally related to its commercial value.
Podcasts are a medium with strong user stickiness. According to a Pew Research Center survey, podcast listeners tend to be younger, higher-income, and more educated in society, who have greater spending power and a stronger willingness to pay for good content.
Especially when superficial content such as video occupies most people's minds, there is an unmet demand for non-textual, more in-depth and interesting quality content. In addition, due to the need for more immersive text and the difficulty of taking care of many scenes, podcasts have become the best alternative, and many people are used to listening to podcasts while commuting and doing housework.
There is scene demand and emotional value, which has given birth to a number of high-quality podcast programs, which has also allowed podcasts to gradually get rid of the niche and have strong fan stickiness.
According to a report by a financial magazine, people in the Chinese podcast industry have done research and found that people who listen to podcasts often have the habit of reading long articles and books, so from the perspective of content preferences, it can be said that Kyth's statement is, "Listening to podcasts requires a little immersion, and people who are too impetuous are less likely to listen to podcasts." ”
From this point of view, young, knowledgeable, strong purchasing power, this kind of user group is obviously the brand likes consumers, JustPod "2022 Chinese Podcast New Observation" shows that podcast users aged 22-35 account for more than 70%, higher education, average monthly income of 14808 yuan.
With the continuous development of smart home and new energy vehicles, it is likely to expand the podcast user and market scale, just recently, a friend of mine who has bought a new car said that it is difficult to meet the demand for listening to music on the road, and audio books are not interested, so podcasts have become the best choice.
It can be seen that in the case of the gradual scarcity of the audience's attention, if there is anything other than graphics, texts and short videos that can attract users, perhaps podcasts are the starting point for leveraging users and brands. Quality content attracts quality customers, which is what brands love.
Despite the growing business model of podcasts, there are still big differences between domestic and foreign podcast ecosystems.
At present, most podcasts in China are still produced by individuals, self-media or native podcast companies, and there are very few podcast companies that operate professionally and in the whole ecosystem. In contrast, podcasts are already quite profitable overseas.
This is related to the early development of podcasts in the European and American markets, many well-known foreign media are professional producers of podcasts, and these traditional large media groups will tilt some resources to podcast production, attract a considerable number of users with content, and then realize traffic monetization. According to the Pew Research Center, the average amount of time a U.S. user listens to podcasts per week has doubled since 2015.
Therefore, in the European and American markets, podcasts are also an important channel for media groups to obtain advertising sponsorships, and even support the profitability of the entire group. For example, NPR's podcasts have replaced radio programs as its most important source of income, and the profits are very considerable.
Of course, although the scale of domestic podcasts is small and looks like a small workshop, compared with professional institutions, fans of domestic podcasts are more recognizant of the anchor's values and emotional companionship, and the stickiness is stronger.
end
Although in the future, whether the Chinese podcast market can move from billions to tens of billions or even hundreds of billions is still a debated and discussed issue, the anchors in this industry are confident and the audience is also very optimistic.
Regardless of the outcome, the media channel of podcasts is gradually growing, which is not necessarily a niche market, after all, the growth of WeChat public accounts at the beginning, and it is also a group of media people who are the first to "go to the sea" to emerge in this ecology, and quickly pull the public's vision from blogs, websites, and microblogs to the WeChat ecology.
Perhaps the entire industry is still immature, and many individual anchors are still in the stage of generating electricity for love, but as a long-term content ecosystem, podcast advertising monetization has new possibilities. The high stickiness and strong trust of podcast fans make the private domain ecology of podcast columns extremely active, and the listening group has almost become the "industry standard" of head podcast programs, and private domain traffic may also help programs broaden their revenue sources.
As a heavy user of podcasts, I am also optimistic about podcasts, not only because their business possibilities continue to increase, but also because podcasts give more people the opportunity to output professional and high-quality content.
Why can short videos be popular? It is because in the era of TV media, the audience only has the choice to accept and watch, but on the short video platform, anyone can record a video by themselves and be followed by more people, and podcasts also have this characteristic.
Unlike radio, which is a one-to-many format where listeners can only passively listen to the content, podcasts are platform-based, where anyone can record audio content and publish it, and podcasts have also moved from PGC to UGC. Therefore, the popularity of podcasts also satisfies the needs of users to produce their own content.
This is an era where everyone is self-media.
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