With 1.3 Billion population
under lockdown in India, Mindshare India and Vidooly have released a report
that ascertains the impact on online content consumption trends over the first
quarter of 2020. The report has studied the video platforms of
YouTube, Facebook and Instagram aiming to highlight the new ways people are
looking to entertain themselves as well as be socially connected with their
friends and families.
The comprehensive study analyses the impact of the
pandemic, COVID-19 and the subsequent lockdown on the content
consumption patterns observed across genres. The report’s findings showcased a
steep increase in content consumption as it reported the time spent by the
average user to be over 4 hours per day as
compared to previous ~1.5 hours on social
media platforms.
The comparison of the online content consumption
trends of Q4' 2019 and Q1'2020
details the high and low points showcasing the stickiness of the content on the
video platforms with deep-dive analysis of monthly trends for each genre in Q1'2020.
As a primary video sharing platform, YouTube alone
has garnered over ~300 B views in Q1’2020
which is 13% more than Q4’2019
& 11% more than Q1’2019. The
millennials remain the most active group on YouTube in India with 70%
of viewership coming from the age group 18-34. Entertainment, Music
& News were the top 3 genres based on
content consumption contributing to over 70% of views in Q1’20. Over
90% of the views on YouTube were through Mobile
devices.
A section of the report, Impact of COVID-19
on social media, identifies the content consumption trends and analyses how
creators/influencers, brands and government agencies are utilizing social media
platforms to communicate with their audience during this lockdown period.
YouTube has seen a 20.5%
surge in subscribers-base in a span of 45 days of lockdown.
COVID-related content has seen a surge of 98%
in terms of views and 199% in terms of
engagement. While informational content as well as trivia is specific to
YouTube, awareness/prevention videos are thriving on Facebook. In order to
garner better engagement, brands are indulging into thorough marketing through
Facebook and Instagram. The Government of India’s efforts in spreading
awareness have gained mileage over YouTube.
M A Parthasarathy, CEO, Mindshare South Asia
commented: “In unprecedented times like these, it is important to keep a finger
on the pulse of the consumer. Mindshare’s partnership with Vidooly enables us
to leverage data and digital analytics to truly understand the shifts in
consumer behavior when it comes to content consumption on online media
platforms. Insights from this study will help us partner our clients in
crafting relevant, timely and effective content solutions.”
Subrat Kar, CEO, Co-founder Vidooly says,
"The worldwide lockdown has resulted in significant shifts in audience
behavior, specifically in terms of online content consumption. I believe in
such a scenario retention rate and watch time of videos will be the key metrics
to filter and identify the best performing channels. We at Vidooly have been
closely monitoring these dynamics to ascertain content that will work best for
brands, influencer and government. We can definitely say that the world stage
has been set to witness the new normal."
Genre-specific observations from the report
indicate a 120% spike in the number of uploads in the ‘Education’
category post lockdown. While the ‘Music’ genre, majorly short-form content,
has seen a 9% decline in consumption during the lockdown period,
which also indicates the shift in the consumer behaviour towards long form
content. An increase in time at a consumer’s disposal is cited as the reason
for this shift. Certain genres that have seen a significant increase in
viewership are Food & Recipe (52%), Gaming (23%),
and Information (42%).