According to Qianfan Analysys, the number of active users in China’s “ear economy” market has reached 800 million in 2021, and the average monthly usage of the market exceeds 3 hours. Among them, the monthly active number of China Online's online audio segment is stable at 300 million people and shows a steady upward trend. It can be seen that China's online audio content consumption market is in a stage of rapid development.
According to the survey results, the penetration rate of active people in the entire network is as high as 80%, and the "ear economy" is about to become a popular trend in the current market. Nowadays, users have a positive attitude towards audio content consumption including content payment, advertising placement, and brand-customized programs/activities. In the future, the audio form represented by podcasts and audio dramas is expected to become one of the important positions for brand marketing
The online audio content consumption market has entered the fast lane of development with 5G, big data and other technologies, bringing a more high-quality and immersive entertainment experience to the public, and effectively expanding the content consumption scene, gradually developing a not-to-be-underestimated. business potential.
Under the development trend of the "ear economy", whether it is the publishing industry, the film and television industry or the game industry, various innovations can be developed through the audio market
Audio content consumption user behaviour analysis
According to data analysis, the portraits of Chinese online audio users are mainly young and first-tier males with high spending power, accounting for nearly 65%, and mainly post-90s, with 46.20% of users aged 24-30. Overall, audio user stickiness is very high, about 70% of users have more than 3 audio software at the same time, and 70% of users think that audio content is for entertainment needs.
60% of users have paid experience and good consumption ability, and 22% of users invest more than 1,000 yuan in audio content every year.
More than 80% of users choose to pay for a subscription membership, 50% of users have the experience of paying for music, and over 42% of users have paid for audiobooks, which shows that music and audiobooks have higher paid conversion rates and user stickiness than other genres. It can be seen that users have a strong desire to spend and consume rich audio content types.
More than 60% of users can accept ad placement, nearly 33% of users continue to listen to content when they encounter commercial placement ads, and 10% of users even listen to interesting placement ads repeatedly, showing good quality The content of commercial advertisements has high-value growth space and reflects the great development space of audio marketing, prompting brand owners to increase investment in audio marketing.
The survey data shows that nearly 60% of users will pay attention to brand operation activities, and 47.2% of online users are very interested in brand customization operation activities. It can be said that brand customization activities are highly attractive.
Analysis of Audio Content Consumption Operation Strategy
Currently, the business model of the audio content consumption market is divided into knowledge payment, user rewards, and derivative peripheral sales are common profit-making methods for audio entertainment platforms for the "to consumer" market, while the "to business" is based on brand marketing and copyright sales to provide a commercial phenomenon space for the audio platform, and gradually explore its own profit channels, at the same time stimulate the development potential of China's audio content consumption market.
In recent years, subscription and advertising have become "dual engines", and brand marketing has chosen the audio platform as one of the important positions, and the trend of the number of brands that put audio media on mobile terminals has increased by more than 55%.
Due to the characteristics of high openness, high readability and high inclusiveness of audio content, the integration of sound effects into multiple scenarios open up an immersive experience in audio marketing, Audio can help advertisers accurately reach more user groups and receive brand-related information when users listen to audio content, constructing a commercial closed loop of "longing – complete" with content consumption
Audio Content Consumption Market Trend Outlook
At present, the number of monthly active users in China's online "ear economy" market remains at around 800 million, entering a period of market stability. While currently, the number of registrations of smart home companies continues to increase, the continuous increase in the penetration rate of smart homes, will also bring a positive driving effect to the audio market, and it is expected that user traffic will continue to increase.
In addition, with the entry of new players: Baidu's online podcast platform "Suisheng", Tencent's "Baodong" and ByteDance's "Feile", under the fierce competition of new and old players, the "ear economy" will have unlimited potential. The series of new content forms such as podcasts and audio dramas are expected to become one of the important fulcrums of the commercial value of audio platforms.
Today's popular e-commerce is also gradually emerging in the audio industry, opening up revenue for different platforms and becoming an important second revenue growth curve. "Online users and voice anchors have a stronger emotional connection and a high sense of trust than e-commerce anchors, so they have the characteristics of high user stickiness and high willingness to pay, so that voice anchors can easily obtain better conversion effects with goods.
The joint brand marketing service "Voice with commerce" model of "commerce + advertising" greatly enhances the monetization ability of the audio platform.
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