1 among 7 Indian language news consumers ready to pay for it online: Study

Potential for digital news publishers, content creators to get growth avenues, it says

The Indian language news user is a diverse group that doesn’t match popular perceptions of a monolithic, homogeneous “regional” consumer, a report has said.

One in seven (15 per cent) users are ready to pay for news online and this figure is 1.5 times (22 per cent) higher among those who consume news on publisher websites /apps, said the report by Google News and Kantar, a market researcher.

The report, 'Indian Languages - Understanding India's Digital News Consumer, studied the preferences and behavior of online Indian language news consumers.

An Indian language consumer uses 5.05 platforms on an average to access news online. YouTube (93 per cent), social media (88 per cent) and chat apps (82 per cent) are popular platforms for news. About 45 per cent online users in Indian languages discover news via news publishers' websites or apps.

“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.

One in two Indian languages internet users consume news but content preferences differ regionally. Entertainment, crime and national or state or city headlines are top core news genres for readers to prefer. Malayalam news consumers have a higher preference for international news and education, while Bengali readers prefer sports news.

“The Indian language news consumer has traditionally always been considered less affluent and as having less of an appetite for complex content, as compared to the English language news consumer. This study shatters that myth — the language news consumer is evolved, urban, diverse and demonstrates a willingness to pay digitally. This can unlock enormous opportunities for publishers and advertisers,” said Biswapriya Bhattacharjee, director - B2B & Technology, Kantar.

Kantar conducted more than 64 discussions across 16 cities and 4,600 in-person interviews in 43 cities in 14 states from November 2022 to March 2023. Covering eight languages and speaking to male and female respondents above the age of 15, the report presents insights about Indian language digital news consumers. The languages the study covered are Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Tamil and Telugu.

Online Indian language news readers are more evolved and affluent, as compared to overall Indian language internet users. The Indian language news consumer shows a markedly increased propensity for online transactions (UPI, shopping and OTT).