With more than 200 million internet users today and with a projection of 300 million Indian language internet users by 2017, India is a hot place for news publishers, writes Nirmalya Sen.
It is also predicted that the surge in the growth of language internet users would happen mainly via mobile devices.
Nandagopal Rajan, new media editor of the Indian Express, says the 85-year-old English language newspaper also has one of the oldest news websites in India.
"We have now relaunched it and transformed it to service the growing need for digital content," he told delegates to WAN-Ifra's Digital Media India conference in New Delhi this week.
The indianexpress.com website has 31 million page views and 2.7 unique visitors, according to US-based web analytics company ComScore.
Rajan said the entertainment component is slim on the site and it is a pure-play hard news website. "We have 2.5 million followers. Non-fans of the website engage 60 per cent more than non-fans. Our web content is accessed form mobiles 83 per cent of the time.
"We do a lot of web analytics ourselves and can tell how many users from a city like Bangalore are accessing our website and from what kind of device. We use this data to our advantage.
"The website also has exclusive web-only content and stories are packaged exclusively for it and we also sharpen our stories for our young readers. We have 700,000 followers on Twitter and a lot of our hits also come from outside the country."
WAN-Ifra's new director of global advisory Ben Shaw said there had been a two per cent decrease in print circulation globally over five years, but it grew at two per cent last year. Print advertising on the other hand, clocked a 13 per cent decrease over five years and fell 6 percent the last year.
Digital circulation recorded a 2019 per cent growth over five years and increased by 60 per cent over the last year. Digital advertising on the other hand, increased 47 per cent over five years and grew 11 per cent increase over last year," he added.
Quoting WAN-Ifra's Digital Advertising in India report he said online ad spend in the Indian market is projected to grow by 30% in 2015. Total online ad spending was estimated at Rs 3,595 crore (about US$587 million) - 11.5 per cent of total US$ and Indian combined market. Search and display shares are vast majority, according to the report.
Shaw said social and videos are growing the fastest in India - video grew by 56 per cent last year to Rs 330 crore, mobile grew 46 per cent last year to Rs 385 crore and social grew 41 per cent last year to Rs 495 crore.
"If you accept slower growth because digital isn't yet core to your business, you are giving the Indian media space over to other players," he said.
"Indian publishers may not have the lead time Western publishers had due to the extremely fast rise of mobile usage. For every $1 gained in digital revenue, $7 are lost in print revenue. Digital gains can't make up for print losses."
Fewer than a fifth of the Indian population is connected to the internet but it is growing quickly. "It already rivals the second largest internet market (the US)," he added.
Indian Internet usage has already reached a 'tipping point' but will not follow historical trends, he said, adding "your digital unit should grow 30 percent year-on-year."
FAST FACTS:
- In India social = mobile
- Facebook reports that 90 per cent of their 112 million Indian users access sites from a mobile device
- Google+, Twitter and LinkedIn to follow
- If you choose to focus on one area in 2015 make it mobile
- Your mobile audience will soon be the vast majority of your digital audience