IRSHAD SALIM (Solutions Are Us) — 90 million Americans listen to podcast every month with more people listening to podcasts worldwide than ever before — it has grown as a traditional media, with 61.2% spending more time listening to podcasts than they do consuming TV shows, statistics show.
The top growing countries for podcasting as of March 2019 were Chile, Argentina, Peru, Mexico, and China.
What about Pakistan, the Middle East, Central Asia and Africa?
Assuming no data is available, it could mean “no news is good news” for podcast south of the Tropic of Cancer: a huge unexplored space is there, recognize the power of podcasting. I did last September by trying my hand at it.
According to Edison Research, the number of American’s who listen to a podcast each week has grown 120% over the past four years.
By 2022, it’s estimated that podcast listening will grow to 132 million people just in the United States.
Here’s more: Podcasting advertising revenue in 2016 totaled $169 million in the United States. In 2018, it grew to over $400 million. By 2020, podcast advertising revenue is predicted to reach $659 million, and $1.6 billion by 2022.
38% of people who listen to podcasts state that they have purchased products or services mentioned on those podcasts
As the audience for podcasts continues to grow, there has never been a better time to start a podcast service: national broadcasting (across rural and urban divide), for your business, brand, or a personal hobby and piggyback it with commercials, song (oldies, blues, etc.) or music breaks, etc.
What makes podcasts different?
Podcasts let you build a genuine connection with your listener or an audience. Besides a podcast lets you close your eyes and focus — and think, understand, and decide whether you want to retain the info or move on.
I call a podcast another awesome source for “funnel marketing” that a Pakistani youth Yasir uses on Facebook – it pays for his “coffee and cheesecakes” and beyond. He helped me with the above.
Podcasts are more convenient than blog posts and video; people can listen to podcasts while driving, working out, or just doing chores around the house.
Instead of the fractured connection you make through social media, podcasts would allow you to engage your audience with unique long-form content. There is a lot of unexplored space in the podcasting industry. There are at least 600 million blogs, 23 million YouTube channels, but only 800,000 podcasts in Apple Podcasts.
That means for every podcast, there are 750 blogs and 29 YouTube channels.
Imagine the incredible opportunity to say ‘hello and capture the digital world with a pie of its revenue stream for yourself.
“Solutions Are Us” Series
