Today news isn't a matter of language, but rather how quickly it is available

Digital content creation had been steadily rising even before the pandemic and is continuing to grow exponentially and is projected to continue, this digital news content platform, founded by Raju Vanapala (CEO) in 2016, claims to be India's largest hyperlocal news app, covering news from 400 districts and generating more than four billion screen views every month from across the world. Unlike many other existing social media and news syndication platforms, this hyperlocal app claims to have cracked the code not to falter to find reliable local news. In fact it promises to enable users to find credible news from small towns and villages while ensuring depth of coverage. The fledgling startup has recently raised nearly Rs130 crore to upgrade the platform to the next level- technologically and otherwise.

Speaking to Bizz Buzz exclusively, IIM (Lucknow)-alumnus, Ravi Vaka, co-founder and chief strategy officer, Way2News, decodes the digital news content market and charts out the next growth path for Way2News

How big is the overall digital news content market? At what rate is it growing?

Although my colleague Venkat Aditya Gunturu, who is also co-founder and heads the hyperlocal news and video at Way2News, would be the best person to answer this, let me try to give you some response on the basis of some studies.

The global digital content creation market size is expected to reach $38.2 billion by 2030 at a CAGR of 12 per cent during 2020 and 2030, according to a report from InsightSLICE.

Another study suggests that revenue in the digital newspapers and magazines segment is projected to reach $35.92 billion in 2022. Revenue is expected to show an annual growth rate (CAGR 2022-2027) of 3.71 per cent, resulting in a projected market volume of $43.10 billion by 2027. In the digital news space, the number of users is expected to reach 1,881.9 million by 2027. User penetration will be 20.3 per cent in 2022 and is expected to hit 23.7 per cent by 2027.

The average revenue per user (ARPU) is expected to amount to $23.29.

In 2021, India's digital media market was valued at over Rs 300 billion with estimates projecting it to spike to Rs 537 billion by 2024. Overall, the digital media industry in the country was poised for a strong growth in the stated time frame.

According to a recent KPMG study, robust digital infrastructure, strong content library and greater user engagement online supported a 24 per cent growth in digital advertising. Digital subscription grew at 47 per cent though there was some resistance with OTT video players raising package prices and the income effects of a slowing economy.

Our growth rates have been encouraging pre and post-covid. We have seen 70-80 per cent growth YOY in terms of users consuming news on our App. Covid was a phase where digital news grew substantially, where Way2News gained 40 per cent of the audience coming from traditional media, while newspapers lost 45 per cent of the audience. We feel that this lost audience moved to digital entities like Way2News for news-based content for various reasons.

Generally, we at Way2News are also growing very fast. All we can say at this point is that we already have five crore app downloaded so far. We have a monthly active users (MAU) and daily average users (DAU) ratio of over 50 per cent.

What would be the break-up of English and vernacular news in the overall digital news content space?

English news content should not be more than one per cent at this point. And this is not growing that fast either. Major growth would come from vernacular space. If you look at any study or statistics that has information about projected growth for digital sophisticates vs digital enthusiasts. Digital Sophisticates are the ones who are wealthy, urban, and tech-savvy, who have English language preferences over linguistics. They contribute to a mere five per cent of overall devices, while people with linguistic preferences contribute over 50 per cent, these stats are not just for news but also content consumption. It would be difficult to compile numbers just for news, as our understanding is that news, in particular, isn't necessarily a matter of language, but rather of how quickly it is available, and the trusted source it comes from.

What is the break-up of written and video contents? Which segment is growing faster? (Both in the case of industry & way2news?

Very difficult to answer this! Content formats and choices differ from user to user. Some users like consuming content in text, some like audio and others likes the info in video format. The choices also differ because of variables like internet bandwidth and literacy rate. Way2News is focused more on content packaging, and we do a good mix of all content. Text, however, is still dominant, as it can be produced faster than the other two. Being short-format news champions, we take seconds to disseminate content. Video, audio, and long-form text content focuses on infotainment for people who crave a rich media experience. Text content offers quickness, while other formats add to the visual and glamour quotient. Our focus varies daily; text contributes 70 to 80 per cent of news.

Generally speaking, by 2022, online videos will make up more than 82 per cent of all consumer internet traffic - 15 times higher than it was in 2017 (according to a Cisco study). In fact, as of January, 2018, nearly 85 per cent of all internet users in the United States watched online video content monthly on any of their devices (Statista)

As of 2020, 83.3 per cent of internet users in the US accessed digital video content (Statista).

We are also into video interviews, podcasts, short video news and so on. This is a growing segment. We will have increasing video contents, going forward.

Way2News has recently raised $16.75 million in its Series A round from WestBridge Capital and from venture capitalist Sashi Reddi. How are you going to utilise this fund?

These funds will be used to expand Way2News' user base across Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala. We will also spend on hiring teams in editorial, sales, marketing and scaling their artificial intelligence (AI)-based technology to minimise human intervention while delivering news. The portal also allows verified stringers to write and contribute regularly, making it a de-facto platform for citizen journalists. We will expand on that front as well.

We will also concentrate on detection/identification of fake news through use and adoption of technology because, credibility and authenticity of the platform is of utmost importance to us. We want way2news to emerge as an experience platform.

You have never been into English infotainment contents, any particular reason for that? Would you foray into this space in some time?

No, no, initially we had a very brief stint dealing with English contents. That was like an experimental phase. Then we realised that this is a very niche segment and it cannot be our forte. Scalability and growth rest in the vernacular space. And we wanted to position ourselves as the largest hyperlocal news content app.

So, currently, how many languages are you functional in?

At present, we are present in eight languages- all three south Indian languages, Bengali, Hindi, Marathi and Gujrati.

…..And in terms of geography?

We had been focussing mostly on Hyderabad and Telangana and operating mostly out of these places. But recently, we have started aggressively moving into Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. For instance, we already have 1800 on ground reporters across Tamil Nadu and moves are afoot to take this number to 30,000 at the earliest. We will then go on replicating the Telangana and Tamil Nadu model in other places.