Podcasting, a new form of media initiated by Apple, has flourished in the United States since 2006.
And on the other side of the Pacific coast, China. Because of its linguistic isolation, podcasting has not been noticed by the people of this part of the world. People even think of podcasts as radio. But while the radio is in decline and people are focusing on short-form video, a wave of Chinese podcasts has suddenly started to break out in 2020, with many media professionals and organisations launching their Chinese podcasts. As a result of this wave, more and more Chinese listeners are trying out this 'new thing' and focusing more and more on podcasts.
According to data collected and forecast by eMarket, Chinese podcast listeners will reach 85.6 million in 2021 [1], the more enlightening figure being that this represents only 6.1% of the total population. According to the forecast, the Chinese podcast market will grow at a declining rate but still maintain a growth rate of 18.9% in 2023.
The 2020 epidemic has hit many industries, but Chinese podcasting has enjoyed a surge in growth. More and more people are realising the importance of this market and joining in. In 2020 alone, more than 7,000 new podcasts were created. According to podcast search engine listen Note [2], as of 31 December 2021, the number of new podcasts added in 2021 is 6,709, with 23,197 existing podcasts.
This visualisation is based on the raw (unpublished) questionnaire data from Podfest China [3] 2021 Chinese podcast user survey, which attempts to understand one of the living people behind the headphones. We were surprised to find that 91.47% of the 2,169 podcast users who took the questionnaire had a bachelor's degree or above. According to the 47th Statistical Report on the Development of the Internet in China by the China Internet Research Centre [4], Chinese Internet users with a bachelor's degree or above was only 9.7% in the same period.
This paper draws the following distribution map of podcast users based on the geographical locations provided by the 2169 users who took the questionnaire. The top five cities that were zoomed in on and ranked according to their numbers are Shanghai, Beijing, Shenzhen, Guangzhou and Hangzhou. According to the "2021 City Business Attractiveness Ranking" [5] published by Chinese media First Finance in 2021, the top four are Shanghai, Beijing, Shenzhen, Guangzhou and the sixth is Hangzhou, which is highly consistent with where the number of Chinese podcasts users gathers.
As you can see, users are usually in two minds when listening to podcasts. Some like to play sports, some complete household chores, and some even finish their work. However, this article found that only 3.69% of users set a dedicated time to listen to podcasts. Overall, most people listen to podcasts while doing something else simultaneously.
We now have a rough picture of who listens to Chinese podcasts. The final question is, what are the podcast topics that everyone likes. This visualisation shows the top 10 podcast topics that people are interested in. We found that 84% of the 2,169 listeners preferred humanities and social science podcasts. This type of content requires a certain level of patience and intelligence from the listener, which aligns with our analysis of user qualifications in the previous section.
According to Internet World Stats [6], China will have 854 million Internet users by the first quarter of 2021, making it the world's largest Internet user population. In contrast, podcasting is a rising medium that has not yet been much attention and focus. This article hopes to help more people understand such a field by consolidating various data and analysing PodFest China 2021's survey.
If you are an advertiser in China or overseas, I hope that this data story will give you a new way of thinking to focus on this unique market, which allows you to reach these Chinese users who are different from other markets.
Suppose you are a user who is not yet familiar with podcasts. This data stroy hopes to give you a new option if you know Chinese or are eager to learn it. If you know some Chinese and are not familiar with podcasts, I strongly recommend that you expand the boundaries of your awareness by hearing more voices and perspectives through podcasts; if you are eager to learn Chinese, Chinese podcasts would be a great way for you to learn Chinese.
And if you are already a Chinese podcast subscriber, this article will hopefully give you a better understanding of those fellow travellers with you, and only you will know that with your headphones ...
It doesn't have to be music in the headphones. It could also be a podcast.
Data Reference Sources
[1] In China, podcasting is emerging from its niche
[2] Podcast search site - Listennote
[3] Podfest China English official website
[4] The 47th Statistical Report on the Development Status of the Internet in China
[5] China City Business Attractiveness Ranking 2021
[6] TOP 20 COUNTRIES WITHTHE HIGHEST NUMBER OF INTERNET USERS