Podcasts are a $20 billion global business
Podcasts, an unknown word and means of broadcasting as recently as 20 years ago, now have an estimated global audience of 400 million and the market is expected to be worth over $20 billion by the end of the year.
Podcasts are marked by the casual pace of their interviews or monologues, often interspersed with music, and are used by anyone who wants to broadcast a message or simply their random thoughts on any matter. As with any broadcasting platform, it has been proven useful to politicians for pushing their message or announcing their bold reform plans.
The origin of the word itself is disputed, except for the “broadcast” half. The first half is said to come either from Apple’s iPod, a recent innovation that is now mostly past history, or from “portable on demand.”
Already well established before the Covid-19 pandemic, podcasts really flourished during that period of lockdowns and the enforced isolation they brought. Post-pandemic, podcasts haven’t looked back; the market for them is expanding at a rapid pace, proving that a service akin to radio, but more flexible, is much wanted.
According to Grand View Research, the global podcast market will grow by over 20% annually, at least until 2030, when its value will exceed $100 billion. North America has a 40% share in the market, with Amazon, Αpple, iHeartMedia, Pandora and Spotify dominating. Interviews take up the most time in podcasts, about 30%.
A survey in Greece shows that podcasts are listened to mostly by those aged 18-29 (31%) and 40-49 (24%). The audience is almost equally divided between men (52%) and women (48%) and relatively wealthy: 41% describe themselves as middle-income and 36% high-income.
