Time Spent On Short-Videos Is Growing At 57%: RedSeer

According to the latest study issued by homegrown consulting firm RedSeer Consulting, ad income from the Indian short-form sector has been rising at a quick rate, having quadrupled in only six months. According to the research, there is a disconnect between ad spend and time spent. Despite the fact that short-form video consumes 7% of total time, it receives less than 1% of ad money.

Aside from advertisements, live commerce and virtual gifts have developed as new revenue streams. In accordance with Chinese trends, video shopping in India is anticipated to increase and reach $4 billion by CY25.

“While short-form video ad monetization is still at a nascent stage, and accounts for less than 1% of the digital ad spend, the ad revenue in the sector has grown more than ~3X in last 6 months and as the user base continues to rise, ad revenue will continue to grow. Live stream gifting and live e-commerce are also showing early signs of growth and will form an important monetization opportunity for short-form players,” said Ujjwal Chaudhry, associate partner at RedSeer.

The report noted that short-form content has grown 1.37x in terms of the monthly active users (MAU) and 1.1x in terms of daily active users from June 2020 when the Chinese app TikTok was banned in India.

Despite the TikTok ban, domestic apps have expanded considerably in the past year, and short-form video continues to grow outside of the top-50 cities, accounting for 9% of overall content consumption, according to the research.

Facebook and Instagram, according to the study, have gone on board by "converting" social media time to short-form videos. While overall time spent has increased by 8%, non-social media (short-form video) time has increased by 57%, showing not just the rise of short-form video, but also a move away from social media consumption.

The report adds that while global social media dominates in the Top 50 cities, Indian Social Media platforms and short-form video platforms garner a major chunk of share in the ROI. Further, while the overall time spent growth in social media has been organic at 8%, non-social media (short-form video) time has grown at 57%, indicating a shift from social media consumption to short-form video.

While traffic has increased, content creation velocity has increased 4.4x in the last two quarters as a result of 1) improved filter tools causing users to become creators at a faster rate, 2) large influencers' access to the studio and high-quality content creation facilities, and 3) growing "mainstreaming" of the space for advertisers resulting in higher monetisation for creators.

According to the research, both Josh and Moj have experienced a significant rise in user and creator NPS, owing to 1. More personalised, fresher, and more filtered content for users, and 2. Creators having access to new tools for expanded reach and collaboration opportunities.