Increasing Preference & Accessibility Of The Internet In Developing Countries Is Driving The Web Content, Search Portals, SEO Services And Social Media Market

With the increasing change in customer’s social behavior, which is shifting from traditional subscriptions and broadcasting services to over-the-top (OTT) on-demand video and music subscriptions every year, the market for web content, search portals, SEO services and social media in the forecast period is expected to grow at a very fast pace. Various segments of the population have started using video streaming services instead of regular television for entertainment, due to added benefits such as on-demand services and ease of access. Countries such as India and China are expected to see an exponential increase in the number of users in video streaming and pay per view services. For example, YouTube, an online video streaming website, which considers India as one of the fastest growing countries in terms of its users, expects its user base to increase more than two times in a span of 2 years and reach 500 million by 2020 from 225 million in 2018. In March 2018, another OTT content streaming service, Netflix, announced its plans to add 100 million users from India to their existing 125-million base worldwide. These factors are expected to boost the growth of the web content, search portals, SEO services and social media market from $391.9 billion in 2018 to $772.9 billion in 2022 at an annual growth rate of 18.5%.

Competition among internet service providers in developing countries to gain a major share of the market by offering low cost internet is also expected to drive the market for web content, search portals, SEO services and social media in the forecast period. Price wars among internet service providers is helping consumers to access high speed internet at a low price. For example, in India, Reliance Jio, an internet service provider, is offering free high-speed internet to all its customers for a period of first three months, with an ultimate target to capture 50% of the telecom market in India. This competition among companies helps consumers access high speed internet, which is expected to be a driving factor for the web content, search portals, SEO services and social media market.

India’s web content, search portals, SEO services and social media market had the highest annual growth rate of 29.5% during 2014-2018; it is expected to grow at a growth rate of 22.1% during 2018-2022. The fast growth of the web content, search portals, SEO services and social media market in the country can be attributed to the rapid increase in the number of Internet and smartphone users, registering a CAGR of 26.87% and 26.46% respectively, increase in disposable income of the population which led to change in the customers’ behavior towards e-commerce, and online advertising.