Though the industry has been around for over two decades now, it’s until about six years back that podcasting gained traction as more and more podcasting platforms came up. As more and more podcasts have popped up, listenership has climbed.
For the longest time the US was leading in terms of Podcasts growth, however this is changing, studies show that other regions like Latin America are key regions to watch given the rapid development of Spanish-language content.
Though in its infancy stages in Africa, podcasting is also experiencing growth. Podcasts in Africa have seen a steady rise in popularity.
The format’s rise in popularity clearly coincides with a general increase in digital media consumption, specifically on mobile devices.
Last year, digital sales represented 22% of all consumer revenue, while downloadable audio accounted for about 25% of all digital revenue. This media is clearly here to stay!
Additionally, tech companies are jockeying to become the No. 1 destination for podcast listeners, and the biggest players are Apple Podcast, YouTube, and Spotify.
In October 2021, Spotify claimed that it had surpassed Apple Podcasts as the most popular podcast platform.
According to Insider Intelligence for the first time, more than half of all digital audio listeners will tune in to podcasts each month.
With 60% of podcast listening done at home, adoption was especially notable during the pandemic. The continued growth of podcast listening is expected. In 2020, an estimated 100 million people listened to a podcast each month and it’s expected to reach 125 million in 2022.
By the end of 2025, there will be over 144 million monthly podcast listeners. People are also spending more time with podcasts—among adult podcast listeners, time spent with podcasts in 2022 will increase by 16.1% YoY to a little more than 23 minutes per day.
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In Africa platforms like Afripods are working closely with podcasters across the continent to help them preserve the African Heritage through the art of story telling.
Afripods is an innovative, functional, and user-friendly platform for podcasters, listeners, and advertisers. Focused on the worlds fastest growing digital continent Africa, Afripods aims at helping spread great stories, insights, entertainment and joy.
With Afripods, users from all over the world are able to listen to their favorite podcast, new voices and great stories produced by Africans, and people interested in Africa.
Under our #OnesToWatchOutFor segment we recently had a quick chat with Molly Jensen CEO Afripods and Kevin Y. Brown, Chief Content Officer at Afripods at Nairobi Garage// Westlands where they shared the story of Afripods, how they are amplifying Africa one podcast at a time, great partnerships with Apple and other large partnerships and how they are living their mission of building the Largest Library of African Stories on the Planet