Digital Publishing Is Growing As People In COVID-19 Quarantine Are Consuming More Digital Services

The global digital publishing market size is expected to grow from almost $45 billion in 2019 to about $66.7 billion in 2020, due to an increase in demand for digital publishing, as a greater number of people are staying at home for self-quarantine/lockdown to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. Digital services are being increasingly consumed for entertainment as well as knowledge gaining with the help of digital publishing content such as news, articles, journals and others. The digital publishing market forecast is expected to stabilize and reach nearly $60 billion at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 7.5% through 2023.

Increasing digitization of books and educational information is contributing to the growth of the global digital publishing market. Conversion of information into digital format contributed to the change in learning methods like the shift from traditional printed textbooks to digital modes such as e-readers, smartphones, and tablets. For instance, by 2020, the Indian book market is expected to reach INR 739 billion from INR 261 billion in 2015. More than 70% of publishers have digitized the content to produce e-book versions for easy access of digital content for smartphones and e-readers. In 2016, respondents to a global survey stated that they frequently use PCs/laptops (94%), televisions (93%), and smart phones (87%) for accessing media. As educational institutions are increasingly focused on information & communication technology, there will be a shift in the method of delivering knowledge which is expected to drive the digital publishing market growth and contribute to digital publishing revenues.

The digital publishing market consists of sales of digital content and related services in the media industry. The digital publishing market includes the sales of digital content in the form of text, audio and video in digital platforms like social media, website and search engines. Digital publishing companies are primarily engaged in developing a broad range of digital content like advertising and publishing by periodical advertising, educational content like journals and medical publishing, and informative content like news, magazine, newsletter publishing, and financial magazines.

The digital publishing market is segmented by type into text content, video content, and audio content. It is also segmented by end user into scientific, technical, and medical (STM), and legal and business. By application, it is segmented into smart phones, laptops, PCs, and others.

According to digital publishing market trends, consumers are increasingly using internet-based set-top boxes for high quality video-content and audio-content. The global android set-top boxes (STB) market size is expected to reach $695.9 million by 2025 from $172.5 million in 2018, according to a market analysis. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has decided to completely shut down analog TV transmission by 2023 and recommended introduction of digital broadcast transmission. The rising adoption of Android STBs with integration of over the top content (OTT) apps in place of analog TVs is further expected to contribute to the digital publishing market share.