How 2020 put online streaming at the center of Entertainment: Comscore

The year 2020 marked an abrupt change in daily digital consumer habits in India. Comscore has unveiled its latest presentation, wherein it looks at the depth and breadth of these changes across a number of digital categories, including travel, retail, news consumption, and many more.

Indications of the New Normal

• Continued engagement with Business Continuity tools indicates an inclination towards remote working wherever practical
• Entertainment and Education for kids is embracing the digital as is evident by the surging time spent on Education and Kids categories
• Latest Entertainment rankings indicate Audio and Video Streaming are continuing to gain traction much after the lockdown is lifted

India entered nationwide lockdown to check the spread of COVID-19 on March 25, 2020, which continued till May 31, following which the Unlock process was initiated in phases from June 1, 2020.

According to the Comscore report, engagement with online travel category declined by 90% during the lockdown. However, as the lockdown was lifted, local and domestic travel gradually resumed towards the end of the year. Car hailing apps, airlines and hotels started seeing a revival. With 4.6 billion total minutes in November 2020, travel category is about 66% of its pre-COVID-19 levels in terms of engagement.

Engagement with navigation apps declined as well during lockdown, with Maps/ GPS / Traffic category that includes apps like Google Maps and the like seeing about 80% decline in engagement between January 2020 and April 2020. The category started showing signs of revival the moment that the lockdown was eased. With 3 billion minutes spent in November 2020, the category is at close to 70% of its pre-COVID-19 levels from January 2020.

Sports

One of the categories that was deeply impacted by lockdown was Sports. Cancellation of sports events led to a sharp decline in engagement as well as reach. Between January and May 2020, the time spent on sports sites and apps declined by 87%.

However, the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2020 breathed life into the sports category. The engagement zoomed with IPL in September 2020 and continued to peak until October 2020. With 4 billion total minutes in November 2020, the engagement with Sports category is back to pre-COVID-19 levels from January 2020.

Embracing Digital

Engagement with Business Continuity Tools spiked during the lockdown as organisations switched to the Work From Home mode. Their usage continued even after lockdown was lifted. With many organisations rethinking office spaces and remote working becoming the new normal, this space should be interesting to watch in 2021.

Dependency on sites/ apps in the Kids’ category increased as schools shut down. Reach of Sites/ apps in the Kids’ category increased by 50% between January 2020 and November 2020. At 2 billion total minutes in November 2020, engagement with the category is 36% higher than the pre-COVID-19 levels from January 2020.

Engagement with online education, fueled by the lockdown, continued to grow throughout the year with occasional dips. Byjus saw as much as 291% increase in Total Minutes spent on its site and app combined between January 2020 and November 2020. With 7 billion Total Minutes in November 2020, engagement on Education category is 47% higher than pre-COVID-19 levels from January 2020.

News

Online News kept people informed during and after the lockdown. Between January 2020 and April 2020, the time spent on online News increased by 33% in India. The worldwide average during the same period was 23%. With 68 billion minutes spent on News sites and apps in November 2020 in India, the engagement seems to be normalising to pre-COVID-19 levels, but is still 7% higher.

Online streaming

The year 2020 put online streaming at the center of Entertainment. High engagement with the Entertainment Category continues long after the lockdown is lifted.

Top Entertainment entities are Audio or Video streaming players, led by YouTube (mobile app), MX Player, Star India (Hotstar), Google Play Music (mobile app).

Online Retail

Total Minutes spent on retail sites plummeted during the lockdown, which sharply revived once the lockdown was relaxed to reach higher than pre-COVID-19 levels. In October 2020, with 97 billion minutes, the retail category peaked in terms of engagement. It was 43% higher than the pre-COVID-19 levels from January 2020. The engagement shows normalisation in November 2020, but is well above the pre-COVID-19 levels.

The Retail category shows a V-shaped recovery in May 2020 to zoom past its pre-COVID-19 engagement levels by June 2020.