Podcasts' "slow" pace seems to clash with the "fast" nature of our era. On one hand, short videos represented by TikTok and Video Accounts quickly capture users' attention and content consumption. On the other hand, people are growing tired of exhausting fake news and internet celebrity content, and more in-depth and slower-burning content is starting to gain mainstream attention, such as podcasts. The rise in sports scenes and the increase in the number of private cars also provide more consumption scenarios for podcasts.
In the revitalized podcast platforms, the Yiwealth Research Institute has observed a vigorous growth of financial content, with many financial institutions even setting up their own accounts to regularly update content and provide companionship value to users.
Young people with "high education," "high consumption," and "high-tier cities" are seeking "slow content" in a fast-paced world.
The market size of Chinese podcasts is showing strong growth momentum. According to estimates by market research firm eMarketer, the listener base of Chinese podcasts is expected to exceed 150 million people by 2025, turning a niche content track into a mainstream one.
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Who is listening to podcasts? Research data from the "CPA2024 Podcast Marketing White Paper" shows that the "highly educated," "high consumers," and "high-tier city" people, known as the "three highs," are flocking to podcasts. In terms of education, the proportion of people with a bachelor's degree or above is 87.4%, and about 30% of users have a master's degree or higher. In terms of consumption capacity, the average monthly consumption of podcast users is as high as 8,251.4, which is 1.9 times the average monthly disposable income of urban residents in 2023 (data from the National Bureau of Statistics). In terms of geographical distribution, the proportion of people from first-tier and new first-tier cities has reached 74.8%.
Moreover, for businesses and brands, the "high stickiness" and "cultivation-oriented" characteristics of podcasts are also a major attraction. CPA data shows that there is a significant positive correlation between the duration of podcast listening and the listening time, showing a pattern of "the longer you listen, the more you listen," especially for users who have been using podcasts for more than five years, listening to podcasts every week has become a habit.
What do podcast users like to listen to? The "Chinese Podcast Ecosystem Report" released by Ximalaya in January 2024 shows that hot news, history, and entertainment content are very popular. The report also shows that the content saturation of podcasts in many tracks is not high, and the content supply in many sub-segments has not yet fully met consumer demand, such as business finance, hot spots, history, etc.
Of course, producing a high-quality podcast is not an easy task, and high-quality users also have higher requirements for the quality of podcasts. Concise language, in-depth views, eye-catching topics... are the standard for a "good podcast." In addition, as a sound-based content, most users also have requirements for the host's voice conditions, appeal, editing quality, and other hardware.
Financial creators are flocking to podcasts.
The above characteristics of podcasts have a strong appeal for financial creators.At the beginning of 2024, a survey conducted by Yiwealth Research Institute in collaboration with First Financial Media, targeting over 500 financial KOLs (Key Opinion Leaders), revealed that 25% of KOLs are planning to venture into podcasting. The choices of this highly sensitive group to traffic trends serve as a "weathervane" for financial institutions.
Currently, on Chinese podcast platforms represented by Ximalaya and Xiaoyuzhou, many representative financial podcast programs have emerged, such as Xiaoyuzhou's "Keep in Touch," "Zhi Xing Xiao Jiu Guan," "Cut Off but Don't Rob," "Off Work at Three," and "Qi Zhu Lou Yan Bin Ke," among others. These programs have very distinct characteristics: they control the duration to around one hour, with high information density and a focus on practical content. The main broadcasting method involves interactive chats between hosts and guests, moving away from the monotony of reading scripts, providing users with a better auditory experience. In terms of topics, the aforementioned podcasts focus more on workplace, investment, and life management, which are not new themes but offer different perspectives to listeners with their depth and breadth. The "longer" and "slower" narrative style of podcasts also conveys higher information density, giving users a more credible and sincere auditory experience.
Looking at Ximalaya, due to its earlier establishment, its ecosystem is more mature compared to Xiaoyuzhou. It may not be as youthful in tone as Xiaoyuzhou, but it boasts a richer creator ecosystem, including economists such as Guan Qingyou, Ma Hongman, Li Taohui, and Han Xiuyun; popular financial KOLs like Wu Xiaobo, Xiaolin, and Qin Shuo; and professional business and financial media like Huxiu, Xueqiu, Harvard Business Review, 36Kr, and China Fund News, etc.
Even many financial institutions have begun to lay out their presence on Ximalaya and have achieved commendable operational results. For instance, Huatai International's "Zhang Le Early Know" has made it to the Ximalaya Business and Finance - Business Frontier List. From August 2022 to June 6, 2024, the program released 320 episodes, amassing 1.933 million views, with an average of around 6,000 views per episode. The program is relatively short, typically around 5 minutes long, focusing on topics such as the dynamics of star companies and investment logic in popular industries. It is released daily in the morning, and currently has over 7,000 subscribers. Interestingly, the program is also distributed on platforms like Douyin and Video Account. Overall, most of the content published on Ximalaya garners dozens, if not hundreds, of times more traffic than other platforms. This is due to the program's release timing, which is primarily during the morning commute, a time when audio is relatively more convenient, whether in a subway or driving scenario.
In fact, commuting is indeed the scene with the highest podcast usage rate. The CPA "2024 Podcast Marketing White Paper" shows that the podcast audience's listening scenes are most concentrated during commuting times: from 8 am to 10 am in the morning and from 6 pm to 8 pm in the evening, which also happens to be a good time to listen to news and information. Therefore, Yiwealth Research Institute has observed that financial institutions currently producing podcasts mostly focus on shorter news content, with the main release times concentrated in the morning.
Another popular morning financial podcast program from a financial institution is Huaxia Fund's "Huaxia Morning Broadcast." Its account content is more customized, with many topics exploring and focusing on social hot topics. For example, the recently released "Bridal Gifts Take on New Tricks, Why Can't Young People Afford to Get Married?" interprets the reasons behind the increasing cost of bridal gifts, and "From 'Buying a House' to 'Renting a House' for Household Registration, Why Has Household Registration Become So Cheap?" tells the story behind the relaxation of household registration policies... It stands out among the "news and information" and ranks 44th on the Ximalaya Business and Finance - Business Frontier List.
In addition, Huaxia Fund is also adept at using the convenience of Ximalaya's ecosystem to hold events. For example, it recently partnered with Story Open Mic, combining the pension topic that fund companies have been fond of discussing in recent years, to go offline in search of "good stories." Among them, the program "Su Min: After 'Running Away from Home,' I Achieved Chili Freedom," co-broadcast by Story FM and Huaxia Morning Broadcast, invited a 50-year-old aunt to tell her self-driving story. The unique life experience exploded in traffic and garnered over 100,000 listens.
Seizing the First-Mover Advantage, It's the Right Time for Financial Institutions to Join
Looking at the current operational status of financial institutions, on some social media platforms with high national penetration rates, such as public accounts, video accounts, Douyin, etc., the presence of financial institutions has basically reached more than 50%. High penetration rates represent a huge flow of traffic on one hand, but on the other hand, they also indicate that the flow of people is broad and general, and the efficiency of reaching the core audience is often lower. Coupled with the increasingly crowded track ecology, the pattern of leading institutions has basically been stable, and it is difficult for latecomers to shake it.Podcasts, as a burgeoning social media platform, are currently in the growth phase of traffic, where the advantage of early account establishment is still quite significant. The quality audience of podcasts is also the target demographic that financial institutions wish to reach. Therefore, in a relatively uncompetitive blue ocean, completing a marketing narrative in a listening scenario has become one of the options for many financial institutions.
Of course, podcasts are not immune to criticism for having low play counts and a narrow audience. In the view of the Yiwealth Research Institute, podcast marketing is not a substitute for short video marketing or graphic marketing; it is a part of brand marketing. When a brand can establish an emotional connection with tens of thousands of quality listeners and deeply interact with some of them, going through the market's ups and downs together, its customer acquisition efficiency, quality, and conversion rate far exceed those of an ordinary live broadcast or large-scale event. In terms of data quality, podcasts also surpass other more complex and general traffic data.
For financial institutions that hope to create their own brand podcasts, how to accurately position their own podcasts, consistently produce high-quality content, and effectively reach and accumulate the target audience is a complex technical task, which also implies resource investment. Before starting, financial institutions also need to think clearly about whether "doing podcasts" is merely creating an accessory for brand marketing or engaging in a long-term, deep cultivation strategy.
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