While most of the spotlight related to internet usage to date was on urban users, rural areas being center to two-third of India’s overall population are where much of the focus will be in the coming time. Also, there is an immense change in rural India’s landscape with transforming behavior in terms of the adoption of smartphones. There is a fast growth seen in Internet penetration in rural areas of India, which is a massive game-changer, with up to 300 million Indian consumers likely to be on internet by 2020.
It is anticipated that more than half of new online users will originate from rural India, and those rural users will compose around half of the country’s Internet users in the outlook. The affordable mobile handsets, the increase in reach of wireless data networks, and advancing consumer behaviors and preferences will further steer the rural access and usage. All these initiatives will alter how rural consumers communicate with companies and offer companies several options for interacting with rural consumers. The consumption of data through social media channels like YouTube has already boosted up. Rural people are engaging and developing their awareness about innovative technologies, farming practices by surfing youtube, and other channels.
Importance of YouTube Channel in Rural India
YouTube offers people living in rural India with the chance to build and be part of useful, applicable videos. Many non-governmental organizations have joined hands with other NGOs and development initiatives to educate those in rural communities on how to prepare and share videos about important stuff related to agriculture, farming, irrigation, health practices, and social subjects.
Many NGOs work across villages throughout the country with individual resources; 85 percent of these resources are women. They use digital channels like YouTube to cover teaching and guiding subjects adopting new practices to bring transformations in work related to agriculture or farming activities. Even the Indian government is supporting such institutions in terms of scale and increasing reachability.
It is seen that YouTubers are flourishing in India as the country’s most comprehensive video platform has even enabled ordinary people from diverse walks of life to chase their enthusiasm and passion. The concept of educating cutting-edge agricultural practices to farmers in rural areas through YouTube channels has quite matured to an extent. YouTube for the rural community has enhanced local livelihoods.
Some of the YouTube channels are also working to make aware those in urban communities about the difficulties of their rural counterparts. Some even show how urban and rural users can connect in terms of expanding different businesses. NABARD, the top bank for agriculture and rural development, has been occupied in quite a few programs aimed at building replicable models in the rural sector. Their experimentations have been captured in short videos and are accessible on the bank’s YouTube channel for the benefit of related institutions, communities, and the common public.
How Digital Marketing Agency can facilitate marketers to reach Rural India through Youtube channel
This transforming behavior of rural people is also benefiting top digital marketing companies in India where now they can effortlessly target rural areas by developing their digital rural marketing and content marketing strategy using the YouTube channel. YouTubers’ are swiftly turning successful, with many content creators are leaving their employment and generating value for millions of internet users across the country. YouTube channel gets millions of users every month in the country because of the enlargement in vernacular content. The YouTube platform has more than 1,200 video creators in India, and over 95 percent of the online video usage is in different Indian languages.
From innovative desi farming techniques, different methods of growing crops organically, quick set-up of dairy farms, and re-evaluation of agricultural products, YouTube channel is a one-stop platform for farming professionals to find all the solutions that they require!
As per KPMG India, the country’s online video viewing audience will increase to more than 500 million by the year 2023. Of these viewers, about sixty to seventy percent would be on the YouTube channel. Also, the mainstream of Indian consumers prefer to watch ad-supported content on YouTube, instead of an advertisement free, paid subscription-based platform such as Netflix.
Much of this expansion is coming from local, national Indian languages with a variety of subjects shared on channels like YouTube through rural marketing campaign. While themes or genres, such as comedy, health, and beauty, are rising with pace, we also see incredible growth, particularly in Indian content such as village food, farming practices, agricultural techniques, and innovative technologies for the rural population. And digital marketing consultants have benefited through this changing behavior with a shift in online marketing trends.
Boost in Rural Data Users Â
With the online user background in India is shifting hurriedly, rural India is quickly getting addicted to the internet in the midst of everything. Rural youth paying for mobile recharges has turned more inevitable to save for mobile data packs. Owing to the increase in the cost-effectiveness of data packs, uptake of the internet is unlikely to confine rural youth and other rural fragments like farmers, as they are more likely to join this community.
According to IAMAI and IMRB research, there has been a 93 percent year on year boost in rural mobile internet users. As online penetration in rural India has already been at a rise, the subsequent wave of growth will be an increase of rural data customers. Their foremost data experience will be by smartphones and consuming data through YouTube channels.
Categorizing Rural Connected UsersÂ
It is a great mistake to consider the rural population and users as a solitary set. They can be divided into five diverse segments.
- Mature Users: They are likely to be an 18 to 50 year old male salaried professional or businessmen from a good household. He has been using the internet and channels like YouTube for longer than people in any other rural segment.
He accesses social media and channels like YouTube on a daily basis, primarily on smartphones. The presence of mature users is around 150 million which equals 18 percent of the rural population, and online penetration is comparatively high at 30 percent.
- Ambitious Users: The internet penetration here is around 8 percent of the rural users and is estimated at 33 percent. The standard ambitious user is a male college student who wants to move to the nearby city for work.
The ambitious user belongs to a less well-off household than mature users. However, he actively follows social media and channels like YouTube using an internet-enabled mobile phone or maybe smartphone in some percentage of cases. Strong growth is anticipated from these users for the adoption of digital channels like YouTube.
- Late Adopters: These are 30 to 55 years men, many owning their own agricultural farms but less well-off than ambitious user groups. They contribute to around 15 percent of the total rural population, with 15 to 17 percent online penetration.
They are amongst the savers and traditional consumers. They give one to two hours of their time to internet usage on a daily basis. They have less advanced smartphones and access digital media such as YouTube channels four to five times a week.
- Next-wave Users: Though, this set of user’s forms around 35 percent of rural users, internet penetration is just 9 percent. The standard member of this group is a young female homemaker who belongs to a well-off household. She is one of the family’s decision-makers and just started using social media channels such as YouTube. They employ around twenty minutes of daily time on a channel like Youtube.
However, this segment has got a high potential for growth in the use of digital channels in the coming time. They utilize the internet using a smartphone or an internet-enabled phone.
- Dark on the Internet: These users are 50 years old men and women who have little interest in the internet and online penetration is just one percent. Although it makes around a quarter of the total rural population.
Around 70 percent of the total rural user’s access to social media networks when they go online. The major part of their consumption is on Facebook and YouTube channels. And they majorly explore news as well as informative videos. Other activities of rural users are to download media, search for jobs, find information, to chat, and email.
Moving Forward
In the year 2014, YouTube India just had sixteen channels with some one million subscribers. However, today, with 300+ channels immensely passing that landmark, the platform asserts it is adding up two more in a roundabout of each week. With 245 million people watching numerous online videos every month, the nation is shaking up the global media platforms.
With more rural India coming on the internet, the importance of vernacular content is going extremely high as digital media marketing tactic. The digital adoption and use of channels like YouTube are now being propelled by rural India, registering an all-time growth in online users and facilitating different use cases of rural marketing in India over the past year.Â
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