The consumption of digital content has increased in India in the last couple of months thanks to the lockdown restrictions.
People are spending more time on OTT platforms to watch video content. They are consuming other forms of content on social media platforms like FB, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok etc. They are even spending time on web portals for information.
One would think that the revenue would be exponentially increased because of the high consumption of content. Contrary to the general perception, the ad revenue of digital platforms dropped miserably. The new content is flooding into digital space and new digital players mushrooming but the advertisers have cut down their expenditure.
As the supply chains are badly hit in all the sectors with the lockdown restrictions, many companies have either cut down or completely stopped spending on advertising. They are planning to spend on advertising once the business transactions reach normalcy after the lockdown.
Some of the portals are going for the pay cuts to their employees in the first two months. If the ad revenue continues to decline for a couple of months, the majority of them will shut their shops. Many of them are fearing that they may not sustain longer in the market with zero revenue because the market may not recover in the next six months. They are closing down their businesses.
Usually, digital media receive a huge chunk of revenue through advertisements of travel & tourism and luxury products, etc. Now, the lockdown restrictions turned out to be a deathblow to these sectors and they are not spending a single penny on the advertising.
Google has decreased the ad revenue to the digital players considering the changes that are taking place.
The revenue of digital players has hit an all-time low. The bottom line is loud and clear. Only the mighty will survive in this situation.