Content is king or queen. This reality is establishing it itself with more and more force every day. The content industry is witnessing a boom globally and India is not behind. A Deloitte report – ‘Digital Media: Rise of On-demand Content’ states- “Media consumption across the globe is increasingly happening in digital formats. The increase in the number of devices capable of supporting digital media along with increasing internet access speed, has provided consumers with an option to access the media content of his choice be it information, entertainment or social activity anytime, anywhere. Media consumption in the US has shown tremendous increase and has seen a significant jump from traditional media to new (digital) media. The rise of digital media players such as Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, Apple TV, Roku, and Boxee, etc. are challenging the traditionally maintained supremacy of the television as the main entertainment hub.”
Mobile devices are the preferred medium for online consumption of content
Online content has demonstrated incredible growth over the last couple of years. Mobile devices have been riding the wave of this growth. The device has established itself as the preferred medium for online consumption of content. The smart-phone market is seeing unprecedented growth. Number of smartphones grew at a CAGR of 17% as compared to 9.5% growth in all mobile devices, globally. The number reached 2 billion mark in India in 2014. The devices are expected to reach 4.6 billion by 2019, thus making it much more convenient for users to have the right to use music and video content on the go.
The Deloitte report also says that in 2014, the smartphone mobile data traffic alone stood at 1.73 EB per month (69% of global mobile data traffic), which is expected to grow 10-fold from 2014 to 2019, a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 60%. Tablet mobile data traffic will grow 20-fold from 2014 to 2019 (CAGR of 83%) to reach 3.2 EB per month.
Scopes
Scopes are never-ending in this industry. With every company across industries going for digital presence, content in a varied array of forms are high on demand. From journalistic to academic and medical to travel and sports – the appetite of the content industry is colossal and anyone with good writing skills and a flair for creativity can make most of it.
Though English is still desired language for content, vernacular content is also fast picking up all over the world. A Google and KPMG reports highlights the critical role played by regional languages in redefining consumption on the digital platform. “Majority of the Indian population prefers their digital content in regional languages and net surfers in vernacular languages have grown from 42 million in 2011 to 234 million in 2016,” the report states.
The survey, ‘Indian Languages: Defining India’s Internet’, shows Hindi digital users are all set to outgrow English counterparts by 2021. The report also foresees Marathi and Bengali users to steer the growth, and Tamil, Kannada and Telugu speakers to emerge as the most digitally affianced community in between 2016 and 2021. The report further reveals that there are 234 million Indian language internet users; while English language digital readers account for 175 million users. The report even predicts regional language users’ growth at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 18 per cent reaching the 536 million mark in 2021. English users on the other hand are slated to grow at a CAGR of three per cent.
Required skills
The primary requirement is to have proven skills in writing be it English or any other vernacular language. Understanding the demands of the client and the required content is also very critical. For writing content in niche domains, a thorough and deep knowledge of the domain is a must.
Reading is a good way to develop content writing skills as it broadens the purview of the mind and enriched it with knowledge and information.
Students with degree in English language or literature can take up content writing in English as career as they have the advantage of understanding the language well. Those having degrees in other vernacular languages can opt for writing content in those mediums.
Job Opportunities
While industry majors including IT and Consultancy firms offer highly paid jobs for technical writers, there is no dearth of independent content development companies who engage writers on various niches.
Aspiring individuals can also think of entrepreneurial initiatives in content development and launch their own content creation companies.
Salaries can vary from rupees 15000 to 1 lakh per month.
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