With the entire world holed up in their houses for several months, video content consumption has reached new peaks, thanks to the Covid-19 pandemic. This comes as a double-edged sword, with one end being a bigger content creation market for budding creatives and the other being the detrimental effects of excessive screen times.
Moreover, the shift of work environments and classes to online platforms also lead to a significant increase in screen time and video consumption for people of all ages. Here’s how the pandemic has changed video content and its consumption pattern and how you can use it for your marketing efforts and building a strong brand.
2020 – Lockdown and video consumption
During the lockdown, people had a lot of time on their hands. Some were using it to build a better exercise routine. Others were embracing their love for cooking. But most of us, in this digital age, had more time to devote to our smartphones and social media accounts. This leads to people watching a lot of video content. And it isn’t surprising, given that many relied on video services like YouTube to fuel their interests and hobbies.
According to experts on Write my thesis, many people started off their own businesses to make money out of their interests or perhaps their lifelong dreams of setting up their own store. One would start a new business website, spend time and effort creating content and an interface that people would interact with and continue to fuel their entrepreneurial aspirations.
This business could also mean creating a YouTube channel where you create delicious dinner recipes. While it’s great in terms of more businesses being started, their reliance on screens and online platforms puts a great deal of pressure on their eyes and their audience’s.
Education and work environments shifted online
As various professional writing services put it, work, schools and social gatherings shifted to online platforms as well. Work from home leads to longer working hours for many people and thus greater screen times. Online classes would include educational videos, interaction over video calls and online assignments as well. All of this leads to an increase in the video consumption and screen time of most people.
According to Cisco, about 82% of all content created throughout the year would be video-based. That’s a really big jump in regards to video consumption. And companies now rely on video formats for various purposes, supported by statistics that say that visual media is consumed more than text-based media today. Cisco is only one of the many video platforms being used today for purposes ranging from online conferences, work meetings, academic classes and even social gatherings.
People also used online sources to continue practices they otherwise would not use their screens for. For example, people learned how to do yoga or take courses on baking all over the internet because the entire world was on lockdown. Normally, people would do this in offline environments by physically going to classes that teach them those things.
Many online platforms made their services free for people all around the world. While this was seen as a kind gesture to provide support to people in times of peril, it may also be fair to assume that this contributed to their marketing strategies and gather more people to turn into loyal customers.
Massive growth in social media consumption
Apps like TikTok gained massive popularity worldwide, and its content continued to fuel other applications as well – a few being YouTube, Instagram and Facebook. In the US alone, TikTok grew three times as big in popularity as it was back in 2018. 100 million people use TikTok in the US today, which is a massive number of following, coming from just one country. And each of these 100 million people would spend countless hours browsing through this one app alone before visiting other apps like YouTube and Instagram.
In the last year itself, Instagram rolled out its own platform for short videos and called it Instagram Reels, which introduced a specific Instagram Reel size for content. This led to even more people trying their hand at creating “reels” and publishing them online.
YouTube followed suit and created a dedicated section just for short videos that play one after another. Social media applications continued to develop their interfaces and algorithms to cater to people’s needs and their audience continued to fuel their progress.
Greater pressure on creators
With a surplus comes a drop in value, which is exactly what happened with many online creators. Those who were already renowned in the video content market continued to flourish with a few drops here and there, but the ones who were just starting out had to battle with a ton of other people.
This was the result of more people turning to video content creation and only so many people being available to consume their content. This, in turn, leads to content creators fighting it out over the internet with a lot of pressure to continue to build an online presence that keeps getting people back for more. Vloggers, gamers and many such artists started to produce content each day, like the professional essay writers to meet the demands and appear in their viewer’s watch list.
This is similar for working people as well. Employees were scared of losing their jobs during such an economic crisis, and those that were able to continued to work long hours to meet their employer’s needs. While working hours would stay rigid in physical classes, working at home would be based on finishing a set of tasks, which would lead to long hours.
Increase in streaming service subscriptions
Streaming services like HBO, Amazon Prime Video and Netflix saw significant growth in subscriptions as well. With more time for youngsters and families to sit and watch a movie together, along with cinemas closed for months on end, people found it convenient to spend time watching a nice movie at home.
People engaged a lot more with movies sitting at home and a study conducted showed that people felt happier watching video content that they found interesting. Other forms of such streaming services would be Twitch, where gamers subscribe to their favourite gaming artists and watch their gameplay. E-sports championships increased during the pandemic and viewers would be encouraged to watch more to win free prizes.
Staying updated about Covid 19
Another reason for people to consume so much video content was the pandemic itself. According to sources, the average screen time spent by people looking at the news in the US increased by 215% from 2019 to 2020. This is a worrying number, considering the fact that it wasn’t the only time we focussed on our screens.
There was also an increase in the time people spent in front of their TVs while consuming daily news about the pandemic and its effects. With the US being the worst affected country globally, people were all the more anxious to leave their homes and relied on the news to stay updated on current affairs.
The pandemic has surely led to the development of a “video consumption” habit among the people, unregulated and constantly fuelled by more content than they could consume. Businesses that rely on video content will continue to rely on this format and encourage people for their growth. But it’s upon the people to regulate themselves and their daily video consumption.
Author Bio
Tiffany Harper is a training professional in the corporate sector holding a rich experience of over a decade. She is a management graduate and shares her experience through blogs and tutorial videos. For her love of writing, she also provided some help to the college essay writing service, BrillAssignment and is ranked as one of the best when you visit this site professional essay writers in her line of work.
To understand more about the amazing developments and unique strategies being adopted by property sales companies in the wake of the pandemic, read How Covid-19 affected the way property agents sell their homes.
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