As Chinese people's quest for spiritual nourishment and diverse lifestyles continues and expands, so the audio industry is booming with more and more users engaging not just as listeners, but also as creators.
Li Ruo, one of 690 million audio users in China in 2022 -- as estimated by research firm iiMedia Research -- is a 26-year-old woman not amazed by the growing scale of the audio industry -- with data suggesting that in 2018 only 425 million were involved in it.
"As white-collars who don't have time for learning new things, audio products provide a good way to enrich our horizons and satisfy our need for knowledge. Also, this market is mature enough for people to be willing to pay for good audio products," said Li, who started using audio applications in 2018 and has spent nearly 400 yuan (about 56.2 U.S. dollars) on audio products this year.
Relying on audio platforms to learn literature, history, etc., Li is a fan of audiobooks of which the market size reached 5 billion yuan (about 702.2 million U.S. dollars) in China in 2020, based on a report from the research firm iResearch.
While audiobooks have become the main contributor to the audio industry, the podcast market is also surging with User Generated Content (UGC) as the mainstay.
Nan Bei (pseudonym), a 31-year-old woman, prefers podcasts as a special companion. Nan Bei is a migrant white-collar worker who left home for a life in Shanghai.
"I started to listen to podcasts in 2018," said Nan Bei, whose favorite is StochasticVolatility produced by three women who focus on various topics related to life.
