Australian Digital Media Market was valued at USD 4.98 billion in 2018 and is expected to grow at the CAGR of 5% within the forecasted time period of 2019-2023 because of the increasing access and use of internet services
- Definition / Scope
- Market Overview
- Market Risks
- Top Market Opportunities
- Market Drivers
- Market Restraints
- Industry Challenges
- Technology Trends
- Pricing Trends
- Regulatory Trends
- Other Key Market Trends
- Market Size and Forecast
- Market Outlook
- Key Market Players
- Strategic Conclusion
- References
- Appendix
Definition / Scope
Digital media are the audiovisual media contents and applications that are encoded in a machine-readable format, which is created, viewed, distributed, modified and preserved electronically in digital devices (computers, laptops) and their networks.
It requires professionals with diverse skills for developing digital content and technology. It is generally used for social networking, entertainment, and educational activities. The digital media market is comprised of the following:
- Digital video
- Digital music
- Video games
- Social media
- Digital advertisement ยง Electronic books, etc.
Market Overview
Australia has been ranked as 17th position in the global ranking of the digital media market. It’s market size was valued at USD 4.98 billion in 2018, increased from USD 1.7 billion in 2011. It is expected to grow at the CAGR of 5% within the time period of 2019- 2023. It is estimated to reach USD 6.64 billion by the end of 2024.
By segment, the digital advertisement market is holding the largest market size and it was valued at USD 3790 million in 2018 It is growing at the highest CAGR of 11.6% within the forecasted time period of 2019-2024. While the market value of digital books has been declined by almost 6.6% within a year.
Advancement in technology and introduction of the new technological changes such as voice search, AI, are facilitating the growth of the digital media market in Australia. The key market players in the digital media market are google, amazon, facebook, etc.
Market Risks
Misuses of digital media and safety concerns
Digital media and user produced content might create the risk for the safety of the individual personal details, organization, and brands exposing them to inappropriate
websites and materials. Along with this, it can be the medium to cause some form of harassment and health issues among users especially, teenagers. For instance, a 10 years old girl in Melbourne became the victim of the depression and nightmares because of the coercion for the nude selfie by her friend through text message. Almost 89% of Australians believe that data privacy and protection are very important for them.
A survey conducted by Chang in Australia has shown that about 70% of study participants were worried about getting the victim of identity theft because of sharing information online. So, it might be a risk for the growth of digital media.
Top Market Opportunities
Increasing number of mobile and streaming devices
In Australia, almost 96% of the total population use mobile devices. Here, 87% of them are smartphone users, 84% of them are laptop/desktop users, 56% are tablet computer users and 6% are e-reader device user in 2018.
The number of mobile users is expected to grow at the CAGR of 3% since 2018. Along with this, 48% of the people access the internet through the smartphone and 23% of them through the computer. It is creating significant opportunities for the growth of the digital media market.
Positive attitude of consumers towards digital
About 58% of Australians believe that technologies offer more opportunities than risks. Along with this, 55% of them prefer to complete their tasks digitally. This positive consumer attitude towards digital technologies will drive the market for digital media.
Growing connection speed rates
In 2015, the average internet connection speed was 8.2 MBPS while it was increased to 25.88 MBPS via fixed internet was and 48.87 MBPS via mobile connections. Globally, the downloadable speed of mobiles in Australia was ranked at 6th position. This increasing speed might drive the market for the use of digital media.
Market Drivers
Rising Internet Access and high frequency of internet use
In Australia, internet usage has the highest penetration of almost 88% in the world. Almost 97% of household with children aged under 15 years have access to the internet and 90% of them are online spending almost 18 hours per week on average.
Here, about 93% of Australians use the internet every day and only 6% of them use the internet at least once per week. Because of this, the internet access market has increased from USD 17369 million in 2014 to USD 18115 million in 2018.
It is estimated to increase at the CAGR of 1.8% within the time period of 2019-2023 and expected to reach USD 19812 million by 2023. This rising internet access is increasing the market for the uses of social media, digital video and product marketing, which in turn, drive the growth of the digital media market.
Increasing use of social media
In the context of Australia, the number of social media users has been increased by almost 5.9% and the number of mobile social media users has also been increased by 6.7%.
The average time of spending on the internet has been increased by the whole 30 minutes, increased from 5 hours 34 minutes to 5 hours 4 minutes daily. The average daily time spent using social media is about 1 hour 39 minutes. More than one-third of the people are using ad blocking tools and 17% are using a virtual private network.
Market Restraints
Rising cases of cyberbullying
According to Children’s e-safety commission, the cases of cyberbullying has increased by 60% in a year and almost 400 complaints were resolved within the past two years period.
Almost 50,000 of Australian children has experienced cyberbullying and one in every five young people (8-17 Years old) experience a case of cyberbullying each year. It is one of the causes of rising mental health issues such as depression, anxiety, etc.
This increasing incident of the cyberbullying might restrain the growth of the digital media market in Australia.
Industry Challenges
Dissatisfaction with social media
In spite of increasing daily use of social media, Australian consumers are dissatisfied with its content. According to the survey by Chang, about 20% of the study participants aren’t enjoying the content of social media and 31% of them have temporarily or permanently deactivated their one or more social media accounts within the past one year.
So, it is quite challenging the market players to create unique content to sustain the growth of its market and satisfy the consumers.
Technology Trends
The digital media market is overwhelmed with huge technological opportunities for its growth and opportunities. Some of the technological changes which have been introduced in this market are discussed as follows:
Voice Search: It is operated by smart speakers such as google home, Alexa, apple Homepod, which provide the immediate answer to the questions in written form using voice-enabled devices.
Smarter chat: It is a major means of communication preferred by almost 45% of the end-users. It provides real-time assistance to the users through the question-answer session in web pages and applications.
Micro-moments: It provides the consumers to search the contents looking for nearby stores and the marketers to create targeted content and advertising.
Augmented and Virtual Reality Marketing: It facilitates to create unreal environments in a more realistic experience. It helps marketers to create ads for social media such as facebook. and this virtual reality is used for creating brand awareness.
AI and Machine Learning: It facilitates the marketers to forecast the future pattern of the consumer choice and preferences on the basis of the present collected sources of information.
Live videos: It helps to produce the media content through real-time user engagement in a short time period. It allows the media market players to engage with the consumers in a quickest possible way.
Engagement-Based Email Marketing: Through the use of this technology, marketers send emails to active consumers/subscribers in a more individualized and hand-crafted way.
Rich Lead Profiling: Here, the data are collected, managed and utilized to create useful insights.
Browser Push Notifications: It is used to reach the user by communicating to their targeted audience in a more powerful way.
Pricing Trends
In the context of the digital media, the cost for digital content depends upon the money that the person uses for internet services and streaming devices.
The consumers are paying almost USD 24 billion a year for internet media content. While the average cost of social media ranges from USD 400 per month to USD 22,000 per month.
Regulatory Trends
Australian Interactive Media Industry Association is the representing body of authority for digital content, services and application Industry. The Office of the Australian Information Commission is the concerned authority for handling complaints and providing proper guidance and advice.
It maintains privacy, freedom of information and government information policy. Some of the digital media related regulations are as follows:
Enhancing Online Safety for Children’s Safety Act
This act has created the independent office of the e-safety commission to deal with the cyberbullying and lead all the online safety efforts.
Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act
It has set the minimum age standard required to access social networking sites such as facebook, Twitter, etc. The users must be at least 13 years old and web operators must get verifiable consent from parents for any personal information in case of the child younger than 13 years old. However, many social networking sites don’t usually verify the age of users.
Criminal Code Amendment Act
It sets out the obligations for internet service providers, content service providers and hosting service providers. It has also developed the punishment plans and penalties in the case of sharing any abhorrent violent material.
Other Key Market Trends
Facebook is the most widely used social media platforms. It is used by almost 70% of the total population in Australia. The usage rate of other social media platform in Australia are presented as follows:
Market Size and Forecast
Globally, the market value of the digital media market was valued at USD 152 billion in 2018 and is estimated tor each USD 175.7 billion by 2023.
Australian digital media market constitutes almost 7% of the total Australian media market. Its market size was valued at USD 4.98 billion in 2018, increased from USD 1.73 billion in 2011.
By types of digital media
Digital video games market was valued at USD 427 million and is expected to grow at a rate of 7% within time period of 2019-2024.
Digital advertisement market was valued at USD 3.79 billion in 2018, increased by 11.6% in 2017. It constitutes almost 53.2% of total advertisement market in Australia.
Digital videos market was valued at USD 301 million in 2018 and expected to reach USD 380 million in 2023 as almost 60% of Australian watch online videos everyday. It is expected to grow at the CAGR of 6% within the time period of 2019- 2023.
Digital books market was valued at USD 128 million in 2018 and is declining at the rate 6.6%. It is expected to reach USD 84 million by 2023.
Digital music market was valued at USD 334 million in 2018 and is estimated to grow at the CAGR of 0.2% within the time period of 2019-2023.
Social media was used by almost 69% of the total population i.e. 17 million in 2018. Most commonly social media platforms are Facebook, Instagram, Whatapps, Snapchat, Skype, and Twitter.
Market Outlook
Australian Digital media market is expected to grow at the CAGR of 5% within the time period of 2019-2024 because of the increasing number of the internet and social media users.
On the basis of the type of digital media, the digital advertisement market is expected to grow at the highest CAGR of 11.6% within the forecasted time period of 2019-2024. However, the digital books market growth rate is in the declining stage.
Key Market Players
Amazon.com Inc.: It is one of the largest topmost internet and multinational technology company with market revenue of USD 232.9 billion. It is based in Seattle, Washington, America, founded in 1994. It focuses on e-commerce, digital streaming, artificial intelligence, and cloud computing.
Apple Inc.: It is also a multinational technology company based in America that develops and sells electronics, computer software, and online services. It is the producer of iPhone smartphone, tablets, Mac personal computer, iPod media player, smartwatch, digital media player, Safari web browser, etc.
Facebook Inc.: It is an online social media and social networking service technology company based in California. It has developed a facebook portal, facebook messenger and has acquired Instagram, Whatsapp, oculus, and GrokStyle.
Google Inc.: It is a multinational technology company providing online services and products. It has developed a search engine, cloud computing, digital advertising technologies, software, and hardware. Here, google.com is the most visited website in the world as well as Australia.
Netflix Inc.: It is a media service production company established in 1997 in California. It offers an online streaming library of films, television programs, etc based on the subscription.
Assemblo: It is a marketing agency specialized within traditional and digital advertising, web development, and content marketing.
Seocycle: It is a company established in New South Wales offering services of web design, social media marketing, and digital strategy.
Indylogix solutions: It is a digital agency established in Harris Park, Australia. It provides the platform for web development, social media marketing, and e- commerce development.
Jack Morton Worldwide: It is a worldwide agency with experiences in digital content marketing, experiential marketing, and critical branding solutions.
Strategic Conclusion
Australia digital media market is in the growth stage and is expected to grow at a rate of 5% because of the rising accessibility and utilization of internet services. However, increasing the incident rate of cybercrime and information safety issues might restrain its growth.
So, the key market players must be concerned about the privacy of personal information, the development of unique media content and introduction of technological changes in the existing form of media.
References
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Appendix
- MBPS= Megabits per second
- USD= United States Dollar
- CAGR= Compound annual growth rate
