Digital signage market in India is growing and with rapid pace. 6Wresearch projected that Digital Signage India market is expected to reach $524 million by 2019. (Ref 2) The reason for this expected growth could be due to multiple reasons. I have tried to put up some of the reasons why Indian Digital Signage market is expected to grow at this pace and what would it mean to the digital signage industry in India.
India’s economy
India is one of the fastest growing economy in the world clocking growth rate of 7% per annum. According to McKinsey and Company, India’s middle class will hit 250 million or 20 per cent of the country’s population in 2015. (Ref 1). This middle class is accumulated in Tier 1 and Tier 2 cities. Clearly, the brands would want to attract the consumers who have paying capacity, thus, the growth in digital sigange is expected to happen primarily in cities – Mumbai, Delhi, Pune, Bangalore, Kolkata, Chennai, Jaipur etc.
Market Segments
As suggested by marketsandmarkets, Retail, BFSI, health care, travel, hospitality, and entertainment are the segments that are expected to leverage digital signage medium to reach out to consumers. Each segment has its unique needs e.g. retail would look out for transaction information, BFSI would emphasise on security, health care would want deep proliferation, hospitality would value aesthetics, entertainment would look for content visibility and dissemination. With added technology on top of digital signage, companies should be able to fulfil all these market demands, their by ensuring that each segment contributes significantly to the success of digital signage in India. Clearly, with their unique needs, these segments will contribute significantly to the growth of digital signage in India.
Brands value video
1.8 Million Words – That’s the value of one minute of video, according to Dr. James McQuivey of Forrester Research. (Ref 3). It is scientifically proven that people get attracted towards moving content than a static hoarding. No wonder, big brands recognise this and will spend enough to make their mark on consumers mind. Moving ahead, indian companies will leverage videos to create brand and static content to initiate call for action e.g. Get 10% off on sale of 1500 Rs.
Reduced cost of technology
Every day, cost of hardware is going down, which is expected to make digital signage affordable for larger deployments. As long as the hardware is kept standard, the cost can be kept under control due to economy of scale in production.
Innovation in Technology
It is expected that signages will go beyond simply displaying offers. It will evolve into a medium that collects information at a retail shop via camera, sensors; interact with customer, leave its thumb print with customer as he walks out, provide her quick search, recommend products, take feedback, remembers customer on her next visit.
Changing investor community in India
Investor community in India has traditionally kept themselves away from ventures that require hardware infrastructure. However, opportunity to acquire a retail shop and creating its stable presence in market would be more stable than constantly moving consumer on internet. With IoT on top of digital signage, companies are expected to get details about the consumer in store, his visit pattern, purchase pattent etc. Although, cost of hardware is going down, it still acts as a barrier to entry for smaller players to enter into the market, especially when the customer expects 1000+ deployments. With likes of Sequoia Capital (investing in Teewe) (Ref 4), Pose Venture (investing in CarIQ), Infuse Ventures (investing in Altizon) – all hardware associated companies, clearly showing change of mindset in investment community.
Reference
Ref 1: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/indiahome/indianews/article-2327182/The-myth-great-Indian-Middle-class-Roughly-30-Indias-population-lives-poverty-line.html
Ref 2: http://www.6wresearch.com/press-releases/india-digital-signage-systems.html
Ref 3: http://www.videobrewery.com/blog/18-video-marketing-statistics
Ref 4: http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2015-03-26/news/60516064_1_google-chromecast-india-quotient-sequoia-capital-india-advisors
