WHITEPAPER

SPEAK YOUR AUDIENCES’ LINGO

WITH TIMES INTERNET
TABLE OF CONTENTS WHITEPAPER

03 Introduction and Background

05 Preamble: Why focus on vernacular is important & immediate for brands

06 Times Internet highlights

07 Why brands should overindex spending on news platforms

08 Why brands should overindex spending on vernacular news

09 The exaggerated prominence of English

10 The role of regional creative

11 CTR lift observed on Colombia after using Language Creatives

12 Leveraging vernacular - Best practices for brands

16 Audience behaviour on our vernacular sites

17 Case Study

18 Regions where we outpaced category YOY growth

19 Closing the gender gap in readership

20 Targeting the right set for the success of your business

21 Times Internet and the vernacular dialogue

23 Concluding thoughts

24 End Notes

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 INTRODUCTION & BACKGROUND WHITEPAPER

The growth of Indian language digital users

has been nothing short of phenomenal*
CAGR rate of 18% (FY16 - FY21)

By 2021, the number of vernacular

internet users will reach 536Mn people
Indian language users to account for ~ 75%
of India’s internet user base by 2021
By 2021, 9 out of 10 new internet users
in the country will likely to be Indian language speakers

Source: KPMG in India analysis 2019

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 INTRODUCTION & BACKGROUND WHITEPAPER

Within the digital segment, Times Internet languages

continues to grow at the CAGR of 55% from FY15 - FY20

Regional languages have always played a critical role in traditional

marketing, being the predominant medium for TV and print advertising.
Now, they are becoming critical to brands’ success on digital.
In this paper, we present an industry point of view on the growth of
vernacular audience, and the opportunities vernacular digital offer for
brands to reach the next 300Mn online audience. We will also look into the
play of regional news brands, especially those from the Times Internet’s
ecosystem.

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 PREAMBLE
Why focus on vernacular is important & immediate for brands
Growth of vernacular
While English is the almost default lingua
franca of India’s elite, 90% of the country do
not speak English. Research also says that
the Indian language internet user trusts a
website that has information in their
preferred Indian language over an English
site. With smartphones getting cheaper and
data getting commoditized, there is an
uncaptured market of nouveau digitised in
India - about 734Mn people will be using
internet by 2021, amongst which 75%
aren’t English speakers. This will make the
language internet user base of India almost
Source: https://www.deccanchronicle.com/technology/in-other-news/261218/how-the-vernacular-market-is-changing-indias-internet-landscape.html
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536Mn users — one of the largest in the
world, and twice the size of the American
population.
The unprecedented demand for internet
products among this untapped market
exists outside metroes. Yet digital media
plans continue to be skewed towards
urban, English speaking India - a strategy
that needs radical revisiting. India has 22
official languages with 6000+ dialects and
55+ languages with 1Mn+ speakers. There
is an unique opportunity present for brands
to become sharply relevant and localise -
vernacular news and content can become
the conduit for this journey.
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Times Internet highlights
In India, Times Internet has been one of the early forerunners
in terms of a number of platforms specially targeted at the
vernacular audience. In late 90’s, it introduced Navbharat
Times website which enabled its users to read news in Hindi.
Navbharat Times has proved to be a big success for Times
Internet. From Feb’17 to Sept’19, the total visitors have grown
3X reaching almost 30Mn each month. The company has made
strategic inroads into regional languages since the company
introduces 7 more news products apps for other languages like
Kannada, Malayalam, Gujarati, Tamil, Marathi, Telugu and
Bengali - all chosen for the readership base, growth potential
and demographic affluence of that language.

Languages Readership Base Readership Base Growth

Hindi 215.6 Mn 1.5 X
Tamil 17.9 Mn 1.6 X
Malayalam 18.6 Mn 3.0 X
Gujarati 12.0 Mn 2.0 X
Bengali 34.8 Mn 5.2 X
Marathi 50.7 Mn 2.9 X
Kannada 3.4 Mn 1.7 X
Telugu 11.9 Mn 1.6 X

Source: Readership basis Comscore September 2019. Growth in September 2018 vs September 2019.

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Why brands should overinde x spendin g on news platform s

Reach of news
News/Information is one of the top categories
in India and accessed by 96.2% digital audience.
Inside News/Information, Times Internet Ltd
dominates the category reaching 87% of India’s
digital population in Sep’19.
The engagement and editorial integrity ‘Election Data Hub’, ‘Election Explainer’, ‘TOI
Campaign Tracker’ and ‘Modi Meter’.
News has itself has evolved beyond wire. News
Purpose-driven initiatives such as the ‘TOI Fact
platforms have evolved to become dynamic
Check’ make news not just informative, but
content ecosystems. For example, during
responsible as well. These are distinctive trends
General Election Results 2019, Times Internet
that set news platforms aside for their editorial
Ltd. news website wasn’t just reporting news
integrity, not available in other media such as
articles, but also brought a host of interative
social or UGC.
widgets and data-led initiatives such as

Rank Category Unique Visitors (000) % Reach Total Minutes (MM) Leader
1 Services 2,85,810 97.4 2,19,966 -
2 News/Information 2,82,313 96.2 53,801 Times Internet Limited
Total Audience Sep'19

3 Entertainment 2,77,754 94.7 1,91,237 -

4 Social Media 2,78,375 94.9 2,86,254 -
5 Retail 2,77,000 94.4 70,083 -
6 Email 2,46,391 84.0 19,125 -
7 Media 1,83,164 62.4 17,913 -
8 Games 1,56,634 53.4 40,017 -
9 Entertainment - Music 1,64,536 56.1 5,835 -
10 Downloads 1,12,218 38.3 1,038 -

Source: Comscore MMX September 2019, India

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Why brands should overindex spending on vernacular news

Since every society can be expected to have a language that is highly developed and deeply
steeped in their culture, they should not be expected to discard this language for something
foreign, which does not connect to their culture.

Relevance of vernacular Potential of vernacular

Brands and businesses partner with vernacular
platforms to reach non-English speaking
segment, in an ecosystem the users are
comfortable and conversant with. The
accessibility and relevance of vernacular
properties is what makes it attractive to brands.
Digital advertising in India will grow at a
compounded annual rate of over 30% in the
next few years, and digital will constitute 29% of
the ad market by 2021. A huge chunk of this
growth will come from vernacular speaking
audience. Meanwhile, there is the underlying
trend of growing spending power, beyond the
upper socio-economic classes, that also makes
the vernacular market attractive.

Source: KPMG India, Media & Entertainment Report 2019

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Growing prominence of local language

English language websites dominate the internet hyperlinking
network despite the growth of regional language content.
However, as this graph indicates, if we look at the language
graph, it is not even the most spoken language in the world.
Hindi-Urdu speakers outnumber the English speakers.

HOLA!

Of the 7.2 billion people on Earth...

Nearly two-thirds speak one of these 12 languages as their native language.

Hindi-Urdu English Arabic Bengali Chinese French German Italian Japanese Portuguese Spanish Russian
588Mn 527Mn 467Mn 250Mn 1.39Bn 118Mn 132Mn 67Mn 123Mn 193Mn 389Mn 254Mn
(All Dialects)
Sources: Ulrich Ammon, University of Dosseldorf, Population Reference Bureau | Note: Totals for languages include bilangual speakers. The Washington Post

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The role of regional creative

HOLA!

Relevance of regional language

Majority brand campaigns are executed in English. Now if such campaigns run English
on a vernacular website, it might lead to a mismatch as the end native user Creative

might not understand the language. This reflects in communication mismatch,

that affects the conversions in turn. Therefore, just because of the language
used, a campaign could end up with much lower CTR than what should have
been - with other factors such as the copy, UX, TG relevance staying constant.
Research has already shown that adverts in local language lead to better
views and conversion rates. Our ad network Colombia performed better with Regional
Creative
language creatives, with significant lift observed for brands across industries
with the use of language creatives.

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CTR lift observed on Colombia after using Language Creatives

160%
CTR LIFT due to Language Creatives

120%
115%

80%

40% 59%
42% 46%

0% 14% 15%
4%
IT Health Matrimony FMCG Social Media Education Real Estate

ADVERTISER CATEGORIES

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Leveraging vernacular - Best practices for brands
What should smaller brands do?
Currently, majority of the Indian SMB (Small and Medium Businesses) are
completely offline. Google annual search reports for India indicate huge
growth for local services and near me keywords. Additionally, Tier II cities
have already started to surpass metros in their search for these services
online. Local businesses and SMBs should ramp up their online presence
aggressively. Local vendors may take up the task of building content in the
languages they and their customers are comfortable. Times Internet’s
offerings, https://timesinternet.in/advertise#our-solutions offer multiple
solutions for brands to reach audience through verncular advetorials and
display ads in their regional publications.
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What should larger brands do?
Large brands have a unique opportunity to play in the regional language
environment. Whether it is in terms of unlocking new markets, or
introducing new variants - vernacular-first audience are highly cued
adopters thanks to the reliability and positive perception of big brands.
Larger brands can also focus on adapting their work to suit the regional
audiences. For instance, if your brand were a condensed milk brand, your
content could change according to the audience you are talking to,
according to the local cuisine of the region. Example: Payasam in Kerala
and Payesh in Bengal.
English poses content generation problem and dependency issues for
many local service providers. Also, as the internet penetrates deep into
rural India, brands and service providers with easily comprehensible
content (read the local language) will enjoy an edge over others.
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We hold leadership across all language sites

which Indian audience visit most often

#1 #1
Maharashtra Times Telugu Samayam
In In
category category

Navbharat Times Tamil Samayam Malayalam Samayam

37 Mn 3 Mn Monthly UVs Monthly UVs

1 Mn Monthly UVs

Source: Comscore Multi-platform data India, Aug 2019.

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Times Internet Indic Language News Sites

25
%
#1 106
Mn
1.3
Bn
In category
1
Bn
Monthly Reach Monthly UVs Page Views Monthly
Minutes Spent

Times Internet South Indian Language News Sites

4% 16
Mn
0.2
Bn
0.1
Bn
Monthly Reach Monthly UVs Page Views Monthly
Minutes Spent

Unique Users, Page Views & Time Spent reported from GA- Sep 2019
India - Reach reported by Comscore, August'19 | South India- Reach reported by Comscore, August'19
South India map is representative of the vernacular medium

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Analysing how frequently consumers visit news sites

helps marketers better understand their interests.
Amongst our eight regional news websites/apps, Samayam Telugu had the highest average
views per visitor (11) followed by Vijaya Karnataka (Kannada), Ei Samay (Bengali) and
Navbharat Times (Hindi).
Average Views Per Visitor, Sep’19
11
10
9 9
8
8

0 Navbharat Ei Samay Vijaya Samayam

Source: Comscore Multi-platform data India, Sep'2019 Times Karnataka Telugu

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Audience behaviour on our vernacular sites
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About Affinity and In-market audience of our news brands: Our users are passionate about categories like
lifestyle and hobbies, media and entertainment and food and dining. Amongst various categories, readers across
the regional brands displayed higher intent towards Auto sector, employment and education.

Affinity Purchase Intent

Lifestyle & Hobbies 21.76% 16.90%
Autos & Vehicles

Media & Entertainment 21.11% Employment 15.53%

Food & Dining 13.26% Education 13.90%

Cross visiting for our news websites: Users of our regional websites also access sites ranging from Amazon and
Flipkart in the retail ecommerce category, Xiaomi and Samsung in the smartphones category, Paytm, PhonePe
and Google Pay in the finance category, LIC and Coverfox in insurance category, ICICI direct and
mutualfundssahihai.com in the investment category and IRCTC and Ola/Uber in the travel category. These are
just a few brands which a larger number of our readers consume. .

Vertical cross visiting %

Amazon 97.1% Flipkart 84.7%

Flipkart 60.4% Amazon 81.8%
Google Pay 57.5% Paytm 56.5%

Source: Affinity and Purchase Intent GA July’19;

Cross visiting % Comscore Multiplatform Data, June’19
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Case Study

Campaign Objective: For the recent India’s tour of

West Indies in August, Sony Liv partnered with
Navbharat Times to pitch Sony Liv to its users

Results: We delivered 51.6Mn impressions, 148K

clicks resulting in CTR of 0.29%. 88% impressions were
delivered on mobile. Entertainment audience, the most
relevant segment for Sony Liv had 0.32% CTR, the
highest. Other high performing segments were
entertainment, lifestyle, sports.

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Regions where we outpaced category YOY growth

TIL Property Growth
Category Growth

11.6

6.0 6.1

11.6 3.0 3.5

2.9
1.6 1.6 1.6
1.5

Tamil News Samayam Hindi News NBT Malayalam Samayam Marathi Maharashtra Telugu Samayam
Tamil News Malayalam News Times News Telugu

Tamil News Hindi News Malayalam News Marathi News Telugu News
With Tamil news NBT did better While Malayalam Maharashtra While Telugu
segment growing than category News category Times grew at News
at 1.6X in last with 1.6X growth grows at 6X, 3.5X vs Marathi grew slowly, but
year, vs category 1.5X Samayam news segment Samayam Telugu
Samayam Tamil growth Malayalam has growing at 2.9X grew by 6.1X
grew at a been growing at
whopping 11.6X 3X

Methodology: Comparing combined UU growth of top regional publisher Vs Times Internet’s regional publisher in the incumbent region.
Data source used: Comscore Multiplatform Data September 2018 Vs September 2019

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Closing the gender gap in readership

In terms of gender, in majority of our vernacular portals the gap is less than the
average internet gender spread in India. As per 2017 UNICEF report, in India,
29% of all users are females. However, 53% of Samayam Malayalam readers
are females which also means higher number of females read it as compared
to males. Brands like Vijaya Karnataka, Malayalam Samayam and IamGujarat
also has a smaller gender gap. While our vernacular sites have the maximum
reach in India, brands can also reach out to more females through our portals.

News Portals Male Female

Navbharat Times 69% 31%
Vijaya Karnataka 59% 41%
EI Samay 68% 32%
Tamil Samayam 55% 45%
Telugu Samayam 61% 39%
Malayalam Samayam 47% 53%
Maharashtra Times 66% 34%
Iamgujarat 65% 35%

Source: GA, Sep 2019

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Targeting the right set for the success of your business

Majority of the users of Times Internet vernacular properties are in the

high spenders 18-34 year old category. These audiences contribute the
most revenue and has the highest conversion rate.

News Portals 18-34 year old 35-44 year old 44 and above
Navbharat Times 80% 9% 12%
Vijaya Karnataka 65% 14% 21%
Ei Samay 63% 11% 26%
Samayam Tamil 64% 11% 24%
Samayam Telugu 71% 10% 19%
Samayam Malayalam 61% 15% 24%
Maharashtra Times 70% 13% 17%
Iamgujarat 74% 7% 19%

Source: GA, Sep 2019

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Times Internet and the vernacular dialogue WHITEPAPER

Going regional
The easiest way to talk to your audience is in their language. While English may be the most common language used
in digital communication, there has been a significant increase in the number of users consuming vernacular
content, whether it’s news or entertainment.
Times Internet leveraged this need for vernacular information, and decided to take matters into their own hands by
starting various vernacular news websites. Each of these properties are powered by specialised and customised
content (such as videos, editorial support and through their intellectual properties -- NBT awards), to ensure that the
consumer gets exactly what they ask for and want. Through these efforts, Times Internet organically and
inorganically grew its news language portfolio. In 2019, these news websites/apps together make Times Internet’s
vernacular properties the most read vernacular group of India.

Faster content for the engaged reader

Since the Times Internet vernacular properties are the consumers’ most preferred mediums for information, it is
essential that the content reaches them in a timely manner. That’s why the teams that work at the TIL vernacular
have a very high TAT and operational efficiency. Across its 8 vernacular platforms, TIL ensures that the turnaround
time for any landing page that requires translation is no more than 4 hours, and ensures that it gets hosted in 24
hours. This not only ensures that the returning consumer gets all the information they require, but also ensures that
all new consumers make the TIL properties their first stop for all their information requirements.

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Times Internet and the vernacular dialogue WHITEPAPER

Using technology to reach more people

Research shows that adverts in local language lead to better views and conversion
rates. Our ad network, Colombia, performed better with language creatives, with
significant lift observed for brands across industries with the use of language
creatives. To further provide the consumer with a seamless experience, TIL’s
vernacular platforms are designed to be one of the most optimised publishing
sites, across the globe. Whether it’s in terms of performance, accessibility, app
mimicking, PWA (progressive web app) or SEO practices, every one of TIL’s
vernacular properties are at the top of the list. We, at TIL, work tirelessly to give
the user a seamless and complete experience, while giving you the edge over
competitors.

Navbharat Times’ PWA gets recognised at Google IO. Our vernacular news
unlocking next wave of growth–consistently outpacing competition.*

Reference: *TIL Indic Languages - Top vernacular news sites on Comscore since Sep 18
Progressive
App
Web App

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 Concluding thoughts
With the next wave of Indian internet users, estimated to be approximately
500Mn, are expected to be regional users who prefer to consume regional WHITEPAPER
content in their own language, targeted content marketing in vernacular
languages will become a prefered marketing vehicle for brands, across
platforms and mediums. Vernacular news media are best positioned to help
brands deliver that.

About Times Internet

Times Internet is the digital arm of The Times of India Group, India’s largest media
conglomerate across print, TV, radio, out of home, magazines, digital, and more,
that collectively reach over 250 million Indians. Times Internet Ltd. dominates the
category by reaching 87% of India’s digital population in Sep’19.

87

% Reach of
61
Times Internet
45
40
36
34 34 33
31
25

Times Internet Network 18 India Today Dailyhunt The Indian Zee Digital NDTV Bytedance HT Media Jagran Sites
Limited Group Express Group Inc. Group

Source: Comscore MMX September 2019, India

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End Notes

1 https://www.analyticsindiamag.com/how-google-is-cashing-in-on-indias-million-dollar-regional-language-market/

2 https://www.deccanchronicle.com/technology/in-other-news/261218/how-the-vernacular-market-is-changing-indias-internet-landscape.html

3 https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/the-worlds-languages-in-seven-maps-and-charts-a6791871.html

4 Comscore Trends

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