05 noviembre 2024

First map of the audio industry in Portuguese: Close to 400 Entities Driving the Growing Portuguese Language Market Audio Industry

The Portuguese Language Audio industry generates approximately 30 million euros annually.
Although streaming platforms represent only 3% of the total audio industry, they are the main promoters of the industry, investing millions of euros in audiobook production.

São Paulo / Lisbon, November 5, 2024. In the last five years, we have witnessed a growing number of entities embracing in audio formats (podcasts, audiobooks, audio series, audio dramas, etc.) in Portuguese Language Audio Market, currently the fifth most spoken language in the world, with more than 200 million speakers, and the official language of 9 countries: Portugal, Brazil, Angola, Mozambique, among others. This is one of the conclusions of the first Map of the Portuguese-Language Audio Industry, prepared by Dosdoce.com, a platform specializing in digital economy trends, which identified 365 entities firmly committed to the development of the new audio industry in Portuguese-speaking markets.

These nearly 400 entities have created over 250,000 podcasts and around 10,000 audiobooks in Portuguese in recent years, among other formats. The audio entertainment industry (podcasts, audiobooks, radio, and music streaming) is expected to continue growing by approximately 10% worldwide until the end of this decade, driven by revenues from subscription platforms, one-off sales, digital loans, bulk sales through major companies like telecom operators, advertising revenue, branded content, among others, but with revenue contributions from varied formats, according to the “Audiobook Global Growth Report” recently published by the Frankfurt Book Fair.

The Portuguese-language audio industry generates around 30 million euros annually, compared to approximately 100 million euros in Spanish-speaking markets and more than 2 billion euros in English-speaking markets, highlighting the high growth potential of this world-wide language. «Over the past five years, streaming platforms have led the audio industry, investing millions of euros in audiobook production. Almost two-thirds of existing Portuguese-language audiobooks have been licensed by publishers to streaming platforms being the main industry promoters by funding audiobook production to boost Portuguese-speaking markets. Publishers should further embrace for the audio format, investing in their own audiobook production to directly benefit from the industry’s growth,» states Javier Celaya, an audio industry analyst and founder of Dosdoce.com.

Origin of Entities Investing in Portuguese-Language Audio

Brazil leads the Portuguese-language audio industry, accounting for 84% of the entities identified in this first map (over 300 entities), while Portugal represents 10% of the industry. The remaining 6% consists of entities producing and commercializing content in Portuguese from other European countries, as well as the United States and Canada.

Main activities of audio entities in Brazil

The study carried out by Dosdoce.com reveals that the entities identified in the Portuguese-language audio industry mainly belong to five economic activities. Of the more than 300 audio entities identified in Brazil, 59% are publishers such as Companhia das Letras, Sextante, Intrínseca, Editora Gente, Buzz Editora, Grupo Editorial Record, Alta Books, Editora Globo, Grupo Ediouro or Grupo Planeta, followed by production studios with 26.5% of the total entities, that produce all types of sound content in Portuguese. In third place, we find the media (7.5%) such as Globo, CNN, TV Record, Band, Folha de São Paulo, Estadão, etc., which invest in the podcast format to expand the existing audiences. Fourth, about 4% of the entities are companies that offer audio-related services, such as Bookwire. And in fifth place, platforms that sell audio content in Brazil, such as Audible, Skeelo, Storytel or Ubook, representing 3% of the industry total. As we indicated at the beginning of this report, although streaming platforms represent only 3% of the total audio industry, they are the main promoters of the sector as they invest millions of euros in the production of audiobooks licensed by publishers.

Top Trends and Revenue Models

The study also reveals that the revenue generated by the audio industry comes from several sources, including subscription platforms, unit sales, digital loans, as well as B2B2C commercial alliances with telecommunications, internet, transport companies, among others. The B2B2C business model, led by Skeelo in Brazil, presents itself as a unique opportunity for large technology companies and publishers to capture and retain customers in a growing digital environment.

Main activities of audio entities in Portugal

While in Brazil there are more than 300 entities that invest in audio, only 40 invest in sound content in Portugal. The media (56%) are the main group that embraces audio, mainly in podcasts, followed by publishers such as Leya or Porto Editora, which represent 19% of the entities analyzed.

In third place are production studios, which represent 14% of the total entities that invest in sound formats. Fourth, 5.5% of the entities identified are audio content listening platforms based on spoken word (podcasts, audiobooks, audiotheatres, bookcasts, etc.) such as Bertrand or Kobo-FNAC. Finally, we found entities that promote the use of AI in the audio sector, as well as entities specialized in organizing sectoral events (2.75% in each case).

Main audio formats

As for formats, 56% of the entities analyzed work only with audiobooks, 37% only with podcasts, while the remaining 7% invest in both formats, expanding the spectrum of listeners by offering a greater diversity of audio content that attracts a larger audience.

Travels through the world of audio content in Portuguese

Although Portuguese is currently the fifth most spoken language in the world, with more than 200 million speakers, and the official language of 9 countries: Portugal, Brazil, Angola, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, São Tomé and Príncipe, Timor- East and Macau, only 3.46% of audiobook sales occur outside Brazil and Portugal, according to the aforementioned “Audiobook Global Growth Report” recently published by the Frankfurt Book Fair.

96.54% of audiobook sales in Portuguese occur in Brazil (95.36%) and only 1.18% in Portugal. The main export market for audio content in Portuguese is the United States, with 1.92%, followed by the United Kingdom with 0.26%, Germany with 0.17%, Ireland with 0.12%, and Spain with more 0.12%.

Confluence of audio formats to boost the industry

One of the main conclusions of this study is the growing international tendency of different industry entities to invest in a wide range of audio formats, be they podcasts, audiobooks, audio series, etc., instead of focusing on just one. While in the United States, a much more mature audio market, 47% of audio entities revolve around podcasts and 40% around audiobooks, in Europe the data indicates that we still have a strong imbalance between sound formats.

“The Portuguese-language audio industry will grow faster if sector entities firmly invest in the development of products and services in multiple audio formats, to create a global category called ‘audio content’”, says Javier Celaya, analyst expert in the audio industry and founder of Dosdoce.com.

“The audiobook market, especially in Portuguese and Spanish, presents enormous potential and a tremendous long-term opportunity for publishers, authors and content creators to explore new audiences and expand their formats globally”, says Ana Julia Ghirello, SVP Partnerships & GM Expansion at Storytel.

«Brazil has shown itself in recent years to be a country with a lot of audio consumption, without considering music, which has already been present culturally for a long time. Podcasts have had exponential growth and have become a constant part of the entertainment and information menu of many Along with this, in recent years, with the emergence of national audio players and the arrival of international players, an ecosystem for the creation, production and marketing of digital audio content has been created that has allowed Brazil to be placed on the world map. potential large markets for the format. Like all habit formation and category creation, in my view it is a matter of time before audiobooks become as common in the routine of Brazilians as music is and podcasts have already become» says André Palme , partner & CMCO of Skeelo

«The Audio Map of Portuguese-Speaking Markets illustrates the significant potential of the audio industry in Portuguese-speaking markets, particularly in Brazil, where the necessary infrastructure – from studios to publishers and streaming platforms – is already established. However, infrastructure alone is insufficient. Developing an audio audience requires substantial investments in marketing, advertising and strategic partnerships with industries that have a broad consumer reach. To transform the potential of the Portuguese-speaking audio market into reality, significant investments and strategic partnerships are essential”, Carlo Carrenho, Founder of Pop Stories in Brazil and Frankfurt Book Fair Audio Ambassador 2023/2024

“The Audiobook market in Brazil, although in its early stages, has been consolidating itself in a relevant geography for the format. With audio, a format already accustomed to the Brazilian consumer who is one of the most important Podcasts listerners worldwide, we can imagine a large new group of readers entering the audio reader consumer market. Bookwire in Brazil has been investing not only in distributing audiobooks to its more than 800 publishers, but also, robustly, working in the production of new titles with the aim of catalog growth, something essential for the market’s success. Our WAY – We Audiobook You production program in Brazil has already recorded more than 1500 titles that join our catalog of more than 5000 titles, a number that positions us as the main vector for commercializing the format in the country. It is extremely gratifying to see this reflected in Dosdoce’s incredible work in the pioneering publication of the Mapa da Indústria do Audio em Língua Portuguesa!” Marcelo Gioia, Managing Director of Bookwire Brasil.

“In the late 2000s, I started listening to audiobooks on Audible (USA), and with that, I thought: «Why, in a country where so little is read, don’t we have an app like Audible?» This is how UBOOK was born: with an unlimited subscription model and another that allows subscription with payment charged to your cell phone bill, our purpose was clear from the beginning — to democratize access to reading. In 2014, we launched the platform with just 100 titles in Portuguese. Today, after partnerships with the main Brazilian publishers and investments in original titles, we have more than 3,500 audiobooks produced by UBOOK. If in 2014 we believed in the potential of this market, now we are even more motivated! In the last five years, with the arrival of new players in the country, Brazil has consolidated itself as the second largest podcast market in the world, with more than 35 million listeners — potential consumers of audiobooks. All of this reinforces our vision: Brazil is on the path to becoming one of the largest audiobook markets in the world. We know that we still have many challenges ahead, such as growing the catalog and investing in marketing to spread the format more and more; but we see more and more investment from publishers in the production of their titles, and the arrival of more audiobook producers. It’s just a matter of time before the market consolidates” Flávio Osso, CEO & Co-Founder UBOOK

Research Methodology

To create the first Map of the audio industry in Portuguese language, the Dosdoce.com team conducted extensive research over three months (July, August and September this year), analyzing the different economic activities related to the audio industry, such as audio studios, production of sound content, streaming platforms that sell audio content, media outlets that focus on podcasts, audio service entities, festivals, among others.

“I would like to thank Cris Alburquerque, Leonor Furtado and Patricia Ibáñez for the great effort they dedicated to carrying out this excellent research work. Being a new industry in constant growth, we have no doubt that we have not identified all the entities that are part of it. We invite you to leave in the comments of this article the names and URLs of production studios, platforms, festivals, meetings, awards, training entities, etc., that you know or work with so that we can add them in the next edition of the map.”, concludes Celaya.

The objective is to update this map annually to help professionals in the audio industry better understand its evolution: new players, fastest growing categories, industry volume, trends, etc.