Web Content, Search Portals And Social Media Global Market Report 2021: COVID-19 Impact and Recovery to 2030

Major companies in the web content, search portals, SEO services and social media market include Google; Facebook; Tencent; Baidu and Netflix.

The global web content, search portals and social media market is expected to grow from $416.12 billion in 2020 to $452.54 billion in 2021 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 8.8%. The growth is mainly due to the companies rearranging their operations and recovering from the COVID-19 impact, which had earlier led to restrictive containment measures involving social distancing, remote working, and the closure of commercial activities that resulted in operational challenges. The market is expected to reach $958.28 billion in 2025 at a CAGR of 21%.

The web content, search portals, SEO services and social media market consists of the revenues generated from sales of advertising, subscriptions and advisory services by entities (organizations, sole traders or partnerships) that publish and/or broadcast content on the internet exclusively, or operate websites that use a search engine to generate and maintain extensive databases of Internet addresses and content in an easily searchable format (and known as web search portals), or operate websites that enable customers to interact, create and share content and information or provide advisory services for businesses to optimize their websites. The web content, search portals, SEO services and social media market is segmented into social media; internet search portals; digital publishing and content streaming and search engine optimization services.

North America was the largest region in the global web content, search portals and social media market, accounting for 35% of the market in 2020. Asia Pacific was the second largest region accounting for 34% of the global web content, search portals and social media market. Middle East was the smallest region in the global web content, search portals and social media market.

Companies in the digital publishing and content streaming market are developing Progressive Web Applications (PWAs) to drive user engagement and revenues. PWAs are applications within a web browser, displayed as a website. PWAs enable developers to develop a single app which can work across all platforms and devices, leading to significant savings in the time and effort taken for app development. PWAs help web content publishing companies to maximize reach, increase level of user engagement, and provide a unified customer experience. For example, Flutter, supported and developed by Google, is the latest framework used for developing mobile applications for operating systems such as iOS and Android. PWAs developed by Washington Post, an American news publishing company, have resulted in increasing the rate of user engagement by as much as five times.

The outbreak of Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has acted as a significant restraint on some of the web content, search portals and social media markets in 2020 as businesses were disrupted due to lockdowns imposed by governments globally. COVID 19 is an infectious disease with flu-like symptoms including fever, cough, and difficulty in breathing. The virus was first identified in 2019 in Wuhan, Hubei province of the People’s Republic of China and spread globally including Western Europe, North America and Asia. Steps by national governments to contain the transmission have resulted in a decline in economic activity and restricted movement of goods and services with countries entering a state of 'lock down'. The outbreak is expected to continue to have a negative impact on businesses throughout 2020 and into 2021. However, many media markets have been unaffected or benefited from this as they transmit their content remotely through digital channels. It is expected that the web content, search portals and social media market will recover from the shock across the forecast period as it is a 'black swan' event and not related to ongoing or fundamental weaknesses in the market or the global economy.

Rising penetration of mobile, tablet and other electronics and rising data consumption will drive the web content, search portals, SEO services and social media market. Increase in sales of internet accessible electronic devices such as smart phones and tablets leads to an increase in consumption of digital content. For example, the total number of smart phone devices across the world is expected to reach 6 billion by 2020, i.e. eight people out of 10 will own a smartphone by 2020, eventually driving the revenues of web content, search portals, SEO services and social media companies. This increasing use of smart phones is expected to increase the internet usage, hence driving the web content, search portals, SEO services and social media market.