Content rules. Content is information and now, content is a fast developing industry Globally. However, the Indian content industry isn’t quite at par with its global counterparts. With developed economies accounting for more than a fair chunk of employers in this genre, it is only natural that the trends are stacked in their favour.
Although the Indian subcontinent boasts of being one of the largest newspaper industries of the 21st century with the Times of India being one of the top 10 newspapers in circulation globally, it is the internet that truly redefined the face of content writing. With this new network connecting people globally, outsourcing has now become a household name. Outsourcing companies have been assigning their works to the companies in the East and India, in the recent times, has evolved as one of the major players in this genre.
Be is language, quality or costing, the West finds all its answers here. So does that mean that content writing in India is going places? Well, not really..not yet! A look at ‘what’s wrong and what’s right’ with content industry in India!
Contents
Major Challenges for Indian Content Writing Industry
Social Credibility
Writing isn’t really seen as a full-fledged career option in India. The industry doesn’t really have many big names attached to it and even pays less. No wonder then that the society and parents tend to discourage young talent from joining this field. Even when people do join here, the work isn’t varied enough to hold interests for long and monotony soon sets in.
Academia Vs Industry
The societal diktat isn’t really baseless too. With the wide gap between what the academics talk about and what the industry expects from its people, the demand and supply of qualified talent is quit ill-matched leading to lower compensation standards and high attrition rate of the industry.
The Passion-Money Trade Off
Blame it on societal discouragement or on the demand-supply gap, content writing in India doesn’t really pay all that much. Here, it really is all about your passion. People, who initially opt for content writing as a job, are driven, because they love to write but the lack of financial recognition soon catches up; a trade-off is then inevitable.
Growth Restrictions
As a writer, you don’t get a very clear hierarchy or growth scale to work with. You join as a writer and grow up to be an editor; there isn’t much in terms of vertical growth here and the horizontal expansion has, unfortunately, not been charted well in India yet.
Information Sources
Writing content for people is a serious responsibility and writers are expected to put in a lot of research in their work. While in developed countries, companies have central resources to help their writers get accurate facts for research, Indian companies really leave a lot to be desired on this front.
Overpowering Self Perception
The lack of professional education coupled with a relatively low social stature of content writing in India, this industry attracts more non-writers than writers.
A constant influx of unqualified people looking for a way out of hard work also haunts the industry and threatens to pull its social stature further south.
Major Opportunities for Indian Content Writing Industry
All the above challenges may pose a great threat to content writing in India but that does not negate the sheer multitude of opportunities that are available to this industry in the subcontinent. Major opportunities here being,
- With more and more B2C and B2B organizations going the web-way, there is lot more variety available to web content writers now. From product selling to lifestyle writing, Indian internet space is fast developing to match up to its global counterparts and, in the process, is also creating opening for content writers.
- More and more MNCs are invading the Indian market and they have all, traditionally, chosen to modify their appeal to suit the new markets. Re-writing advertising and brochure content forms a major part of this modification.
- Freelancing is that one option that can not only offer a wider range of writers to the industry but can also work towards building a taller opinion of the industry itself. If companies were to extend the option of freelancing to school and college students and the public at large, they can easily tap into the immense potential of stay-at-home wives, passionate retirees and even creative students. This could make writing a more recognized and rewarding phenomenon; and since it is freelance, attrition also might cease to be such a big issue.
Content writing doesn’t have major issues to deal with in India; it is just going through that phase of teething problems. A few right efforts and right intentions here and there and the entire country might just enter a whole new phase of intellectualism.
Trust me, this is one industry to look out for if you do truly believe in the future and/or in the power of the pen…or keyboard, as the case may be.
About the Author: This article has been compiled by Sanjay Virmani. He is the Co- founder of Banyan Tree Infomedia LLP which has one of the largest network of portals. One of his favorite genre of writing happens to be biographies and he enjoys writing for portals like www.thefamouspeople.com during his free time.
