Indian mothers are busy in COVID-19 times, and it is not household chores

Indian mothers are busy now more than ever. And, it is not household chores that they are busy with. They are spending time on content creation.

From blogs to vlogs (video blogs), mothers are creating more and more content in times of COVID-19 and even earning money out of content creation.

Namrata, who is residing in Hyderabad and is a mother of seven-year old twins, said, “Content creation is two-fold currently. There is idea generation on the platform like recipes, baking ideas, etc. Then there is also assurance that everyone is together. And there is also entertainment. I have collaborated with other mothers for video challenges.”

Another content creator Jhilmil Bhansali who creates content around motherhood and raising creative kids, spends around three to four hours weekly for content creation.

But, where is the content they are creating?

Moms are mostly connecting, creating and cashing in their content on a user-generated platform called Momspresso, which is for mothers only.

In the last few months, the platform has seen significant growth in both content creation and consumption.

"We used to add 4,000 blogs a month between January to March. Currently, we are adding 10,000 blogs a month. When it comes to 100-word stories short stories, we used to add about 3.5 thousand stories a month. Now, we are adding 25,000 such stories a month," CEO & co-founder Vishal Gupta told Moneycontrol.

The biggest jump on the platform in terms of content creation is for vlogs which have gone up by 5X.

"We used to 1,500 vlogs a month and currently there are 7.5 thousand vlogs a month," he added.

All this shows how involved mothers are in content creation in the current times.

According to him,creating content is a relief for creators, and it also shows the kind of content that is being created.

“There is content being created around how to build immunity for our children, how to keep children busy while they are at home. Lot of experiences are being shared like anxiety dealing with COVID especially with moms on the frontline and dealing and protecting family from COVID,” he added.

Along with keeping them entertained and relaxed, content creation is also turning out lucrative for mothers.

Gupta said influencers on Momspresso earn anywhere between Rs 200 for a survey to Rs 20,000 for doing social shoutout.

In 2019, Momspresso launched MyMoney, a feature on the platform that connects brands with bloggers. So, brands reach out to Momspresso for a campaign which is put up on the platform and moms can take part in the campaign.

“Influencers can take part in a survey, social shoutout campaign on Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp. Then there is Meets which pre-COVID was offline like moms would go to, for example, a Fab India store launch to look at the new collection and live tweet. This has now gone online. So, moms attend virtual launches. Then there is review campaigns. Brands pay us for these campaigns and we transfer money into the influencer’s accounts,” explained Gupta.

He pointed out that MyMoney had paid out Rs 2.5 crore to 5.5 thousand mothers in one year.

Namrata, who said content creation was making her financially independent, noted, “When I need to do an extra expenditure on myself, I don’t need to ask someone else. I would think twice before buying a set of five books. But now I know that I have some way to make that money and I know I can afford it.”

Since March, Namrata has collaborated with six to seven brands including Fevicreate, Voltas Beko, Alpenliebe, Pogo, among others.

When it comes to brand collaborations, Gupta said that 70 percent of clients coming on board are FMCG brands, followed by consumer durables. The new addition to the list is pharma brands who have enhanced focus on immunity building currently and are looking to advertise over the counter products.

According to Gupta, mothers are a valuable demographic for brands as they buy for their family. Namrata concurs.