Number of podcasts worldwideIndia IT services exports
A balance-sheet figure measured in billions of dollars and a count of microphones in spare bedrooms, somehow on the same growth curve. Bangalore is not making the podcasts. The podcasts are not, mostly, hiring Bangalore. The arithmetic refuses to take sides.
India's IT services exports doubled from roughly 100 to over 200 billion dollars between 2015 and 2023 as global enterprise IT outsourcing accelerated. The number of podcasts worldwide grew from a few hundred thousand to roughly five million in the same window, a story about Spotify's 2019 podcast pivot and the falling cost of decent recording gear. Both are downstream of one thing: cheap, reliable cloud infrastructure that lets you deliver knowledge work or audio to anyone, anywhere. The cloud quietly built two industries it doesn't appear in.
Look for what enabled both. Usually it is a piece of plumbing nobody put on the chart.
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Want to learn more about why correlations like “Number of podcasts worldwide” vs “India IT services exports” don't prove causation? Read our guide to statistical thinking.
