India in 140 characters: Twitter's rise in the country
Twitter India's strategy is to delight its growing audience in the hope that this will later lead to revenues as user engagement grows
Last Updated: Jan 09, 2015, 06:51 IST2 min
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One of the most important changes which the world has seen over the past few years is the dominance of social media in public discourse. If Mark Zuckerbergâs Facebook changed the way we shared, Jack Dorseyâs Twitter has irrevocably altered how we converse. Indians love to talk, to engage, to argue. And itâs no surprise, then, that just over two years after Twitter set up its operations in India, the social media platform which has spawned a revolution in engagement is witnessing mind-boggling growth in the number of those taking toâand onâthe platform. ![mg_79113_forbes_india_sm_280x210.jpg]( "mg_79113_forbes_india_sm_280x210.jpg")
Consider the facts. Just last year, when the microblogging site which redefined conversations by restricting them to 140 characters came up with its much-hyped IPO, Twitter wasnât too sure of how much of its growth would come from India, a market which at the time seemed one fraught with governmental risk. Cut to 2015, and India is now the fastest-growing market for Twitter across the world in terms of audience and has the third largest user base, ahead of even the UK. As Twitter India head Rishi Jaitly, who has been at the forefront of driving the companyâs India agenda, tells Senior Features Writer Sohini Mitter, there were quite a few highlights in this eventful two-year journey, among them the fact that the country now has a government where ministersâincluding the prime minister himselfâchoose to make announcements directly on Twitter.
Jaitly and his team of six have been doggedly engaging with the government, political parties and sporting and movie icons with an overarching mission of driving growth and user numbers, keeping the revenue chase for later. The strategy is to delight its growing audience in the hope that this will later lead to revenues as user engagement grows. Television is also an important pieceâas it is worldwideâwhere the âsecond screenâ which the platform offers not only provides value to users by heightening the engagement but is also increasingly becoming a means for TV channels to monetise excess inventory. Twitter India has also spawned an ecosystem of startups which are busy chewing on the data the site throws up. This data, in turn, is proving enormously useful to large companies in figuring out customer preferences.
So far, it would seem Twitterâs India strategy is paying off, at least in terms of user engagement, though its numbers are still far less than Facebookâs. The strategy underscores the fact that Twitter is in the country for the long haul, to evangelise social media as much as to make money from it. The first part is happening quite dramatically. Whether the second happens is anybodyâs guess. #WatchThisSpace.
Best,
Sourav Majumdar
Editor, Forbes India
Email:sourav.majumdar@network18publishing.com
Twitter id:@TheSouravM
First Published: Jan 09, 2015, 06:51
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