Twitter Aims to Capitalize on India's Growth, Exploring Offline and Online Integration

Strategic Insights -

India is one of the fastest-growing markets for Twitter, with international revenue growing 176% in the last year, and 80% of the company's revenue coming from mobile in the country. India's passion for sports, politics, and entertainment is playing out well on the platform, with 60 million tweets during the 2014 election and 8 million followers for Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Key Takeaways:

  • Twitter aims to increase its sales presence in India with the hiring of a business head, Taranjeet Singh, and plans to work on brilliant integrations with brands.
  • Video will be key to Twitter's strategy in India, both from a user and brand standpoint, as seen in the consumer video launch and brand-end engagement.
  • Offline and online integration is another concept Twitter is enhancing, aiming to bridge the gap between TV presence and online engagement during events like the cricket World Cup.
  • The company has identified sports, politics, and entertainment as three pillars that are particularly encouraging and showing strong growth in India.
  • The largest spenders on Twitter in India are categories such as mobile phones (e.g., Samsung, Zolo, Gionee), cars (Audi, Mercedes, Mahindra), and other fast-growing sectors.
  • Twitter's acquisition of Zipdial in India was aimed at leveraging its data-driven insights to enhance the user experience and monetization.
  • The company has conducted research with TNS to understand the dynamics of cricket viewing using social media and found that 89% of Twitter users in India are cricket fans, with 84% intending to follow the World Cup and 95% interested in following brands.
  • Twitter is expanding promoted tweets to increase the reach of its platform beyond users, aiming to make Twitter a complementary medium for meaningful messages.
  • The company's transparency report for 2014 suggests that it had a total of 16 requests from the Indian government for user data, with 13% of these requests producing some information and no content withheld.

Statistics:

  • 80% of Twitter's revenue in India comes from mobile.
  • International revenue grew 176% in the last year.
  • $360 million was Twitter's total revenue, with $320 million from advertising.
  • 109% was the overall revenue growth for Twitter.
  • 8 million followers has Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi gained on Twitter.
  • 60 million was the number of tweets during the 2014 Indian election.
  • 89% of Twitter users in India are cricket fans.
  • 84% of cricket fans on Twitter in India intend to follow the World Cup.
  • 95% of Twitter users in India are interested in following brands.
  • 61% of users said they would be open to following a brand if it provided updates on the World Cup.
  • 16 was the number of requests from the Indian government for user data in the last transparency report.
  • 13% of these requests produced some information.
  • 5 was the number of removal requests from government agencies and police offices.
  • 9 was the number of accounts specified in removal requests.
  • 44 was the number of accounts specified in the 16 requests.
  • 0% was the percentage of content withheld.
  • 0% was the percentage of accounts withheld and tweets withheld.

Sources:

  • "Parminder Singh, Twitter's head for India, on its growth plans" by Mint
  • Twitter's Transparency Report, January to June 2014