5 key takeaways from Twitter CEO Dick Costolo's first visit to India

From acquiring Bengaluru-based **ZipDial** to teaming up with Modi government for Digital Samvad, Twitter has been trying to bolster its reach in India. Finally, Twitter CEO, Dick Costolo has made his first visit to India, what he calls the ‘fastest growing market’. He spoke to The Economic Times on various aspects; here are the five key takeaways.

Mobile-first population is a big opportunity In terms of user growth, Costolo feels that India is the ‘fastest growing’ and the mobile-first population is massive. Though he hasn’t revealed any numbers as the micro-blogging site doesn’t reveal numbers outside the US. This is possibly the reason why the company even acquired missed call mobile marketing firm **ZipDial** , a platform that combines SMS, voice, mobile web, and access to mobile apps, bridging users from offline to online. On the other hand, the number of mobile Internet users have been growing rapidly and stood at 173 million at the end of December 2014. According to the ‘ **Mobile Internet in India 2014** ′ by industry body Internet & Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) and IMRB International, the number of mobile Internet users in India is expected to reach 213 million by June this year. Know what’s going around in the world right now, Twitter is not just about tweeting Costolo says Twitter is to connect with people across the world, and not just about putting out a tweet. According to Costolo, one doesn’t have to tweet to be a massive Twitter user. It is about ‘knowing what’s going on in the world right now’. This could be possibly true as it is one of the fastest source of information or latest happenings around the world. It should also be noted that a **recent report** revealed mostly 23 million out of 271 million active users (MAUs) are not humans but bots.  Twitter has a much bigger active user base and are seen as influencers When asked about why Twitter hasn’t grown in numbers compared to other social platforms like Facebook, WhatsApp and even LinkedIn, Costolo defends by talking about how its users engaged with the platform. Once a topic is discussed on Twitter it starts influencing people and turns into a big story.  “In the US, the other day a leading digital publisher said that we may ultimately get more referral links from some other social platforms, but it is 100% the case that when things start on Twitter, they have a much bigger cascade effect as that is where the influencers are,” Costolo said. Native mobile video and live broadcasting on mobile Revenue through mobile services is something the company sees as massive opportunity. The company also plans to invest in native mobile video and believes that videos produced for consumption on mobile is going to change the face of media. It will change everything from the way people consume media to how they watch programs. Live broadcasting on mobile is another aspect that Twitter bets big on. Early days in business side for Twitter from India perspective The company is still in early stages when it comes to business or revenue generating in India. Currently, Twitter plans to focus on user growth and experience, and once it is in place, the company will start looking into revenue and business here.