Twitter acquires ZipDial: Five things you never knew about the Bangalore-based startup

Finally, Twitter has officially announced it has acquired an Indian startup, **ZipDial** . ZipDial is a mobile-marketing firm, and with this acquisition, Twitter plans to bolster its reach in emerging markets such as India. It also brings Twitter a new engineering office in Bangalore. Christian Oestlien, VP of Product, Twitter explains, “Over the next several years, billions of people will come online for the first time in countries like Brazil, India and Indonesia. For many, their first online experience will be on a mobile device – but the cost of data may prevent them from experiencing the true power of the Internet. Twitter, in partnership with ZipDial, can make great content more accessible to everyone.” Here are five things you didn’t know about ZipDial. 1. In the past, ZipDial has worked with Twitter. ZipDial and Twitter have teamed up on several campaigns like Indian elections, Bollywood film promotions and @MTVIndia’s #RockTheVote “Dial the Hashtag” campaign. 2. ZipDial’s platform has engaged nearly 60 million users, which includes the world’s leading brands and media companies. 3. People across India use ZipDial’s platform to access cricket scores, audio programming, tweets from their favorite Bollywood stars and so on, from their mobile phones. Popular personalities including actors, politicians and athletes, use the platform to instantly reach millions of citizens on Twitter through text and voice messages. 4. ZipDial’s mobile platform lets people follow and engage with content across all interfaces. The platform offers a unique model of engaging users while ‘offline’. This helps it personalise the experience and content in ways that are not possible on traditional online platforms. 5. ZipDial offers user experience combining SMS, voice, mobile web, and access to mobile apps, bridging users from offline to online. For instance, it’s easy to engage with a publisher or brand by making a toll-free ‘missed call’ to a designated phone number via ZipDial. The caller will then receive inbound content and further engagement on their phone in real time through voice, SMS or an app notification. These interactions are especially appealing in areas where people aren’t always connected to data or only access data through intermittent Wi-Fi networks.