BENGALURU: Post the acquisition of `missed call' startup
ZipDial, Twitter is now doubling down on its India operations to build localised
products suitable for a country with pervasive internet connectivity issues.
The microblogging website recently held an invite-only event
in Bengaluru to woo top talent in India's Silicon Valley for various positions
such as country growth leader, country data scientist and product and software
engineers.
There are 20 open positions in the .. company in India that
Twitter wants to close before the end of the year, and expects to have employee
strength of 50 by then.
"I am astounded by the level of talent in
Bengaluru," said Christian Oestlien, Twitter's global vice-president for
product management. "We are recruiting world-class engineers because India
produces the best engineers," he said at the sidelines of the event.
According to Oestlien, India will act as a centre to develop
local language products for non-English speaking countries such as those in
Asia and Latin America.
"To begin with, the India engineering centre will focus
on three .. things -build product that are unique and distinct to Indian
market, appeals to local traditions customs and interests. Second, to make sure
our app performs in a world-class manner, regardless of internet connection,
and finally, to make sure it's accessible regardless of the device people are
using, language they speak, income or location," said Oestlien.
Twitter is also working on integrating technology from
ZipDial into the global products. ZipDial's founder Valerie Wagoner will be .. moving
to the US, while many senior engineers will move to Bengaluru to work for the
Indian market.
One such example is Swapnil Jain, an IIT graduate who worked
at Twitter in the Valley , and is back home to build products specific to the
Indian market.
"I have several people pinging me every week, who are
interested in learning about Bengaluru, folks who grew up in India, have spent
5-6 years there (US) and are really keen to come back," said Akash Garg,
senior director of engineering, growth and international team. Twitter's India
unit will build features that will be replicated across other markets as well.
"When you go from WiFi to 2G, you get this unhelpful
message from that system that says `Tweet not sent'. We can do a lot better
than this," said Garg, adding that a few products were geared to help them
overcome this problem.
The social networking firm, which has over 288 million users
worldwide, is estimated to have close to 22.2 million users in India, and the
region is the fastest growing market for the company globally , according to
market research firm eMarketer.
To further its goal of providing seamless user experience,
Twitter said it will enter into partnerships with smartphone makers and telecom
operators in India, along with local startups, which are expected to help in
language support.
The global user base of Twitter grew just 1.4% in the last
quarter. In contrast, there was 47.6% increase in user base in 2014 in India
and the user base is expected to grow further 30.4% this year, said eMarketer.
When asked about its strategy to make money from the Indian
market, Oestlien said the company is focused only on increasing its user base
in the country at the moment. "Once we have enough users, we can surely
find enough ways to monetize," he said
0 comments:
Post a Comment