News happens on Twitter, news breaks on Twitter: Rishi Jaitly

In this age of a rapidly changing world, micro-blogging site Twitter is fast catching the fancy of Indians and as "news happens on Twitter, news breaks on Twitter", the US-based company is very bullish on this country.

"India is one of the fastest-growing markets for Twitter globally. News happens on Twitter, news breaks on Twitter. We are bullish on India. We are seeing some exciting things in India in micro-blogging.

"With Twitter, anyone can share ideas with the whole world. Twitter is uniquely positioned to do that. The media industry understands Twitter is a companion to its business," Rishi Jaitly, market director, South & Southeast Asia at Twitter told IANS in an interview.

Globally, Twitter has 284 million monthly active users. Of those, over 77 percent are outside the United States. India is one of the fastest growing markets. The company declined to share any country-specific data.

Talking about 2014 and the rising popularity of Twitter, Jaitly said: "Twitter entered the Indian market a couple of years back. When we entered we knew 2014 will be an important year for us as there will be Lok Sabha elections and IPL during the year."

"In India we have immersed ourselves with the media business. We have engaged ourselves with the ministry (of information and broadcasting, TV channels and leading stakeholders in the audience business," he added.

Describing Twitter as a "mobile microphone", Jaitly said it has given voice to people across the country.

"Our goal is to ensure every Indian with a mobile device is deriving value from Twitter every single day. There is space and relevance for everyone on the platform, whether you're an FMCG brand, an automobile brand or a spiritual leader. We've seen that users in India tend to take to Twitter around news, politics, cricket and entertainment," Jaitly said.

With 8.5 million followers, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is currently the second most-followed political leader in the world after US President Barack Obama and continues to grow his followers at a rapid pace, Twitter's data on 2014 shows.

The "Golden Tweet" of 2014 was Modi's declaration of victory May 16, 2014 gaining 70,519 retweets celebrating his win.

In India in the last 18 months, there was 600 percent increase in conversations, with politics, governance and public issues being the most talked about, Jaitly said.

He was very optimistic about India and felt there are more opportunities awaiting in 2015. "In 2015 there will be cricket World Cup. We will concentrate more on partnerships and ensuring that businesses across India see values in Twitter."

(Aparajita Gupta can be contacted at aparajita.g@ians.in)