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India Scores Top Marks For User Growth In Asia For Twitter

India Scores Top Marks For User Growth In Asia For Twitter
The Twitter Inc. logo is displayed on the screen of an Apple Inc. iPhone 6s in this arranged photograph taken in New York, U.S., on Tuesday, Feb. 9, 2016. Twitter Inc. is changing its timeline to display popular tweets first, instead of the latest posts, a long-anticipated step thats likely to anger its most passionate users. Twitter is scheduled to report quarterly earnings results following the close of U.S. financial markets on February 10. Photographer: Michael Nagle/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Bloomberg via Getty Images
The Twitter Inc. logo is displayed on the screen of an Apple Inc. iPhone 6s in this arranged photograph taken in New York, U.S., on Tuesday, Feb. 9, 2016. Twitter Inc. is changing its timeline to display popular tweets first, instead of the latest posts, a long-anticipated step thats likely to anger its most passionate users. Twitter is scheduled to report quarterly earnings results following the close of U.S. financial markets on February 10. Photographer: Michael Nagle/Bloomberg via Getty Images

In the past couple of years, Twitter has been on the rise in India. And that fact was confirmed by a top official from Twitter on Thursday. India is the fastest-growing market for the company in Asia both in terms of user growth and revenue, said Sailesh Rao, the vice president of APAC, Latin America, and emerging markets.

Twitter India has made a valiant effort to engage users more on the platform. That has also been helped by the fact that politicians, sports stars, and Bollywood artists have made use of the site to connect with people. The social network has introduced India specific hashflags, features and Q&A with celebrities.

"Twitter is changing the way companies and individuals engage with their constituents. How CEOs engage with customers, investors, employees, suppliers, and partners. In India, leaders understand that. This is a country with the savviest leaders in the world," said Rao in an interview with ET.

"Twitter has become a rich media platform, and video has become the central tool. Whether it's Periscope , Vine or Twitter itself, we have become the home of live videos. When something is happening in the world, people want to express their views about it using video on Twitter," he added.

The social network also offers full support for six Indian languages including Hindi, Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada, Marathi, and Tamil. According to a report in Business Today, Twitter has almost 23 million users in India out of their 310 million users globally.

"The Prime Minister's Office has been extremely strategic and savvy in recognising that, and that's why they're so good on Twitter. Whether it's a conglomerate leader like Anand Mahindra, a government leader like Modi and his office, or startup and e-commerce founders like Sachin Bansal or Kunal Bahl, they're extraordinary on Twitter. That's an indication of why India has been such a growth market for us. Even cricket personalities or actors like Priyanka Chopra, Deepika Padukone or Shah Rukh Khan, their presence is global," said Rao.

Twitter's global results were very disappointing this quarter. The platform's active users just grew by 3%. User growth in the US has been stalled since almost a year. The revenue grew by 36% compared to the previous year but it fell short of the analyst expectations. Now Twitter is betting high on the live video bandwagon led by Periscope to enhance their user growth.

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This article exists as part of the online archive for HuffPost India, which closed in 2020. Some features are no longer enabled. If you have questions or concerns about this article, please contact indiasupport@huffpost.com.