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Tag: Twitter

  • Twitter’s monetisable daily active users grow 20% to 199 mn

    Twitter’s monetisable daily active users grow 20% to 199 mn

    KOLKATA: Microblogging site Twitter reported $1.04 billion revenue for the first quarter of 2021, up 28 per cent year-on-year. It also posted a profit of $68 million, turning back its business from $8.4 million in losses a year ago.

    Advertising revenue totaled $899 million, an increase of 32 per cent and total ad engagements increased 11 per cent year-over-year.

    “Q1 was a solid start to 2021, with total revenue of $1.04 billion up 28 per cent year-over-year, reflecting accelerating year-over-year growth in MAP (mobile application promotion) revenue and brand advertising that improved throughout the quarter,” Twitter CFO Ned Segal said.

    Despite its so-called “solid” performance, Twitter’s stock price dropped nine per cent after reporting Q1 earnings that only narrowly exceeded Wall Street estimates. Analysts had forecast the company would add eight million users during the quarter to surpass 200 million global users overall, as opposed to the one million daily users reported by the social platform.

    “Advertisers continue to benefit from updated ad formats, improved measurement, and new brand safety controls, contributing to 32 per cent year-over-year growth in ad revenue in Q1,” he added.

    The social media network’s monetisable daily active users (mDAU) grew about 20 per cent to 199 million, falling slightly below the analysts’ expectation of 200 million. Average US mDAU were 38 million for Q1, compared to 33 million in the same period of the previous year, and also bettering the count of 37 million in the previous quarter. On the other hand, international mDAU were 162 million for Q1, compared to 133 million in the same period of the previous year and against 155 million in the previous quarter.

    The company has guided total revenue to be between $980 million and $1.08 billion for Q2.

    “People turn to Twitter to see and talk about what’s happening, and we are helping them find their interests more quickly while making it easier to follow and participate in conversations,” Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey said.

    “Average monetisable DAU reached 199 million, up 20 per cent year over year and up seven million sequentially, driven by ongoing product improvements and global conversation around current events,” he noted.

    This quarter also marked Twitter’s first period mostly without the presence of former US president Donald Trump after he was banned from the service following the 6 January insurrection at the US Capitol in Washington DC. Speculations are rife in the industry corridors that Trump plans on starting his own social media site to go head to head with the likes of Twitter and Facebook.

  • Centre asks Twitter & other SNS to delete posts critical of India’s Covid response

    Centre asks Twitter & other SNS to delete posts critical of India’s Covid response

    NEW DELHI: Twitter and other social media platforms have removed about 100 posts and URLs after the Indian government asked them to remove content that was critical of its handling of the current Covid2019 crisis or spreading fake news around the pandemic.

    Twitter said it has notified the impacted account holders of its action taken in response to a legal request from the Centre, while Facebook did not comment on the issue. According to media reports, the microblogging site censored tweets from a member of parliament, an actor, a former journalist, and West Bengal’s minister of labour and law on the government’s behest. It wasn’t immediately known what the removed posts were.

    The action comes after the ministry of information and technology, on the recommendation of the ministry of home affairs, asked social media platforms to remove the posts and URLs to “prevent obstructions in the fight against the pandemic” and disruption of public order due to the said posts.

    They added that the order was issued in view of the misuse of social media platforms by certain users to spread fake or misleading information and create panic about the pandemic in the society “by using unrelated, old and out of the context images or visuals, communally sensitive posts and misinformation about Covid protocols”.      

    Twitter removed or restricted access to more than 50 posts in the past one month at the behest of the government, including tweets that criticised its handling of the pandemic. Other posts removed showed pictures and videos of a recent Maoist attack in Chhattisgarh.       

    A Twitter spokesperson said when it receives a valid legal request, it reviews it under both Twitter Rules and local law.

    “If the content violates Twitter’s Rules, the content will be removed from the service. If it is determined to be illegal in a particular jurisdiction, but not in violation of the Twitter Rules, we may withhold access to the content in India only. The legal requests that we receive are detailed in the biannual Twitter Transparency Report, and requests to withhold content are published on Lumen,” the spokesperson said.

    Earlier this year, more than 500 accounts were suspended and access to hundreds of others in India blocked after the government ordered the microblogging platform to restrain the spread of misinformation and inflammatory content related to farmers’ protests.

    India is currently dealing with one of the worst Covid2019 outbreaks globally. On Sunday, the number of new Covid infections touched 3,49,691 cases and 2,767 fatalities, according to the Union health ministry data. 

  • Twitter APAC VP Maya Hari lands global role

    Twitter APAC VP Maya Hari lands global role

    NEW DELHI: Twitter Asia Pacific vice president & MD Maya Hari has been assigned a new global role as VP of global strategy and operations. She will continue to be based in Singapore, and will lead a global team.

    Hari’s commercial role will encompass product strategy, operations, innovation and automation to enable commercial and content partnerships efforts around the world. She has been leading Twitter's APAC business, excluding Japan and South Korea, for the past four years. Prior to this, she was managing director of southeast Asia and India and a senior director of product strategy and sales.

    "In my new role, I am excited to work with him and our other international leaders to grow our businesses around the world and find new opportunities for Twitter to serve the global public conversation,” she said in a statement to the press.

     

     

    Hari has been with Twitter for seven years. She previously spent more than 15 years in the digital media, mobile and ecommerce industries across the US and in Asia Pacific for brands such as Samsung, Google, Microsoft and Cisco.

    Twitter has also elevated Yu Sasamoto to head its unified regional structure that brings the microblogging site’s Japan, South Korea and Asia Pacific operations together. Sasamoto has been leading the social network's Japan and South Korea offices for the past seven years. He will take up leadership of the unified JAPAC region from 1 May, and is set to move to Twitter's APAC headquarters in Singapore. He will continue to serve as the general manager of Twitter Japan and head of Twitter Client Solutions in Japan until his successor is hired in Tokyo. The JAPAC region will cover Australia, greater China, Japan, India, New Zealand, southeast Asia and South Korea.

    Hari commented: "We are delighted that Yu-san will be stepping into this expanded role—it is a testament to everything he's achieved at Twitter to date, leading Japan to become among our largest revenue markets globally."

  • Twitter introduces new features for more interactive Cricket Season

    Twitter introduces new features for more interactive Cricket Season

    KOLKATA: Microblogging site Twitter has added a couple of new features to create a more interactive experience for the platform’s users this cricket season for. Among the new features, Spaces, the social media giant’s new Clubhouse like feature, has generated a great deal of buzz among Tweeple.

    With cricket being such a huge passion point on Twitter, teams have already started making the most of Spaces to connect with and engage fans on the service. Mumbai Indians (@mipaltan) recently hosted a Twitter Space with Zaheer Khan (@ImZaheer) – #TwitterSpaceWithZak – becoming the first sports club in the country to do so. The Space had Zaheer interacting with fans and sharing plans for the upcoming season.

    Twitter has launched eight new jersey emojis for all the teams in English and six Indic languages. Fans can simply tweet with the team hashtags to unlock these emojis and participate in live conversations. Here are some of the hashtags that will unlock the team emojis: #IPL2021, #MumbaiIndians, #OneFamily, #WhistlePodu, #விசில்போடு, #WeAreChallengers, #HallaBol, #RoyalsFamily, #PunjabKings, #SaddaPunjab, #KKRHaiTaiyaar, #KorboLorboJeetbo, #YehHaiNayiDilli, #OrangeArmy, and more.

    Topics allow people to follow conversations on specific subjects. Using machine learning, Topics pull out related tweets on a subject, letting people follow numerous interest categories. When you follow a Topic, you will see tweets from a number of accounts – whether you follow them or not – on the shared interest. Last year, Twitter introduced several Topics for cricket – one for the series and several others for all of the teams – so people can stay up-to-date with all conversations around cricket.

    Additionally, there are Twitter Lists – a compilation of Twitter accounts, which lets people put together their favourite accounts to follow for tweets on a specific subject and populate a separate timeline for the List.

    Mumbai Indians and Delhi Capitals will be hosting live shows to bring fans closer together. The shows will involve commentary and watching the game virtually along with a select group of fans every match day. Whereas, ESPN Cricinfo (@CricinfoHindi) will be sharing Hindi videos this season from their new Hindi handle.

  • Twitter to spotlight the best cricket campaigns with League of Brands

    Twitter to spotlight the best cricket campaigns with League of Brands

    KOLKATA: With the commencement of the Indian Premier League (IPL 2021), microblogging site Twitter is kick-starting League of Brands on 9 April. It will highlight outstanding cricket campaigns by brands on the service throughout the upcoming season. Powered by Twitter data, League of Brands will recognise six star campaigns by brands as they take to Twitter to keep their audiences engaged in the midst of the cricket-fueled adrenaline.

    League of Brands, utilising Twitter’s Branded Notifications feature, will also let people opt-in for alerts on the latest cricket ads across the season, simply by liking the tweet from @TwitterMktgIN.

    Every cricket season, Twitter turns into a virtual playground with fans starting and joining conversations around their favourite match moments. With the service’s ability to amplify moments in real-time and create ripples across timelines, brands across the spectrum take to the service, utilising the package of its conversational nature, a range of customisable ad-offerings, as well as, its receptive audience to deliver some noteworthy engagement campaigns.

    For League of Brands, Twitter Next – the brand strategy team at Twitter, and Twitter marketing India (@TwitterMktgIN) will screen through campaigns and place the spotlight on the brands that stand out of the crowd. Brands and campaigns will be recognised across six categories –

    ●       The All-Star: The brand to drive the highest volume of conversations on Twitter throughout the season.

    ●       The Sixer: The brand to garner the most Retweets on a single campaign Tweet from the brand’s handle.

    ●       The Doosra: The brand without a national TV spot to drive the largest overall conversation.

    ●       The Most Creative Play: The brand that makes the best use of Twitter to break through the clutter, beyond promoted Tweets and video.

    ●       The Fan Favourite: The brand to drive strongest positive sentiment for a campaign.

    ●       The (re)Play of the Game: The brand with the most engagements on a single video Tweet from the brand’s handle. 

    This time the most-talked about brands on the service would be the real game-winners.

  • Will IPL 2021 prove to be a brand marketer’s delight?

    Will IPL 2021 prove to be a brand marketer’s delight?

    NEW DELHI: The countdown has begun for one of the biggest cricketing events – the 14th edition of Vivo IPL 2021. The sporting extravaganza will return home after two years following a stellar show in the United Arab Emirates last November.

    The season is all set to kickstart on 9 April in Chennai with a high octane clash between defending champions Mumbai Indians and Royal Challengers Bangalore. But once again, all the matches will be played in empty stadiums, with no enthusiastic fans to cheer their favourite teams. The second wave of Covid2019 continues to pose a challenge, as the league recovers from a pandemic-hit 2020.

    However, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) said it is confident of hosting the IPL at home with the health and safety of players and all people involved being paramount. How will this arrangement pan out for the brands and advertisers, who have pinned high hopes on the league? Will there be an impact on TV viewership, with restrictions eased across most parts of the country and people back in offices? Will IPL 2021 be able to sustain the momentum it built last year?

    Some of these questions will take center stage at IPL 2021: Brand marketers' delight? – a virtual roundtable to be hosted by Indiantelevision.com today. An esteemed panel of representatives from media and advertising agencies will deliberate upon the potential power of the league and the opportunities it holds for brands and the M&E industry, as it looks to make a comeback on its home ground.

    The panel will comprise of Mediacom national buying head Srinivas Rao, Byju’s head of marketing Atit Mehta, dentsu India chief executive officer Anand Bhadkamkar, Initiative (IPG Mediabrands) south head & vice president Priya Iyer, and Indiantelevision.com’s founder, CEO & editor-in-chief Anil Wanvari.

    The virtual roundtable will begin at 3:30 pm on 7 April and will be live-streamed on YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter. Join us for stimulating conversations and interesting insights on the potential power of the IPL as it returns with its 14th edition.

  • Twitter boss Jack Dorsey’s first tweet auctioned for $2.9 mn

    Twitter boss Jack Dorsey’s first tweet auctioned for $2.9 mn

    NEW DELHI: Priceless paintings, coveted jewels, hallowed memorabilia have come under the hammer often enough to become passe. It would seem that it’s the intangible things that hold value – a tweet, for example. But it’s no ordinary tweet.

    Twitter founder & CEO Jack Dorsey’s first ever tweet has been sold for upwards of $2.9 million. The virtual missive, which said "just setting up my twttr," was first published on 21 March 2006 and was auctioned off by Dorsey for charity.

    Sold to technology firm Bridge Oracle chief executive Sina Estavi, it was delivered to him as a non-fungible token, or NFT — a digital certificate of authenticity that confirms an item is real and one of a kind by recording the details on a blockchain digital ledger. Malaysia-based Estavi compared the purchase of the digital version of the tweet to buying a Mona Lisa painting.

     

     

    The Twitter boss tweeted the Bitcoin receipt of the proceeds from the auction on Monday, and said the funds were sent to the charity, Give Directly's Africa Response fund.

    According to Valuables, 95 per cent of the proceeds from the sale price go to the tweet's original creator while five per cent go to the platform.

    NFTs have recently swept the online collecting world. A digital artwork by artist Beeple sold for $69.4 million in an online auction by a British auction house earlier this month, with an NFT as a guarantee of its authenticity.

  • Bombay Begums: NCPCR asks Netflix to snip ‘objectionable’ scenes

    Bombay Begums: NCPCR asks Netflix to snip ‘objectionable’ scenes

    NEW DELHI: The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) has issued an order asking Netflix to immediately remove specific scenes involving minors which are cited to be objectionable from the Bombay Begums series and asked it to stop streaming the series until then, the Times of India has reported.

    It has also sought an action taken report within the next three days.

    According to the report, the child rights body has also directed Mumbai police commissioner to take action with regards to the content in the series cited in the order and report back within a week. NCPCR has also given Netflix time till 18 March to reply.

    The order was passed following a meeting of Netflix officials with NCPCR to discuss the issues pertaining to representing and portrayal of children in the series Bombay Begums.

    “After detailed deliberations, the commission is of the view that these particular scenes are in violation of relevant sections of JJ Act, 2015, POCSO Act 2012 and IPC, 1860 as minor children were used in these scenes. Therefore, Netflix is directed to immediately remove these scenes from the series and meanwhile till the time they come to any decision in this regard, they shall stop the streaming of this series on their platform,” Kanoongo asserts in the order, according to the TOI report.

    As reported earlier, the NCPCR had issued a notice to OTT platform Netflix to stop streaming Bombay Begums. According to the notice, the commission received complaints from two Twitter handles regarding the Netflix original. The objections have been raised in regards to a scene where a 13-year-old girl is seen “snorting cocaine” at a party, as well as another plot point dealing with school girls sending nude selfies to members of the opposite sex.

    NCPCR had stated that the series with this type of content will pollute young minds and may result in abuse and exploitation of children at the hands of perpetrators and offenders and it does not allow representing, portraying, glorifying children in India in such manner on any platform including streaming services.

    Bombay Begums, written and directed by Alankrita Shrivastava, started streaming on 8 March and revolves around five women whose lives are interconnected.

    The action comes days after Netflix’s arch rival Amazon Prime Video issued an apology for its series Tandav in the wake of widespread furore over the depiction of Hindu deities.

    Meanwhile, the government has also notified new rules to better monitor and regulate the content on new age entertainment platforms consisting of a three-tier redressal mechanism. 

  • Twitter launches multilingual initiatives ahead of assembly polls 2021

    Twitter launches multilingual initiatives ahead of assembly polls 2021

    KOLKATA: With the #AssemblyElections2021 taking place in Assam, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, and Puducherry, Twitter has unveiled a series of initiatives focused on encouraging informed and healthy conversations between candidates, political parties, citizens, media, and society.  

    The initiatives include an information search prompt with the Election Commission of India (@ECISVEEP) and state election commissions to provide reliable information around the elections; a custom emoji to encourage participation; a series of pre-bunks and de-bunks to tackle election-related misinformation; and a youth discussion series titled #DemocracyAdda aimed at voter literacy and civic participation among young Indians for the #AssemblyElections2021. These will be activated across six languages including English, Hindi, Tamil, Bengali, Assamese and Malayalam, in order to cater to audiences across India. Additionally, to put a spotlight on women in Indian politics, the service will be bringing back #HerPoliticalJourney, a video series where  women political leaders talk about their personal stories  with leading women news journalists.

    Twitter India public policy & government manager Payal Kamat said, "Public conversation is critical during elections, and Twitter is where this unfolds. With digital penetration accelerating in India, more people now have access to credible, authoritative and timely information – crucial tools for exercising their civic rights. By leveraging the power of the Open Internet, we are encouraging people across India to be a part of the #AssemblyElections2021 conversation. None of this would be possible without support from the Election Commission of India, the State Election Commissions, and hope our efforts contribute to healthy and vibrant civic dialogue.”

    Election information prompt

    Twitter’s new information search prompt  will make it easy to find credible and authoritative information about candidate lists, voting dates, polling booths, and EVM voter registration, among other election-related topics. 

    The ‘Election information prompt’ will be active in six languages including Bengali, Tamil, Malayalam, Assamese, Hindi, and English, supporting more than 20 hashtags. Some of the hashtags include: #विधानसभाचुनाव2021, #বাংলার ভোট 2021, #കേരളാതെരഞ്ഞെടുപ്പ്2021, #অসমনিৰ্বাচন২০২১, #தமிழ்நாடுதேர்தல்2021, #புதுச்சேரிவாக்கெடுப்பு2021

    Custom emoji 

    Twitter has launched a custom emoji for the #AssemblyElections2021 to stimulate participation in election-related discussions. Featuring an inked finger to represent a citizen who has exercised their right to vote, the emoji is available now until 10 May 2021. People can Tweet in English, Hindi, Bengali, Malayalam, Assamese and Tamil to activate the emoji. 

    Pre-Bunks and De-Bunks

    Staying ahead of potentially misleading information about how and where to vote, Twitter is publishing a series of pre-bunk prompts across languages including English, Hindi, Tamil and Bengali based on content by the national and state election commissions and civil society partners such as Youth Ki Awaz, Association of Democratic Reforms. The prompts will appear on people’s home timelines and in Search, including information about how to register to vote, and details on EVMs and VVPATs. The prompts will also serve the public with relevant voting information about booths, postal ballots, Covid2019 restrictions and accessibility, among other topics. Additionally, the service will focus on de-bunking critical issues as they arise with a curated Twitter Moment. These Moments are created based on high standards of accuracy, impartiality and fairness and are designed to feature compelling, original, and diverse content.

    #DemocracyAdda 

    With the youth of the nation engaging in high quality discussions on the service, Twitter, in partnership with Youth Ki Awaaz (@YouthKiAwaaz), is bringing back its multilingual youth discussion series #DemocracyAdda, aimed at voter literacy and civic participation among young Indians for #AssemblyElections2021. The series will be available in English, Hindi, Tamil, Malayalam and Bengali. Twitter will be hosting live video sessions and Tweet chats with young citizens, civil society groups, changemakers and representative candidates to talk about key issues including gender equality, employment, education, health, among others. 

    #HerPoliticalJourney

    While women leaders are making their presence felt in Indian politics, election coverage continues to be largely male-dominated. With this in mind, Twitter is launching the second season of #HerPoliticalJourney, a video series to put the spotlight on women in Indian politics and their personal stories of challenges and triumph. The series aims to raise awareness about the systemic challenges women face when pursuing political careers. The series will feature women leaders such in conversation with leading women news journalists. The videos will be recorded in English, Tamil, Bengali, Malayalam and Assamese.