Twitter, in a recent tweet, has confirmed the acquisition of India’s pioneering ‘missed call mobile marketing platform’ ZipDial. The online social networking giant seems to have coughed up somewhere between $30 million to $40 million to seize the deal.
The Bengaluru- based start-up ZipDial, which was already a working partner of Twitter, is into offering missed call services for user verification and alerts to its customers. It allows users to make a “missed call” to a particular brand, thereafter which the caller starts receiving inbound content and further information on their phone through voice, SMS or an app notification.
Close on the heels of the acquisition, Twitter Market Director (India and Southeast Asia) Rishi Jaitely informed one of the leading news agencies that India being one of the fastest growing countries, the company wishes to focus on growing its audience here and this acquisition will dramatically accelerate that strategy.
ZipDial’s marketing platform helps people access content for free. Such specialized services are especially useful in the developing world where people can’t afford to have expensive data plans.
The social networking giant, however, was not comfortable disclosing the exact price of the deal, nonetheless accepted that majority of ZipDial’s members will be joining them.
ZipDial and Twitter apparently share a similar mission of supplying information to people, with irregular internet connections, and that too quickly and simply. The services are especially designed for the developing world where smart phones and data plans are hard to come by. Even Facebook and Google are exploring ways to get in touch with those without Internet connection.
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