Twitter’s acquisition of Zipdial means it’s going after more users in emerging nations

Twitter acquired Indian startup Zipdial earlier today, signaling that the social network is doubling down on the fast changing Indian market. But the ramifications of the buy-out don’t stop there.

What Zipdial does is give companies a way to engage with people without forcing consumers to make calls, send SMS, or go online. All people have to do is send a missed call to a specific number belonging to a brand or service, and that subscribes the individual to relevant updates. It’s a little bit like Twitter, except it works mostly offline.

And now that Twitter owns Zipdial, that way of operating will be used by the social network in India and a lot more countries. “It can drive growth in other similar emerging markets, like Indonesia or Brazil,” says Rishi Jaitly, Twitter’s market director for India and Southeast Asia. While there are no specific plans yet, Jaitly explains to Tech in Asia that Zipdial has experience across Southeast Asia and Africa, so the know-how is ready to roll.

Thrilled to announce @zipdial is joining the flock! https://t.co/5qwLxWar1T Ambition: Make @twitter even more accessible in emerging markets

— Valerie R. Wagoner (@valwagoner) January 20, 2015

.@valwagoner, you've been an amazing partner for two years. Pinching myself that we now share a mission. Welcome to Twitter!

— Rishi Jaitly (@rsjaitly) January 20, 2015

Twitter has 284 million monthly active users in its latest data for Q3 2014, but the company is under pressure because growth has slowed. The solution to the slowdown might be to emulate what Facebook is doing and pay more attention to developing nations, which means making the social network more accessible to people without smartphones, or who use very little mobile data each month.

No internet required