Twitter India Posts 14% Decline In Revenues In FY18

Twitter Communications India has announced a 14% decline in its revenues for fiscal year ending March 2018. According to company filings with the Registrar of Companies, the company earned a revenue of INR 43 Cr in FY18 compared to INR 50 Cr in the previous financial year.

This indicates that Twitter India is further losing its market share in the Indian ecosystem, as the advertisers continue to prefer other social media platforms such as Facebook, Google and LinkedIn.

According to analysts, it is difficult to keep up with the fast-paced, real-time nature of the Twitter platform, which requires an advertiser to post several times in a day, for some decent traction.

A Twitter spokesperson told ET that it does not provide sales revenue breakdown by country.

“Operating revenue refers to the service fee income of Twitter Communications India Private Limited. The services performed include marketing support, business planning assistance and related auxiliary services to build, maintain and expand the Internet user community and potential advertisers in India and support research and development assignments, programs and projects for Twitter group companies,” the spokesperson added.

To be noted, amid massive restructuring in 2016, its CEO Jack Dorsey was said to have de-prioritised India as a market, despite being at a peak in 2013-2014. The decision was taken in order to prevent global revenue growth from stagnating.

Twitter is now looking to hire a country director to head its operations in India. Former Twitter India head Taranjeet Singh had resigned from his post in September. Apparently, his exit from the platform was said to be due to weak advertising revenue for nearly three and a half years.

There are 30-33 Mn monthly active Twitter users in India at present. In comparison, WhatsApp claimed to have nearly 200 Mn users in India, and Facebook India had claimed the first place with 270 Mn users in 2018.

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