Mumbai: Video consumption is driving growth in digital platforms and this will continue to grow, unless audio/voice takes over this growth, stated Manish Maheshwari as Managing Director, Twitter India. He was speaking at the Digital Marketing Seminar held in IMC.
Addressing a group of industry experts and students, Maheshwari said, “People are engaging with video format a lot more than ever before. Video is driving growth.”
He strongly believes that voice format also has the potential to grow but there has not been any case that has been able to make the breakthrough yet. “Voice cases will come up,” he added.
In the case of Twitter India, more than English, it is vernacular languages that have taken the lead. “Non-English tweets in more than 50 per cent of English tweets.
We crossed this (benchmark) in November 2019.” He also revealed that there will be a 35 per cent rise in growth rate of internet users in rural areas. Thus, an increase in tweets in vernacular languages is obvious.
He went on to add, local authorities and influencers are using platforms like Twitter much more. Former CEO of Network18 Digital stressed that the next three-four years will be exciting for digital.
By 2024, it is estimated that there will be around 1,100 million smartphone users in India. By 2024, Maheshwari stressed, per smartphone user will consume 18 GB of data per month.
Commenting on Twitter trends, Maheshwari revealed that news is changing completely. “News publishing sites are breaking news on Twitter before they break it on their respective platforms.”
Addressing the marketing professionals, Maheshwari stated, brands have to embrace expression, culture and purpose before connecting with the tweeple. “The most valuable audience is on Twitter, when they are most receptive.” He added that brands have been using Twitter mostly for new products.