Twitter has reportedly acquired India-based mobile phone marketing start-up ZipDial for an undisclosed amount.
While the financial details of the deal remains undisclosed, it is expected that the deal would have cost Twitter around $30 to $40 million.
Announcing the deal, Christian Oestlien, vice president (product) at Twitter said “Over the next several years, billions of people will come online for the first time in countries like Brazil, India and Indonesia. For many, their first online experience will be on a mobile device – but the cost of data may prevent them from experiencing the true power of the Internet. Twitter, in partnership with ZipDial, can make great content more accessible to everyone.”
Founded in 2010 by Valerie Wagoner (CEO), Amiya Pathak (COO) and Sanjay Swamy (chairman and investor), the cloud-based mobile and analytics platform, ZipDial, enabled companies to reach their target audience through ‘missed calls.
People using the service are required to give a missed call to a toll-free number to start receiving content like SMS messages, voice calls or app notifications from brands or their favorite celebrities or organizations.
International Business Machines Corp, Yum! Brands Inc’s KFC and Procter & Gamble Co ‘s Gillette are some of the start-up’s big clients.
“More than half of the world’s population live in emerging and newly developed markets and these consumers use their mobile phones differently. We build for them. ZipDial’s innovative platform has already scaled across South Asia, Southeast Asia and Africa, where we operate. We are thrilled to expand our impact to a global level with Twitter,” said Valerie Wagoner, Founder and CEO, ZipDial.
Twitter said the acquisition of ZipDial will significantly boost the company’s investment in India and will add a new engineering office in Bangalore.
