Twitter is primed to become even chattier with the company’s acquisition of ZipDial, a move that will make the social service accessible to more people around the world. The deal is said to be in the range of $30 million.
A product partner based in Bangalore, India, ZipDial offers a mobile platform that allows people with only intermittent Internet access to engage on Twitter. Christian Oestlien, VP of Product for Twitter, explains the technicalities in a recent blog post:
“For example, through ZipDial, it’s easy to engage with a publisher or brand by making a toll-free ‘missed call’ to a designated phone number. The caller will then begin receiving inbound content and further engagement on their phone in real time through voice, SMS or an app notification.”
When it comes to increasing Web accessibility, the Twitter ZipDial acquisition is akin to the Facebook WhatsApp acquisition. Last February, Facebook snagged the messaging company for $19 billion in order to secure users in areas around the globe where cell phone Internet access is more widespread than desktop.
As social media companies trend toward full market saturation in the developed world, they turn their eye toward the developing one. The Internet that today’s emerging markets encounter will be far more social than the Web frontiers of the past.
Photo by Tsahi Levent-Levi
