iWorld
Twitter to simplify its 140 character rule
MUMBAI: Twitter is to simplify Tweets in the coming months, making it faster and easier for people to express themselves with more room in their 140-character Tweets. Media attachments, such as photos and videos, will no longer count toward the character limit; @names in reply to Tweets will be removed from the count; and people will now be able to Retweet and Quote Tweet themselves, enabling them to resurface any of their previous Tweets and add new commentary. In addition, any new Tweet beginning with an @name will be seen by all followers.
“One of the biggest priorities for this year is to refine our product and make it simpler,” said Twitter CEO and cofounder. Jack Dorsey. “We’re focused on making Twitter a whole lot easier and faster. This is what Twitter is great at – what’s happening now, live conversation and the simplicity that we started the service with.”
“We’re not giving up on the idea of Twitter being in the moment. That concept of brevity, speed and live conversation – being able to think of something and put it out to the world instantly – that’s what’s most important,” added Dorsey. “We’re always going to look for opportunities to make Tweets a lot more expressive, and enable people to say what they want to say. As long as things are fast, easy, simple and expressive, we’re going to look at what we can do to make Twitter a better experience.”
Earlier this year, Twitter announced changes to its timeline, enabling people to get back to live as quickly as possible while still making sure they didn’t miss important Tweets while they were away. The reaction to the enhanced timeline has been positive with less than two percent of people opting out, and has increased engagement from people on Twitter with significantly more Tweets, Retweets, Replies and Likes.
Additionally, improvements were made this year to the process of signing up new people on Twitter, helping them find new accounts by topic, location and people. This new on-boarding flow has resulted in dramatic increases in Follows, up 48 percent, and Mutual Follows, up 56 percent, on average across both iOS and Android OS. Mutual Follows are important because it’s two people who recognize each other, talk to each other and give each other feedback. That’s critical for new engagement and usage.
Broadband
Excitel Broadband names Varun Pasricha as chief executive officer
Former COO steps up to lead broadband firm’s next growth chapter
MUMBAI: Excitel Broadband has elevated its chief operating officer, Varun Pasricha, to the role of chief executive officer, handing the reins to a leader who has already spent nearly eight years shaping the company’s rise.
Pasricha joined Excitel in August 2018 and has since been instrumental in building what he describes as “the most loved broadband brand in the country”. Now, as chief executive officer, he is expected to steer the internet service provider through its next phase of expansion in an increasingly competitive home broadband market.
Before his tenure at Excitel, Pasricha held senior leadership roles at Zomato, where he led sales transformation and served as business head for partner growth across India and the UAE. He oversaw the shift in the company’s advertising model from fixed ad slots to performance driven engagement, migrating more than 7,000 paying clients globally while delivering a 20 per cent upsell on the portfolio.
Earlier, at G4S India, he was senior vice president for strategic business, managing a profit and loss portfolio exceeding Rs 1,000 crore. Over two years, he grew the business by around 50 per cent while improving margins through contract renegotiations and cross selling. He also worked closely with the leadership team as vice president for strategic projects, focusing on corporate strategy, restructuring, and new business launches, including entry into last mile logistics.
His career spans strategy and operations across sectors. At Max Healthcare, he was senior manager for business strategy, working on planning and joint venture rollouts in tier II cities. He co-founded Edventure Online, an education advisory venture aimed at helping students make informed career choices. At Indus Towers, he served as senior business manager in the central strategy team, helping convert the energy vertical from a cost centre into a profit engine.
Pasricha began his career at McKinsey & Company as an analyst, building the consulting toolkit that would underpin his later operating roles.
With a résumé that blends boardroom strategy and frontline execution, Pasricha’s appointment signals continuity with ambition. For Excitel, the message is clear: the company is betting on a leader who already knows where the cables run and where the next connections must be made.
