iWorld
Twitter makes first acquisition in India with Zip Dial
MUMBAI: Twitter India has acquired the Indian marketing start up Zip Dial, in order to make the micro blogging site more accessible to people in India and around the world. This is Twitter’s first acquisition in India and is pegged close to $30-$35 million. ZipDial was co-founded by Valerie Wagoner, Amiya Pathak and Sanjay Swamy.
Making the announcement on the micro-blogging site, Twitter India and Southeast Asia market director Rishi Jaitly said, “On behalf of our India operations, I’m delighted to welcome Zip Dial’s leadership, employees and a new office in Bangalore to the spirited team that is Twitter India.”
With the new deal in the kitty, Jaitly added that their primary mission was to reach out to every Indian with a mobile device in order to facilitate a relevant Twitter experience. “We believe Twitter – a platform invented for SMS and rich in media – is a perfect match for India, a mobile-first country with a celebrated media heritage,” he said.
Twitter and Zip Dial already have a history of getting content to Indians. In recent times Bollywood actors like Shah Rukh Khan, Amitabh Bachchan and Rajinikanth have partnered with Twitter and Zip Dial to allow users to follow these celebrities by making a toll-free “missed call” to a designated phone number. Callers then started receiving inbound content on their phone in real time through voice, SMS or an app notification.
During last year’s general elections, the two national political parties, Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) and Indian National Congress (INC) worked in tandem with both the partners to make their accounts accessible to all users in India on any phone, on any network and in any language.
Jaitly concluded by saying that with the Cricket World Cup around the corner and more Indian icons joining the platform every day, 2015 promises to be another big year for Twitter in India.
iWorld
JioStar revenue hits Rs 9,784 crore as cricket fuels 22 per cent growth
A surge in digital viewership and sports dominance fuels a blockbuster quarter for the media giant
MUMBAI: JioStar is batting on a flat pitch. The media titan’s fourth-quarter results for the financial year 2026 reveal a business scaling new heights, propelled by an unprecedented appetite for premium sports and digital-first storytelling.
Gross revenue for the quarter soared by 22.15 per cent to Rs 9,784 crore, up from Rs 8,010 crore in the third quarter. Operationally, the momentum was equally strong; revenue from operations climbed 21 per cent to Rs 8,372 crore. These figures underscore the firm’s successful integration following the Reliance and Disney merger, creating a dominant force in the Indian market.
The annual performance has been nothing short of a spectacle. Full-year gross revenue reached a massive Rs 36,248 crore, while annual profit after tax hit Rs 3,210 crore. This rapid expansion reflects JioStar’s ability to capture and monetise the massive growth in India’s media consumption.
Cricket proved to be the ultimate growth engine. The ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2026 and TATA IPL 2026 delivered “record-breaking viewership” across both television and digital screens. The World Cup final alone drew a global peak concurrency of 72.5 million on JioHotstar, cementing its status as the nation’s premier streaming destination. On television, JioStar maintained a commanding 34.2 per cent viewership share, reaching a staggering 810 million viewers nationwide.
The digital numbers were just as impressive. JioHotstar averaged 500 million monthly active users, driven by consistent subscriber growth and innovative AI-led content discovery tools. These advancements are ensuring that JioStar remains at the cutting edge of the global “Race for Attention.”
With a firm grip on the country’s most valuable sporting rights and a rapidly growing digital footprint, JioStar is perfectly positioned for the future. It has built the ultimate content powerhouse—one that is ready to dominate the Indian living room for years to come.
