by Elton Gomes
Social media platform Twitter Tuesday announced that it has formed more than 50 premium video content partnerships in the Asia Pacific region. Out of these 50, Twitter has formed 12 collaborations with Indian partners for live streaming and video highlights programming in sports, entertainment, and news. Among the Indian partners, Twitter has signed on Shah Rukh Khans production house Red Chillies Entertainment, Viacom18s music platform Vh1 Supersonic, Comic Con India, Network 18, NDTV news, Filmfare and cricket app CricBuzz, Live Mint reported.
Twitter fans will be over the moon as these collaborations will bring in hundreds of hours of live stream and video highlight programming across sports, entertainment, and news to the platform, Twitter said in a statement. “Content is happening now at Twitter, and we have proven through the efficacy of the partnerships we have crafted, that content programming and distribution on Twitter is an essential part of any media company’s audience engagement and content monetisation strategies,” Kay Madati, global vice president of content partnerships at Twitter, said in a statement, the Economic Times reported.
Twitter teams up with AOL to distribute original video
By partnering with Indian content companies, Twitter looks to expand its video content. In April 2017, AOL UK said it would be distributing its original video content commercially via Twitter, in an attempt to make its video advertising business as big as TV. The partnership meant that advertisers would be able to sponsor or run pre-roll ads across AOLs original video content in the UK, and then retarget those audiences on Twitter. Advertisers would also be able to choose categories of video content to run ads next to content on Twitter, while the micro blogging site would insert their ads into relevant AOL original video content.
Advertising via social media platforms
Video consumption has been witnessing a sea change around the world. Empowered by on-the-go accessibility, a greater control over viewing experience, and a variety of shows to choose from, digital-savvy audiences are tending to choose online content platforms over traditional viewing platforms. This is why advertisers have turned to social media sites to market their products.
More importantly, marketers have set their sights on mobile platforms to merge social media and marketing. It has been estimated that by 2020, there will be close to 6.2 billion smartphones in the world, and the number of users on social media platforms will continue to skyrocket. Throughout 2017, live video content continued to have a strong presence on social media. And the trend does not seem to stop anytime soon which is why Twitters decision to form partnerships with Indian content developers is sure to help the company in the long run.
Elton Gomes is a staff writer at Qrius