Mar 2010 “What thing is this twitter !” India, March 6, 2010
Just came across a great posting on Cap Gemini’s Technology blog by Gaurav Sharma. Yes, Twitter is catching in India and yes this post looks exactly like how it caught in the UK and the US. Ironically, mainstream celebrity driving mainstream media to build digital properties. It is right out of the Integration Triangle.
Love the writing and love globalization. Ye twitter kya cheej hai!
Ye twitter kya cheej hai! What thing is this twitter !
During a recent backpacking trip in Indian hinterland, one of the
evenings as I watched TV placed in corner of tea shop in a small town,
news of an acrimonious war of words between a famous Indian movie star
and a political party was playing on. News channel was reporting what
the star had to say on controversy, not through interview given to news
agency or channel but through tweets on his twitter account. As the
saga was unfolding on twitter the new channel was merely picking it up
and broadcasting. Someone seated nearby exclaimed “Ye twitter kya cheej
hai (what thing is this twitter)” . And this could have summarized
what many people in India have wondered for past few months. Twitter
has been in constant news. If it is not a political leader who is fast
building a reputation of getting into trouble in parliament because of
his tweets ,then it is news about what some Hindi movie star has posted
on his/her twitter account. In a way it is ironical that mainstream
media that had labeled twitter as flippant when it was gaining traction
with geeky crowd and early adopters, is now doing more for twitter’s
promotion.
The UK story:
The Telegraph’s article:Stephen Fry posts Twitter updates while trapped in lift
Analysis in a business article in The Independent and new media industry magazines like eConsultancy.
