Twitter has partnered the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) to launch a cricket-focused timeline for its Android app. The new timeline feature will be available to Android Twitter app users in India during the ongoing India vs Sri Lanka ODI series.
Users will be prompted at the Twitter home screen to view the new timeline on match days. This timeline will comprise of tweets that follow conversations about the match, and tweets with the official series hashtag, letting fans across the country engage with each other. Interested users can directly find the timeline by searching for the hashtag #IndvsSL on Twitter. Tweets from @BCCI will also feature on timeline as an exclusive tab during live matches.
Twitter India market director Rishi Jaitly, hinted at additional #Cricket timeline experiences for the Twitter Android app soon. BCCI and Twitter had tied-up in the past when they launched the #ThankYouSachin campaign in November last year. The initiative had received a positive response after the hashtag crossed 3 million tweets in just 12 days.
Similarly, Extraaa Innings had started using a Tweet to Unlock and Twitter Mirror feature during its IPL broadcast on Sony Max and Six. The feature is similar to the promotions feature on Facebook, where content can be viewed only after ‘liking’ a page. The program also used Twitter’s video app Vine to upload short real-time clips on “making of the show”.
Twitter in India:
– Star Sports had partnered Twitter Amplify to find a larger audience for its content, with Vodafone India as a sponsor, in August this year. As a result of the partnership, users from India are shown clips from Start Sports in their timelines, even if they don’t follow Star Sports’ or Vodafone India’ accounts.
– The company had started testing its Promoted Video platform in its beta stage, in India the same month, aimed at advertisers and content creators looking to distribute video content through its platform. It also started testing a ‘Buy’ button feature that will allow users to discover products and offers and directly make purchases from within the Twitter app, in September.
– Just last month, Twitter has officially confirmed that it recently ran experiments that showed different types of content in user’s timeline including recommended tweets, accounts and topics and noted that it will continue to show suggested tweets to users, indicating that the feature is no longer an experiment, rather a standard feature on the site.
– Earlier this year, Times Internet’s restaurant listing service TimesCity started allowing users to book tables via Twitter. Users had to tweet @TimesCity with the restaurant, location, date/time and number of people along with the hashtag #TweetaTable, then send their phone number. Once the booking was confirmed, users would receive a message with all the details.
