On September 2, Twitter India hosted the South Indian Press Briefing – a one-of-a-kind virtual conference. It aimed to discuss how the social media platform has localized its content for its audience in South India and how that audience has dominated Twitter’s timeline, especially when conversations revolve around topics such as entertainment and sports.

In response to such deep engagement from their Tamil, Telugu and Kannada audiences, Twitter has undertaken several initiatives in the recent past, such as #OnlyOnTwitter activations and the launch of Tamil “topics”. But why is Twitter in India getting so much engagement from its South Indian audience?

According to Cheryl-Ann Couto, Head of Partners at Twitter India, the biggest southern entertainment powerhouse on Twitter is fandom. On Twitter, fans lead daily conversations around the biggest blockbuster movies and engage with public figures. They play a crucial role in shaping the culture and driving the conversations on the platform. Twitter’s recently launched Trends Report revealed a 47% increase in discussions among Indians around fandoms over the past two years.

One of the most discussed initiatives at the conference was #OnlyOnTwitter, which aims to bring South India’s entertainment industry closer to its audience. One of the ways Twitter is trying to achieve its goal is to curate “immersive and exclusive content” that allows entertainment companies and public figures to tell their stories compellingly and improve engagement with their fans. on the platform. For example, through a partnership called #FirstOnTwitter, the creators of the Vijay Devarakonda-starrer liger recently unveiled the promo for the long-awaited song Aafat, exclusively on Twitter.

The other important feature of the platform discussed was Twitter topics. First introduced in 2019, Twitter Topics is a Twitter setting that allows users to pick and follow trends from a range of topics they find interesting. In July, Twitter India launched Tamil ‘Topics’, which was available for Android, iOS and web users who set Tamil as their primary language. It allowed users to select and customize the content they wanted to see on their home timeline, which ranged from tweets about artists like AR Rahman, Rajinikanth and Vijay to tweets about sports teams like Chennai Super Kings. Speaking about how Twitter has fostered the growth of fandoms for South Indian actors, Samantha Prabhu FC Co-Admin, Sravanti Vedula said, “We have built a very meaningful relationship with Sam (Samantha) on the personal level, all thanks to Twitter! She is a beautiful soul, and the love we receive from her pushes us to strive a little harder every day to show our love and support through quality and responsible content and publications, bringing together thousands of her fans as a community.

In an exclusive interview with Indulge, Cheryl was asked about the tools Twitter then offers to cater to its South Indian audience. She said, “In terms of Twitter features, we continue to innovate on our audio products, which appeal to South Indian audiences, to make the listening experience as seamless and hassle-free as possible for everyone. world. As part of our goal to make Twitter the home of audio, we recently launched an experience that features an all-new, redesigned Spaces tab that integrates podcasts and gives users a more personalized listening experience through new audio hubs specially designed for them.