Twitter Inc. has acquired Indian firm ZipDial Mobile Solutions Pvt (ZipDial) for a figure believed to be $30 million.

Rumors that acquisition talks were taking place first surfaced January 14th. 

Described by Twitter as “a product partner based in Bangalore, India” the company offers a mobile platform that lets people follow and engage with content across different interfaces including SMS, voice, mobile web, and apps “to bridge users from offline to online.”

ZipDial targets developing countries such as Brazil, Indonesia and its own native India where the cost of data limited people from experiencing the full internet experience. Twitter said in a blog post that with this acquisition it will be able to bring make “content more accessible to everyone.”

Twitter describes how one aspect of ZipDail’s platform works:

…through ZipDial, it’s easy to engage with a publisher or brand by making a toll-free “missed call” to a designated phone number. The caller will then begin receiving inbound content and further engagement on their phone in real time through voice, SMS or an app notification. These interactions are especially appealing in areas where people aren’t always connected to data or only access data through intermittent wifi networks.

Of note ZipDial also provides services to other companies, including Facebook Inc.; it’s not clear if the acquisition will see ZipDial continuing services for third parties or whether it will work exclusively with Twitter.

Founded in March 2010 Zipdial counts Jungle Ventures, 500 Startups, Times Internet and
Mumbai Angels among its investors.

Twitter concluded by saying that the acquisition significantly increases their investment in India, as well as delivering them a new engineering office in Bangalore.

photo credit: mkhmarketing via photopin cc