Indian developers key to Twitter's Fabric: Global head Rich Paret

BENGALURU: Rich Paret is global head of developer platform at Twitter. Prior to joining Twitter, Paret was head of engineering at crash-reporting solution Crashlytics, which was acquired by Twitter. In an interview with TOI, Paret talks about how Twitter's mobile development platform Fabric is a one-stop solution for app developers. Over 225,000 developers are using it globally. Excerpts:

How is Twitter tapping into the Indian developer community?India is number two in terms of the size of the Android developer community in the world, and by 2018, it will be number one. By the sheer numbers and activity , India becomes very important and we are investing heavily in it. Fabric, which is Twitter's mobile development platform, helps developers to grow their businesses and so it's important for us to be here. There are a bunch of awesome startups here. We are helping them lower the cost of development and make them grow.Our Indian customers include Snapdeal, Zomato, Paytm, Mobikwik, and ICICI.

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Twitter's user base continues to stall. Has Fabric helped to improve Twitter's business?Fabric helps developers build a great app, and the real-time engagement with brands happens on Twitter. We recently launched a product that allows customers to send direct messages to businesses and brands. A recent SocialBakers report showed that 80% of conversations with brands happens on Twitter. We have made it easier for a customer to get the company's phone number through direct message. Companies can also connect directly to a customer with a query.

Post the Zipdial acquisition, how is Twitter collaborating with the engineering team in Bengaluru?Bengaluru is our Asia developer centre -- they are a great team doing a bunch of great work. I'm really excited that Twitter has invested in engineering. Of course, there are unique problems in India, like internet connectivity , but when we talk to the folks, the problems an Indian developer faces or a Palo Alto developer has are the same.

You ran a developer event called Flock last year. Any more in the offing?These events are conducted as part of our community building in India. Twitter in 2016 will be focused on developers.The focus is going to be on how they can use all the apps to make great businesses.Next month, we are going to conduct Hello World, a global developer tour in Bengaluru.These events will focus on several aspects of the Twitter Platform, including Fabric for mobile development and GNIP for data analysis.