Twitter India, which recently fired around 90% of its workforce, on Thursday reported a net loss of ₹32 crore for the financial year ended on March 31, 2022, as against ₹7.76 crore in the financial year on March 31, 2021, according to the company’s filing with the Registrar of Companies (ROC) under the Ministry of Corporate Affairs.
However, the company posted a surge in its revenue from operations by 86% to ₹156.75 crore for the year-ended on March 31, 2022, as against ₹86.36 crore in FY21, as per the document accessed by the business intelligence platform Tofler. .
Meanwhile, employee expenses witnessed a three-fold jump to ₹136.81 crore in FY22, as against ₹43.25 crore in FY21.
“The Company's performance during the FY under review has been satisfactory. The Board is optimistic about the Company's business development in the coming years. The management believes that the COVID-19 pandemic has not had any material impact on the operations and financial position of the Company during the FY21-22,” the company said in a statement.
The company’s earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) witnessed a surge of 42% at ₹1,874 crore for FY22, as against ₹1,319 crore for FY21.
The microblogging platform has more than 24 million users in India.
Notably, the development comes days after Twitter, which was recently acquired by Tesla CEO Elon Musk, fired 90% of its employees from the company’s India unit. Twitter India had more than 200 employees as of September 30, 2022. Meanwhile, Twitter has laid off 3,700 employees or 50% of its workforce following Musk’s takeover of Twitter.
Twitter Blue subscription frenzy
On Thursday, several iOS Twitter users received a notification that the Twitter Blue subscription will be charged ₹719 in India. This is much higher than the pricing set by Musk at $8 for Twitter Blue in the U.S..
Following this, several Twitter users in India tweeted comparing the prices of Twitter Blue subscriptions in India and the US. A Twitter user tweeted, “You've said the price of Twitter Blue will be according to the purchasing power of the country, then why is it costlier in India than in the US.”
Musk has previously said that apart from the US, the pricing of Twitter Blue subscriptions will be adjusted on the basis of local currencies and purchasing power of different countries.
Krishna Das, another Twitter user tweeted, “Heard that @TwitterBlue is available in India at ₹719/month. This is ₹71 higher than the US rate. ($8=₹648) What was the purchasing power parity you were talking about? @elonmusk #Twitter #TwitterBlue.”
Twitter India vs Indian government
In India, the social media platform is already facing regulatory scrutiny by the government of India over alleged violations of data privacy norms and non-compliance with the new information technology rules, which allows the government to block access to content for threatening national security. Twitter has said that the new IT rules violate freedom of speech.
Twitter and the Indian government have been already embroiled in a legal tussle after the social media platform moved to Karnataka High Court against the government’s order to remove content under the new information technology (IT) rules.
