Twitter Communication, the Indian unit of micro-blogging site Twitter Inc, witnessed a decline in its business even as the company spent less on marketing and promotions during the fiscal ending March 31, 2018.

The operating revenues for FY18 stood at ₹43 crore, dipping from ₹50 crore in the year-ago period, according to its filings with the Registrar of Companies, sourced from the business intelligence platform Tofler. The company had trebled its business in FY16 from a small base.

Twitter’s India revenues grew about 17 per cent in FY17 as marketers and corporates preferred the Jack Dorsey-founded social media platform over Facebook and the search engine Google.

Twitter’s operating revenue refers to the fee charged from clients or businesses for services such as advertising, marketing support and business planning assistance, among others.

The company, which is profitable and was doing fairly well in the Indian market, also saw its profits decline by half at ₹2 crore during FY18 compared to ₹4 crore in FY17. During the year, the company tightened its purse strings resulting in lower expenses on marketing and promotion. The total expenses in FY18 stood at ₹38 crore as against ₹43 crore in the year-ago period.

Meanwhile, Google, which is the largest advertising platform, has posted a 30 per cent increase in revenues at almost a ₹10,000 crore, indicating the company’s focus to maintain the monopoly in India.

Market experts believe that the Twitter’s declining sales could be because the platform restricted to movie promotions or political campaigns. “ We have seen a decline in the hygiene spends promoted tweets partly because of good organic reach for relevant content , and partly because most brands don’t look at Twitter beyond customer care or real-time updates,” said Ahmed Naqvi, founder of digital market firm, Gozoop.

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