Twitter ex-CEO reveals why he paid Dalai Lama’s phone bills

Dalai Lama, a popular Tibetan Buddhist is counted as the most influential person in the world. Ex-Twitter CEO Evan Williams has recently revealed that he personally paid his phone bills for several years after onboarding him on the micro-blogging platform. 

According to a recent interview with Bloomberg’s Emily Chang, Evan Williams discussed the fun moments he had when he was tasked to get an account of Dalai Lama on Twitter. When he met him, he realised that Dalai Lama wasn’t much aware of the microblogging platform and how it works. 

So, Evan Williams opened an account for him and gave him a Blackberry phone so that he can use the app. 

“This was pre-iPhone, I think. And so, we got his account all set up. So, we just gave him the Blackberry. And he used this account or one of his people used this account for years but my wife and I paid the bill for the Blackberry. So, we were paying the Dalai Lama cell phone bill for a very long time," said Williams. 

It wasn’t just Dalai Lama but Evan Williams also helped Oprah Winfrey, an American show TV host open a Twitter account. He even tweeted the first tweet on her account. 

Now, Dalai Lama has over 18 million followers on the Twitter handle. The account mentions, “Welcome to the official twitter page of the Office of His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama.” The account was opened in February 2009. 

Twitter wasn’t a famous platform earlier. It gained traction after some time. Jack Dorsey and Evan Williams launched Twitter in March 2006.