Twitter Inc. (TWTR) Moments Enter UK With First Story From International Space Station

Twitter Moments has landed in the U.K. The microblogging site’s latest feature, which creates a stream of tweets and videos connected to one news event, hit the U.K. Tuesday, two months after its initial release in the United States.

And the timing is perfect, with everything going on this week: The first Moments will capture Tim Peake, the first British astronaut, on his journey to the International Space Station on Tuesday; the “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” premiere in London; and a feed on migrants in Lesbos, Business Insider reported.

Twitter has casted Moments as a transformative feature for the social network that has struggled to attract significant user growth year over year. The company is working to not only expand the product’s reach to a global audience and add new partners but also tweak the tool itself. “Our focus with Moments is getting them easier to discover," Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey told investors on the earnings call in October.

Project Lightning -- the initiative’s former name -- "could be the key to converting casual Twitter users into regulars, pushing the company more into the mainstream,” wrote Deutsche Bank analyst Ross Sandler in a research note prior to the Moments launch.

Twitter’s offices in London have also been prioritizing building momentum around Moments. “It's not just about stars, celebrities. It's also about eyewitnesses, people on the street, the great one-liners, the conversations people are having, the whole diversity of the story on Twitter,” Joanna Geary, who oversees Moments in the U.K., said at the launch event, according to Business Insider.

Before Tuesday, Twitter was working on staffing a team in the U.K. All members of the British Moments team, who are among the 200 employees in the U.K. office, have experience in journalism.

For the U.S. launch, Twitter partnered with several media outlets, including Bleacher Report, BuzzFeed, Entertainment Weekly, Fox News, Getty Images, Mashable, MLB, NASA, New York Times, Vogue and the Washington Post. For the UK, the partners included the Premier League, Glamour, VICE, Food Network, Sky News, The Economist, Global Radio, Vevo, Sky Sports and BuzzFeed UK.

Moments is not only an effort to attract more users but also a new resource for the company. Twitter sells “promoted Moments,” where brands can sponsor and curate their own feeds. These ads are sold for $1 million, according to Digiday.