Twitter is taking a "log-out" approach to raise usage

Twitter is working hard to build up its profile and usage among people in developing markets, and today another piece of that strategy has come into focus. It has signed a deal with Switzerland-based mobile software company Myriad Group to provide access to Twitter via mobile devices without using a mobile Internet connection, instead relying on a text-only transmission technology called USSD. The service will let users experience Twitter purely as “consumers” who do not need to log in, or even have an account at all to use it.

Myriad’s deal with Twitter is similar to a partnership that was made public last week, when Reuters reported that a company called U2opia Mobile was linking up with the social network on a USSD service. While that article hinted at how the service might work (U2opia has not made a direct statement about it), Myriad has provided us with screenshots and confirmed further details.

Twitter access via USSD is not new: Myriad had been offering it for years already in markets like Argentina to let users post messages and read those sent by their contacts.

This, however, is an interesting progression. Twitter is now, for the first time, officially certifying USSD partners, and it is moving more proactively with a different concept of its service: USSD users will, initially at least, be given a “log-out” experience of the service, without the need to log in or even sign up, and it will be read-only, without the ability to post your own status updates.

USSD, by way of background, is short for Unstructured Supplementary Service Data, and it is technology that is built into even the most basic GSM phones.

source: www.techcrunh.com

Twitter to be available on entry level mobile phones without internet

Twitter Inc is tying up with a Singapore-based startup to make its 140-character messaging service available to users in emerging markets who have entry-level mobile phones which cannot access the Internet.

U2opia Mobile, which has a similar tie-up with Facebook Inc, will launch its Twitter service in the first quarter of next year, Chief Executive and Co-founder Sumesh Menon told Reuters.

Users will need to dial a simple code to get a feed of the popular trending topics on Twitter, 

More than 11 million people use U2opia's Fonetwish service, which helps access Facebook and Google Talk on mobile without a data connection.

Twitter, which boasts of about 230 million users, held a successful initial public offering last month that valued the company at around $25 billion.

U2opia uses a telecom protocol named USSD, or Unstructured Supplementary Service Data, which does not allow viewing of pictures, videos or other graphics.

"USSD as a vehicle for Twitter is almost hand in glove because Twitter has by design a character limit, it's a very text-driven social network," Menon said.

Eight out of 10 people in emerging markets are still not accessing data on their phone, he said.

U2opia, which is present in 30 countries in seven international languages, will localise the Twitter feed according to the location of the user.

"So somebody in Paraguay would definitely get content that would be very very localized to that market vis a vis somebody sitting in Mumbai or Bangalore," he said.

The company, whose biggest markets are Africa and South America, partners with telecom carriers such as Telenor, Vodafone and Bharti Airtel. U2opia usually gets 30 to 40 per cent of what users pay its telecom partners to access Fonetwish

source: www.ibnlive.in