Comments on: Twitter’s UK text replacements – it’s going to be hard work

By: Ricky Chotai

Ricky Chotai — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 03:45:31 +0000

I can't give you figures but as a 20 year old, none friends have used or have twitter!

By: nacho

nacho — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 03:12:23 +0000

I wouldn't pay, period. But I'm a cheapskate
I now read twitter on the web or through the rss reader
Don't miss the tweets as I only received DMs on my handset and can use pushmail for that.
Only used the tweets for following events like Spain's election and similar
Also none of my real life friends use it and would never use it if they have to pay for it
BTW, does anyone know the penetration/popularity of twitter among UK normobs?

By: Ewan

Ewan — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 02:00:17 +0000

Would you pay 1.5p?

2008/8/26 Disqus <>

By: Burak

Burak — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 23:17:42 +0000

I do miss getting tweets on my phone, despite their almost-usefulness. I'd pay, but 5p/message is too high. The thing is how much cheaper can it go?

By: Ricky Chotai

Ricky Chotai — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 22:45:31 +0000

I can't give you figures but as a 20 year old, none friends have used or have twitter!

By: nacho

nacho — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 22:12:23 +0000

By: Ricky Chotai

Ricky Chotai — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 21:45:31 +0000

I can't give you figures but as a 20 year old, none friends have used or have twitter!

By: nacho

nacho — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 21:12:23 +0000

I wouldn't pay, period.
I now read twitter on the web or through the rss reader
Don't miss the tweets as I only received DMs on my handset and can use pushmail for that. Also none of my real life friends use it and would never use it if they have to pay for it
BTW, does anyone know the penetration/popularity of twitter among UK normobs?

By: smstextnews

smstextnews — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 20:00:17 +0000

Would you pay 1.5p?

2008/8/26 Disqus <>

By: Burak

Burak — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 17:17:42 +0000

I do miss getting tweets on my phone, despite their almost-usefulness. I'd pay, but 5p/message is too high. The thing is how much cheaper can it go?

By: smstextnews

smstextnews — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 16:20:12 +0000

Agreed Terence. At what point do you simply just give someone your mobile
number or email address?

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By: TerenceEden

TerenceEden — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 16:00:45 +0000

Meh. Why not just give some one your phone number?

I get what you're saying – I only ever used the SMS for DMs. But as twitter uses email to notify you of DMs anyway – why not just set up push email on your phone?

By: njar

njar — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 15:50:09 +0000

Ultimately Twitters main issue right now is that it needed plain old SMS to try and gain traction into the everyday Joe's psyche. Everyday folks don't have RSS feeds, or email on their phone, or 78 different apps on their 'top of the range' handset. They will eventually of course, as the barriers come down and awareness goes up, but right now they don't.

There is no market right now for anyone trying to set up companies which allow users to pay for Twitters to be sent out on a wholesale basis (certainly not one which would justify the effort to set it up). The content works when it's free, but as we've all mentioned, when it's a discussion on 'cup cakes', then who actually gives a toss? It's a fun novelty for a geeky narcissistic 'elite'.

It'll be interesting to see how it grows/evolves in regions where SMS is still free such as the US. I actually think if anything there'll be a user backlash against information dissemination overload anyway. Who apart from bloggers actually updates their facebook status anymore? We're the trailblazers in new technologies and we're slowly reducing down our social network exposure and tightening up our digital footprints.. aren't we?

I think their future lies in the B2C world, although at that stage they're simply a software/solution vendor and they'll be competing in a much larger market..

Discuss

By: Tom

Tom — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 15:22:12 +0000

The only thing that's really missing with the loss of SMS is getting msgs pushed to your phone via SMS, right?
I don't think I've ever used SMS for the main twitter stream from those I'm following… I never used it anyway – agree with James here – the real value lies in DMs, @replies and #tags..
I've got push email on my phone, so every time I get a DM I'm notified…
If I'm following a conversation via #tag, I can just use mobile web… @ replies… mobile web…
Bothered? nope. Twitter less useful on mobile? Only marginally. Just get an email instead of an SMS.
A message is a message is a message… as long as it gets to me, I'm happy… don't care how.

By: smstextnews

smstextnews — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 14:57:16 +0000

Therefore you don't value the main Twitter traffic enough to pay for it.
Why would you only consider paying for the DMs and replies texted?

2008/8/26 Disqus <>

By: bogart

bogart — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 14:36:51 +0000

I like that model, njar, although it reminds me of various pay-to-send-email spam solutions. The problem with Twitter, et. al. is the signal/noise ratio. Look at Ewan's examples at the beginning, I might be interested in the coffee one, assuming it was something of an invitation, but that only works if you're near me. I also might be interested in a post like “About to see the new …. movie”, assuming I can easily comment (a'la Jaiku) and find out if it was any good.

For the first one, a location component would be helpful. There are things I may care about based on proximity, although this would require some additional categorization on the sender's end.

By: Mike42

Mike42 — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 14:32:08 +0000

If a

Tweet

is made in a room

full of normal people

(you know, the ones MNO's worry about, the ones who actually Keep The Lights On)

does anyone

give

a toss?

(aka don't tweet the small stuff)

By: njar

njar — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 14:00:49 +0000

would you pay to receive tweets or to send them? Or both? I think the model has to be that the sender pays?

By: James Whatley

James Whatley — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 13:50:12 +0000

No – You're putting words in my mouth.

If I didn't have the tools I listed above available to me then I would pay for the traffic.
As it stands, I don't need to as I have other ways and means of dipping into the stream.

By: smstextnews

smstextnews — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 13:46:16 +0000

Let's just be clear though — you don't value the normal Twitter traffic to
your account enough to pay for it? Only the DMs and @replies?

2008/8/26 Disqus <>

By: James Whatley

James Whatley — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 13:40:22 +0000

True - but I have other tools to assist me..

1) Desktop clients like Twhirl and/or Tweetdeck
2) The Mobile Web for http://m.twitter.com or the far-superior http://m.slandr.net
3) When Twitter turn IM alerts back on I'll have them coming in via Gtalk & Agile.

Ya dig?

By: smstextnews

smstextnews — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 13:21:11 +0000

Don't forget ZygoTweet.

So you're going to pay to receive text messages? But only DM and @replies?

Ergo, you too -- James Whatley -- *the* social media whizz, doesn't value
the normal Tweets enough to pay for them?

2008/8/26 Disqus <>

By: James Whatley

James Whatley — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 13:14:09 +0000

Dude, on this you are completely and totally wrong.
You're missing the point and not seeing the bigger picture...

The *awesome* thing about Twitter is the DIRECT MESSAGES., (DMs).

I find you online. I follow you. ...you follow me back.

I don't know you well enough to give you my number and vice versa BUT through the medium of Twitter I can send an SMS direct to your mobile phone without having this personal information.

This feature is now gone and I personally miss it a lot.
I'm looking at a couple of solutions at the moment - TweetSMS, 3Jam and Twitteroo to name but three.

'the drivel' as you call it, would cost a fair amount, you're right.

But the solution I choose will only be for DMs and '@replies'.

Do you see?