Twitter originally was as American as apple pie. When it burst onto the scene in 2006 in San Francisco, its initial adherents were people ‘in the know’ in technical and social media circles.
What a difference four years make. As you can see from the chart below, Twitter has flown far away from its San Francisco roots and is now clearly an international institution. According to Twitter, more than 60 per cent using their services are living outside the United States.
Twitter began in 2006 as a tiny little group mainly formed by Twitter employees based in the company’s San Francisco office. But as the company itself describes what has happened, Twitter has grown in the last four years into a ‘global information network’.
In June 2009, less than 45 per cent of people using Twitter were non-US. Three months later, in September 2009, Twitter was split 50/50, with half of its users located outside the US. And in April 2010, 62 per cent of its users are in the rest of the world. And it only continues to grow.
Certain world events and trends helped fuel this process. For example, the February 2010 Chilean earthquake created a 1,200 per cent spike in member sign-ups. A 300 per cent spike was seen in Columbia after politicians began to use the system. And in India, Bollywood stars began to Tweet and many in the country followed suit. Of course, each country and region has a different story to tell. But the numbers are soaring upwards, no matter where you are in the world.
Twitter is accessible to everyone-no matter where you live. The system is incredibly easy to understand and manipulate so the barrier to entry is virtually non-existent. You can, of course, Tweet in any language you want. However, English still appears to be the service’s main language even in countries where the main language is something else.
In sum, Twitter appears to becoming the world’s water cooler- a great place to gossip, share ideas as well as breaking news.
According to a 2009 Spot On PR's report, Twitter grew by 300 per cent in 2009. The overall numbers however remain small.
At the time of the report, Spot On claimed there were 12,000+ Twitter users registered in the Arab world. However the site attracted many times that from non-users. As the chart above clearly displays, UAE is the clear leader in Twitter usage, trailed by Egypt and Saudi Arabia.
The report believes that Twitter, which started as a tool mainly for Internet professionals, has spread out and in particular attracts people from the communications, media and marketing professions. These are people with great influence meaning that the numbers might belie the true power of Twitter in the Middle East.
However, it is clear there are many who believe that Twitter is not going to stay popular only with a small elite. On July 12th, du mobile launched the first-of-its kind Twitter SMS service in the UAE. The service will allow mobile customers to Tweet via SMS. This means that du mobile customers can follow their friends and receive direct messages from their followers using SMS, whether they are in the UAE or abroad. Notifications will be received free of charge. Outgoing SMS in this service will be charged at regular rates.
The company says they believe Twitter is becoming a vital platform for individuals and companies to communicate with friends, families and customers.
On July 7th, CNN fired its senior editor of Middle Eastern affairs, Octavia Nasr, after she sent a Twitter message. She had sent a Tweet in which she stated openly that she respected the Shiite cleric Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah.
A 20-year veteran of CNN, Ms. Nasr wrote this tweet after the cleric recently died, “Sad to hear of the passing of Sayyed Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah ... One of Hezbollah’s giants I respect a lot.”
Not surprisingly, the reaction to her tweet was overwhelmingly negative. Her employer (CNN) felt it was highly inappropriate and was not at all in keeping with the network’s editorial standards.
In response to her critics, Ms. Nasr wrote a blog post on CNN.com explaining that she was sorry that she had written the tweet. She said that the Tweet mistakenly led people to believe that she supported Fadlallah’s life work which is not the case at all. She explained that she respected his pioneering stands on women’s rights; he had called for the abolition of the tribal system of ‘honor killing’, warning Muslim men that abuse of women was against Islam.
But sadly for her, CNN decided her apology was not enough. Nasr paid dearly for her 140 character tweet with her job.
Email the writer:
S.lincoln@i-media.ae
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