Some SMS Perspective
Why Not Charge Users?
We considered passing the cost (as much as 73 euros per month for 35 tweets a day in some markets) of outgoing SMS on to users through a billing mechanism. However, international billing is a significant project and not something we are comfortable focusing on before we have a dependable offering. It's not right to charge for spotty service—and we know there are bugs. People have had trouble setting up SMS, sometimes messages don't make it to their destination, and sometimes there are duplicate messages.
The Show Must Go On
We love SMS. The lowest common denominator aspect of this service is a defining part of Twitter. We want to provide ubiquitous access in a way that is sustainable for both us and our users. We've done it for 96% of our current SMS traffic and we think we can do it for the rest. But it will take time and we will need help. In the meantime, updates to the UK number still work, more numbers are on the way (hopefully we can get Australia a local number before I am fed to a crocodile), and there are several alternatives for receiving updates.
44 Comments:
Thanks for the perspective information. 4% of the Twitter SMS user base is still a vast quantity of users, especially when you consider the recent growth of Twitter in the UK. We've already had a huge response to our project, http://www.tweetSMS.com.
Handling a global SMS market with different costs and regulations in different countries is a tough game. Hopefully an effective third party solution will be able to fill the void left by Twitter's decision, much in the way that other projects have extended the value of Twitter for its users.
as long as we're so desperately awaiting new local numbers for europe and australia, why don't you send updates to twitterers in europe via your US or canadian number? (and to people in australia via the indian number) ...is it really that different from using the UK number for non-UK users as you did until two days ago?
I wonder if Hitler was in to text messaging? txt: HITLER to 12345? This video seems to indicate Hitler was BIG on Twitter but could only get 9 followers.
"Twitter Frustrates Hitler As Followers Split"
http://twittersplit.com/
What a hoot. TEXT all your friends :-)
@marc
Unfortunately, the US shortcode won't work for most numbers outside the US.
@craig mason
We're all for third parties who want to step in. I'm curious: What do you think it will cost?
if it's 'only' 4% , why can't you reactivate it until you sort something out?
I'd have to think that savvy European mobile developers know the cost factors and if they haven't stepped in as an add-on service, there isn't enough margin to be made through short code texting at the moment. But the numbers could change when 2m Brits or 190k Irish are tweeting--still a long way to get those numbers.
Hell shortcodes do not even work *when* I am in the US. (T-Mobile prepaid that is, you might want to work on that as well, although the AT&T prepaid with data is finally available).
To the point: I do not know anybody f.e. from Germany who not from the beginning (if he or she thought about it) knew that you would not be able to provide something like this over here. It is just not how the market works, period.
It is not as if most users of Twitter - the international ones that is - do not understand all of the problems which occur with things like billings etc. But again in this posting you are showing an unclever attitude.
Basically you are saying to me "you are irrelevant and you just cost money which is why we stopped playing with you and go back to the nice behaving ones".
As in: You might have put that in a different chart and description which does not imply that f.e. protest of that areas is irrelevant.
International billing: Again, you might have asked your users about it. I bet most of them would have told you that they did not only understand that international billing is hell (we do live with this every day, thank you) but we understand why Paypal is a good solution for some countries and that paypal does charge additionally per transaction which is why topping up with small amounts is not working.
*sigh* Basically you are like a restaurant throwing out people because they request a menu which you do not have the food for anymore instead of asking "may I offer you something else".
We like this restaurant and we do like what we experience in here. Instead of throwing us out, start offering us something we can work with.
It would be naive to announce a pricing structure at the moment, but I can say that it will be as low as possible without making a loss. We already have an arrangement in place to provide international messages for less than the cost of a standard UK text message. Further to this, we also have access to existing bi-directional short-codes in numerous countries.
The more users that use the service, the cheaper it will become for everyone.
http://www.tweetSMS.com
So us Brits are simply a speck on your user map, and not worth worrying about, then?
When your service works 100% you can afford to be arrogant. Until then, please refrain from communicating to the audience you have locked out, especially in pie chart form.
Have you now staunched the cash haemorrage, or are you burning your start-up funds at a slightly slower rate?
Which country & userbase is next against the wall if further of your plans prove to be unrealistic?
Do you publish accounts (eg. financial accounts)?
Why should anyone invest, or any business decide to use Twitters technology if it's going to abruptly bail out of markets like this?
Help!! I have turned everything off, blocked everyone, deleted my account and I am STILL getting texts via Twitter. What can I do the stop this?? Anyone help?
Consider reactivating direct message to SMS for UK users - recheck the percentage for that. I bought myself a UK cellphone so I could use that feature when visiting, and I know several others who value it, including one who I failed to meet in LA this week 'cos you shut off our trusted communication channel.
Although I appreciate the explanation and expansion of the issues, I guess it's only diplomatic that you don't cover the underlying issue - that mobile operators in the UK charge what I consider an extortionate rate for SMS messages, considering they're a mere 160 bytes...
They are all too aware that SMS is a 'quick buck' (at 15p a text, that's 980GBP per MB in data terms!) and are unwilling to make concessions even on the small scale that Twitter (and its UK users) would appreciate.
What can we do? Apart from having a darn good moan about it, perhaps campaign to our mobile phone operators and OFCOM about the prices of SMS in the grand scheme of things?
I, for one, wouldn't mind paying a couple of pence per incoming SMS (which is what they do in the States, no?)
There aren't only English users on this 4%...I live in Switzerland and I'm in this 4%.
I think that the problem is in the carrier and in the roaming costs.
In the USA, if you travel from coast to coast, you pay always the same. In Europe, if you do 1000km, you travel in 3 country. And the prices are incredible!
I beleave in a future when big industry, like Google and others like in this case twitter try to change this reality. In a world where we have data plans, why pay so much for only 160 chars? only 160 bytes and few more for payloads!
Anyway, go on, your service are great!
Happy tweets to ya all!
Is restoring IM still the #1 priority? It doesn't feel that way sometimes.
Android mobile phone operating system, due to launch within the next few weeks, may actually be much more than a mobile OS. Industry sources tell us that although Android will indeed start as a mobile OS
Please re-consider
http://globalvoicesonline.org/2008/08/17/egypt-farewell-twitter-sms/
It would have been nice to have been given the chance to pay something for a service. TwitterPro anyone? Like hello? Do you guys want to make some money?? R-E-V-E-N-U-E??
SMS is basically "IM for cellphones"
<tongue mode="in cheek">
Of course, real IM, unlike SMS, doesn't cost me extra. If only there was some way to interface with twitter via IM. That would be a seriously nifty feature...
</tongue>
Seriously though - what is going on with IM? It's been offline for months...
So we've heard the excuses for removing the functionality. What's the excuse for the lack of notice?
We've put up with a lot over recent months. IM went down, and despite your claim that getting it back up is a priority, it's still not there. Tracking was taken away without telling anyone (even those who sent SMS to find out what they were tracking). And now, with no notice, those of us who have been using the (so-called) UK number have had the most useful part of the service removed.
I can't think of one good reason to stick with Twitter; the SMS function was the only thing that kept me with you through the (many) outages, lack of communication and removal of features.
Yes, SMS costs in the UK are ludicrous (more than sending data to Hubble apparently) so I'm not surprised something like this has happened although as 4fthawaiian put it, Twitter is suddenly an awful lot less useful for us Limeys. Not just in a personal manner, but for the various social and activist organisations that have been using Twitter - the recent Climate Camp had not one, not two but at least three Twitter feeds providing updates to people at the camp and outside. Nothing like this will be possible now, so I hope you manage to work something out soon.
Before outgoing UK SMS was turned off, Biz calls a boss at the mobile operator:
Biz: Hi, you know you're currently making loads of money from the SMSs we send into the UK? Any chance we can negotiate to pay you a bit less?
Boss: I'm busy right now, call me back in 6 months.
But now when Biz calls:
Biz: Hi, you know that we at Twitter used to pay you a load of money for delivering SMSs? And you know how we just stopped using you, and you're not making any money from us right now?
Boss: ya...
Biz: We would like to start using you again. We'll give you less money -- but won't it be better than nothing?
Boss: Name your price!
Rest assured, the telco's will be easier to negotiate with now Twitter's peed on their parade.
What I don't understand is why you didn't have a plan in place for this - as you stated yourselves, you knew there would be a cut-off point somewhere.
There'll be a whole load of rival systems springing up while you sort this out.
Not getting updates to your phone really does defeat the object of Twitter for me, so what is the point of using it anymore?
I'm part of the 4%, and I don't love YOU either. No SMS and no IM support = pissing off your userbase. Thanks.
I don't understand why you can't just set up reverse billings. Loads of sketchy ringtone companies have done it! I actually always assumed I was paying for the tweets i recieved over my phone bill anyway!
Twitter´s not dead. Check out the service 3jam is offering now that Twitter´s sms is down for some of us:
http://www.3jam.co/signup.php?twitter
:D
Just give me a "receive updates via email" option and I'm happy. I have push mail - just give me the option! How difficult would it be for me to receive my updates in my email inbox???
We're planning to use Twitter as the driving force behind a club night in a couple of weeks and the SMS delivery getting cut is sad -- we're going to try and work with an iPhone, but we'll maybe just rely on requests twittered before the night...
Either way, we love Twitter and will be recording the entire playlist by SMS submission, so we still love the service!
we're at twitter.com/tweettweetclub if you want to see how the experiment goes.
The big thing here is that in the US, you pay to receive as well as send, in the UK you pay only to send, so there is less split. Personally I don't like the idea of paying to receive ordinarilly anyway because it is open to advertising abuse, but that's a whole other rant.
Twittex.com was launched today,
It is providing the sms functionality, you can add monitor multiple accounts and have messages delivered to multiple devices all configurable.
twittex.com
ok, i'm from brazil and twitter is becoming very popular in here. all of my friends including me uses the sms services. we pay extra $0,50 for international SMS but we didn't mind with it. of course, if u can close with a Mobile Operator in Brazil i know u can get a bigger audience in here.
If you need some help for negotiations in here i can help you without any problems.
Hello,
it's 2008.
You can access the web with your mobile!
No need to whine about this!
www.twitsms.co.uk and www.twitsms.com.au was launched on 17th August to allow Twitter fans around the globe to get their SMS back. We are live, experienced and responsive to customers. We care about the 4% who were shut down (we ARE part of the 4%)! Users pay per text (7pence per text for UK users) - so for a few dollars Twitter fans can stay connected. You get 5 free SMS to try it out. Visit and let us know what you think!
Thanks,
Delia Timms
co-founder
www.twitsms.co.uk
You know we do have other animals besides crocodiles we can feed you to... Just saying. lol
This was the only feature I was interested in, also my wife, her group of 10 friends, 4 parents, 8 friends in the US, 12 colleague in Amsterdam. We have all left, you have failed us. I am off to use one of the many many alternatives.
I notice I can't cancel my account, trying to artificially boost your numbers by stopping everyone from leaving? - Naughty.
I don't get why places are getting local numbers in order to receive SMS' from Twitter, but people in the UK can't receive through the UK number.
I just feel pissed off as I find updating via text pointless if I can't read people's responses to my updats when I'm away from the computer.
I used to love using Twitter to keep updated on my friends abroad.
Now I have no idea what they are doing when I'm not at the computer.
Will we ever be able to receive texts via the UK number again?!
A graph is only useful is full data is given (otherwise is just junk).
Those are sms send by using all services (US and India included) or just UK number?
Hey, Twitter boys, how could you imagine to change so dramatically the business laws of the mobile industry ?
having been in the mobile & SMS business for 10 years, I knew that "There is no free lunch in the mobile telecom industry!"
You should have investigated this issue deeper, before launching your "free of charge outbound international SMS", which for telecom analysts appeared from day one clearly unsustainable on the long term...
So non US, non Canada (and non India) is only 2% of your business?
Where do you get this figure from? Timezone or location? Are accounts that don't change the default counted as US?
Is this 2% of all users, or 2% of users who have enabled SMS?
Maybe the high cost of sending SMS internationally has an effect. You are saying we are only double the cost -so each US user is worth spending $500/year on?
You know I really don't believe you, sorry.
as many other people here have said, receiving SMS updates is a rather big feature to lose. i am new to twitter, and even though i have a sophisticated phone that is capable of 3G acess, the loss of SMS updates is very disappointing.
yes, i have unlimited data access to a 3G network, but what is the point of twitter if you have to MANUALLY refresh the updates?
as someone else has already said, even the choice of email updates would be some sort of compromise (albeit a rather stunted and retarded one).
i am trying very hard to justify staying with twitter. without the ability to receive SMS updates, the service is redundant
Reading the latest newsletter, it is clear why we no longer have outbound SMS from the UK number - and it all boils down to movies and a new office.
"This summer, Twitter moved it's official world headquarters. We only moved a few blocks away so we're still in the SoMa neighborhood in San Francisco, but what a difference. The new space is big, sunny, and open. We have lots of room for company meetings, visiting guest speakers, and even a place where the whole company can watch a movie on Friday nights. We're now a team of 24 full time employees and some contractors so movie night usually draws a good crowd."
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