Oh Goody, Senseless Tweets in More Languages Soon!

Posted by Alan Vo on October 10, 2009 · Leave a Comment

Twitter Bird Goofy The Twitter blog informs us that if you are not already lucky enough to get the good, the bad and the truly ugly of Twitter in the English or Japanese language that help is on the way. Founder Biz Stone gives us some more “Bizdom” on the Twitter blog regarding the status of the social media site and how there are more folks out there who will be able to be ensnared in the web that is Twitter.

Twitter is currently available only in English and Japanese. With some help, we will soon be rolling out support for French, Italian, German, and Spanish. These languages are commonly referred to using the acronym FIGS and are often the starting point for services like Twitter when its time for more language support. Later, we hope to offer Twitter in several other languages. No matter how sophisticated technology gets, we’re reminded daily that it’s about people and that’s something we’ve taken to heart regarding translating Twitter.

This is cool in theory and how it is being done is as unique as Twitter is

Starting today, we are offering a simple tool for people with experience in other languages to suggest translations for the Twitter web site. Then, we’ll follow up technically.

Twitter Trans JPEG

Biz then puts out a request for volunteers to help Twitter make this translation thing a reality. He talks about his small team of 5 people working feverishly to make Twitter accessible to the rest of the civilized world. What is Twitter anyway, some kind of charity cause?

I can see this type of request if this was a shoestring operation that was working on cash flow to make this kind of service a reality but Twitter is neither anymore. It’s hard to feel sorry for the poor Twitter employees who are painted as understaffed but dedicated to making the world a better place through translating Twitter “as soon as we can”. Honestly, the rest of the world is running low on ‘twatience’ with the ‘little company that could 140 characters at a time” shtick.

Biz, with a billion dollar valuation and a bank account that is somewhere in the neighborhood of $100 million richer, the rest of the world is not going to buy the poor little Twitter story any more. If this is really going to happen you need to hire the team to get it done and then roll it out to the waiting world. Part of the price of becoming as big and well funded as Twitter is that the slack offered is considerably less. In fact, it has likely moved from being a very generous amount to now being just enough rope to hang yourself.

Sounds harsh I know but life can be that way. Adios!

Filed under seo · Tagged with Acronym, Biz Stone, Cash Flow, Charity Cause, Civilized World, Figs, French Italian, Help Is On The Way, Italian German, Japanese Language, Language Support, Languages, Rest Of The World, Shoestring, Sophisticated Technology, Translation, Translations, Tweets, Twitter, Volunteers

A Billion Reasons for Twitter to be Happy

Posted by Alan Vo on September 17, 2009 · Leave a Comment

So it looks like Twitter has entered some rarefied air for sure. According to ReadWriteWeb and TechCrunch the micro-blogging juggernaut is moving into an exclusive club by securing a new round of funding ($50 million) based on a valuation of $1 billion (yup, it’s a b). No doubt, this will begin to stir the supporters and detractors alike. Unless we have ridiculously short memories or just think that this time will be different one has to wonder how a company that no one can figure out revenue wise can be valued at that much.

While I am not an analyst I did think about staying at a Holiday Inn Express over the past year so I qualify for jumping into the fray, right? Let’s hear what the RWW folks had to say first though.

While it’s unlikely that Twitter CEO Evan Williams was wearing a Dr. Evil costume when he delivered the news, he had the pleasure of announcing his company’s $1 billion dollar valuation today at an all hands meeting. According to TechCrunch, the company has raised a $50 million dollar funding round and the money will be in the bank shortly. Given the fact that Twitter turned down an offer to be purchased by Facebook earlier in the year, it appears the two are about to tango.

So of course, this conversation wouldn’t be nearly as much fun without bringing Facebook into the mix. Facebook is starting to look almost like IBM compared to Twitter. What with actual revenue generation plans and actually having the audacity to be cash flow positive one begins to wonder if Facebook is going to actually merit its own valuation. As we mentioned yesterday, Master of the Universe, Mark Zuckerberg, has something to say in the Facebook blog.

We’re also succeeding at building Facebook in a sustainable way. Earlier this year, we said we expected to be cash flow positive sometime in 2010, and I’m pleased to share that we achieved this milestone last quarter. This is important to us because it sets Facebook up to be a strong independent service for the long term.

So is Twitter in for the long term? They certainly still have the buzz going and now there appears to be a a real Facebook faceoff looming for the foreseeable future.

In the past, ReadWriteWeb has looked at Twitter’s platform potential. The service has already been used to create meme trackers, emergency alert services, news feeds and brand monitoring tools. As the infrastructure and search have improved, Twitter has become the go-to site for real time media. But can the company make a Facebook-like leap?

Facebook has added Twitter like features so why not? So what’s your take? I bet there at least a billion opinions on this one.