It appears Twitter is starting to smart from sending so many SMS messages to the Text-obsessed UK population. A small item has appeared on the right side-bar of Twitter profiles displaying “Received SMS 0/250″. This links through to a page explaining “How many SMS messages am I allowed to receive on my mobile per week?”
There is a weekly limit of 250 messages per week on the UK long code
There is no limit on incoming updates to Twitter from your mobile phone, however, you’re limited to 250 SMS messages from Twitter to your mobile phone if you use our international number (+44 762 4801423). Those who send and receive messages over one of our national short codes (like 40404 in the US or 21212 in Canada) may send and receive unlimited updates per week.
So in other words you can send as many texts to Twitter as you like, but you’ll only get 250 SMS texts per week inbound to your mobile, defined as Sunday to Sunday. Twitter will let users know via text message that they are close the 250 limit. But UK Twits are getting a raw deal compared to North American Twitterers since they “may send and receive unlimited updates per week.” Why is this? It’s likely down to the different charging regimes. Unlike UK mobile users, US users typically pay to receive texts, making it economically viable for Twitter to offer the text service.
There’s some possible outcomes to this move by Twitter. UK users may start unsubscribing from people who tweet incessantly (those afflicted with “Twitarrhoea“) and thus use up their followers’ SMS allowance. Or they will cut down the number of Twitterers they follow. Or they will switch to using mobile data to send and receive tweets, which ought, in theory save them money over the long run. Whatever the outcome, Twitter’s backers, who include Union Square Ventures, are clearly concerned by the SMS charges they are laying out.
Twitter is using an SMS number sourced in the Isle of Man, rather than in the UK, so they do get some money (1p or 1.5p) per incoming text. However, they still need to pay at least 4 pence outbound, which in technical terms means they are… losing money hand over fist. Note also that the 07624 in Twitter’s number (+44 762 4801423) means it is actually billed as “international” by 3 and T-Mobile, making it a pricey service for those who like to tweet via SMS.
If Twitter was smart, they could move to a model of charging for the ability to receive more SMS messages than the weekly allocation allows. That would provide some welcome cash to the business, which was speculatively thought to be losing $115,883.88 a month back in May alone. Perhaps someone could ask Biz Stone, Twitter co-founder, who is appearing in Oxford today about all this?
I’m confused. Maybe I’m missing something, but when I inadvertently got Tweets coming to my UK mobile phone, I was charged for them. (I turned that off pretty quick).
Any idea how Phuser plan to make revenue in the long run? Presumably limiting UK SMS is only stemming some holes in the sieve and not a long term solution to having a viable business!
I love your picture for this post, Mike, what exactly are you saying?
Sorry, I’m Phuser obsessed, I meant Twitter!
It seems that capping the limit to 250 will only hurt the power users who are likely to be twitter’s “best customers”.
I love when I read national on the web, then realise it’s referring to something US only, yippe.
oxford link appears dead btw
Wow, is this deja vu or what, wasn’t this exactly what we were talking about in the worst cafe in Berlin before the flight Mike!? The Twitter business model works brilliantly in the US, but not in “other” countries where the SMS messages are mobile originated (sender picks up the bill) as opposed to mobile terminated (receiver picks up the bill)
I only just signed up for Twitter today. I like the idea of blogging from my mobile phone which is how I see it at the moment. To send an SMS from Ireland to Twitter seems reasonable enough. I think it was around 15c for the one I sent today. We send to the UK number as well.
I suppose in the long-term it would be necessary to charge for receiving messages as well. I’m still new so I don’t know; is there a way to select which of the people you are following that you can receive SMS from and which you just view on the web?
4p for mobile terminated messages seems pricey, I can’t imagine we use anywhere near as much as Twitter and we pay 2.8 pence net.
I guess it’s time for an ugly business model for the Twitter folk.
You can send news/status by SMS but read them via WAP. See
http://geosms.linkstore.ru