Twitter launches in Japan

Thursday 24th April, 07:22 AM JST

TOKYO —

Twitter, the blockbuster U.S. microblog on which users can post no more than 140 characters, launched Wednesday in the land of haiku, Japan, expecting to strike gold from the country’s cell phone addiction. The website lets users send terse sentences—or “twitters“—onto constantly moving bulletin boards telling people what they are doing or thinking at that instant.

The new Japanese-language site will be a test case by posting advertisements, a first for Twitter, which was launched in 2006 by San Francisco-based Internet start-up Obvious.

Despite the site’s popularity in the United States, one-quarter of access to Twitter in February originated from Japan, said Hiroki Eda, a senior executive at Digital Garage, a multimedia group that handles Twitter in Japan. Twitter does not publicly disclose its number of users.

AFP

10 Comments

Altria at 10:21 AM JST - 24th April

Great, another way to annoy friends and acquaintances with up-to-the-minute details of your boring life.
movieguy at 10:36 AM JST - 24th April

I enjoy hearing what my friends are up to on sites like that. It's better than bitching and moaning anonymously about society on message boards where you can hide...
regev at 05:08 PM JST - 24th April

a windy palm by the roaring see as thoughts grow shorter a twit
capone at 05:25 PM JST - 24th April

altria ...BINGO !
kenbrady at 06:38 PM JST - 24th April

Actually, about 20% of all Twitter tweets came from Japan before there was a localized version, not 25%. Still, this makes perfect sense.
Scrote at 09:06 AM JST - 25th April

I'm on the train.
capone at 06:56 PM JST - 25th April

hi i'm walking
capone at 06:56 PM JST - 25th April

a bus just went by
borscht at 09:44 PM JST - 28th April

I just upchucked in my sake cup. Ooo, it rhymes.
zaichik at 02:17 AM JST - 29th April

Effectively a haiku blog, then, but without the artistic merit....