December 24, 2009
Penny for Your Tweets
Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on December 2009 Ah, Twitter—dontcha love it? Seriously, is there any expat in Tokyo who doesn’t use the microblogging service (yours truly is @japanized)? But what would happen if Twitter planned to charge Japanese readers to read certain tweets? There’d be an uproar—just like there was last month. Back then, a […]
By Metropolis
Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on December 2009
Ah, Twitter—dontcha love it? Seriously, is there any expat in Tokyo who doesn’t use the microblogging service (yours truly is @japanized)? But what would happen if Twitter planned to charge Japanese readers to read certain tweets? There’d be an uproar—just like there was last month.
Back then, a division of a partner in Twitter Japan publicly presented plans for a subscription model, which prompted shock and negative tweets galore. There were even details on the likely cost: ¥100 to ¥1,000 a pop, with Twitter skimming off 30 percent of that.
All well and good, except for the fact that the company concerned then seemingly backtracked in the face of negative press, saying it was all just a third-party suggestion for Twitter and never intended to be anything close to official. Twitter remains free… for now.
