Now, access Twitter without a data connection on your phones

Twitter is tying up with a Singapore-based startup to make its 140-character messaging service available to users in emerging markets who have entry-level mobile phones which cannot access the Internet. U2opia Mobile, which has a similar tie-up with Facebook Inc, will launch its Twitter service in the first quarter of next year, Chief Executive and Co-founder Sumesh Menon told Reuters. Users will need to dial a simple code to get a feed of the popular trending topics on Twitter, he said. 

More than 11 million people use U2opia's Fonetwish service, which helps access Facebook and Google Talk on mobile without a data connection. Twitter, which boasts of about 230 million users, held a successful initial public offering last month that valued the company at around $25 billion. Twitter. Reuters image U2opia uses a telecom protocol named USSD, or Unstructured Supplementary Service Data, which does not allow viewing of pictures, videos or other graphics.

 "USSD as a vehicle for Twitter is almost hand in glove because Twitter has by design a character limit, it's a very text-driven social network," Menon said. Eight out of 10 people in emerging markets are still not accessing data on their phone, he said. U2opia, which is present in 30 countries in seven international languages, will localize the Twitter feed according to the location of the user. "So somebody in Paraguay would definitely get content that would be very very localized to that market vis a vis somebody sitting in Mumbai or Bangalore," he said. 

The company, whose biggest markets are Africa and South America, partners with telecom carriers such as Telenor, Vodafone and Bharti Airtel Ltd. U2opia usually gets 30 to 40 percent of what users pay its telecom partners to access Fonetwish. "For a lot of end users in the emerging markets, it's going to be their first Twitter experience," Menon said.

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No Internet? Twitter to arrive for the unconnected

Geared toward emerging markets where access to the Internet on entry-level mobile phones is a rarity, Singapore-based startup U2opia Mobile plans to bring a text-only Twitter experience to its users without the need for a data plan.

Using the USSD, or Unstructured Supplementary Service Data, protocol that allows mobile phones to communicate with a service provider's computers, U2opia will be able to serve local trending topics to users who dial in a code thanks to a partnership with the social network. USSD does not allow the display of images or video.

With a service called Fonetwish, U2opia similarly uses USSD to deliver Facebook information and enable the Google Talk portion of what is now the search company's Hangouts service to 11 million of its users who do not have a readily available data connection. The company hopes to launch its Twitter portion of Fonetwish in the first quarter of next year.

Twitter, which currently has roughly 230 million users and just last month went public at an initial $24.9 billion valuation, is seeing steady growth in countries like Brazil, India, and Indonesia, but sees lack of mobile Internet infrastructure to be an impediment in growing its user base, and ultimately its advertising revenue, in those markets. U2opia's method is a way to, if not directly increase Twitter activity, at the very least offer up the utility of its real-time information to users who may have never had the opportunity to access it before.

"For a lot of end users in the emerging markets, it's going to be their first Twitter experience," Sumesh Menon, CEO and co-founder of U2opia, told Reuters. Menon noted that 8 out of 10 people in emerging markets do not have access to the Internet on their mobile phones.

U2opia typically takes 30 percent to 40 percent of what users pay their telecom company to access its Fonetwish service. It partners with major international carriers like Vodafone and Telenor to help keep its service, available in 30 countries and in seven languages, catering to fast-growing markets in Africa and South America.

More: http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-57614688-93/no-internet-twitter-to-arrive-for-the-unconnected/

With 243 million users by 2014, India to beat US in internet reach: Study

Internet penetration in the country may not have crossed 16% of the population yet, but in absolute numbers this percentage works out to nearly 10 times the population of Australia.

By October, the nation had crossed the 200 million mark, says a report released by theInternet and Mobile Association of India (IMAI) and IMRB. The report estimates 243 million internet users in the country by June 2014, overtaking the US as the world's second largest internet base after China.

The US currently has an estimated 207 million internet users, while China has 300 million. The 205 million internet users that the IMAI reports for India are not all active users (those who use the internet at least once a month). "There is every reason to believe that they will turn into active users in the near future," says Nilotpal Chakravarti, associate vice-president, IAMAI.

While Indians primarily use the internet for communication, largely in the form of email, social media is also an important driver of internet use in India. This facet of the IMAI report can be corroborated with data from other sources such as Facebook, according to which India had 82 million monthly active users by June 30, 2013, the second largest geographical region for Facebook after the US and Canada. Facebook does not operate in China.

Internet penetration in India is driven largely by mobile phones, with some of the cheapest and most basic hand-sets today offering access to the internet. India has 110 million mobile internet users of which 25 million are in rural India. The growth of internet penetration in rural India is driven largely by the mobile phone; 70% of rural India's active internet population access the web via mobile phones. This may have to do with the difficulty in accessing PCs.

Forty-two percent of rural India's internet users prefer using the internet in local languages. The high prevalence of content in English is a hurdle for much of rural India.

College-goers remain the largest users of the internet in India, followed by young men.

While the IMAI report paints an optimistic picture of internet use in the country, another report by the Broadband Commission for Digital Development, ranked India 145 of around 200 countries for the percentage of individuals using the internet.

Chakravarti, however, insists that India's performance when it comes to internet penetration is an achievement, given the country's current infrastructure.

More: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/tech/tech-news/internet/With-243-million-users-by-2014-India-to-beat-US-in-internet-reach-Study/articleshow/25719512.cms