Twitter falls from its perch as MTN kills it for 13-million users
'Free Twitter started out as a 90-day promotion in May 2014 and, over time‚ it has become part of the landscape of social media in SA'
MTN customers have until midnight on Tuesday to enjoy “free Twitter”, after which the network will shut down the service, used by 13-million people. The service provider announced on Saturday that it will no longer provide its customers with access to Twitter without being charged for the data used in the process. “Free Twitter started out as a 90-day promotion in May 2014 and, over time‚ it has become part of the landscape of social media in SA‚” said Jacqui O’Sullivan‚ executive for corporate affairs at MTN SA. “MTN first gave people the free platform to experience Twitter‚ which then had a relatively small local following. At the time‚ the whole of SA only had 5.5-million Twitter users. MTN has more than double that number on our network alone.” O’Sullivan said overall usage trends towards video and images had determined that it was no longer feasible to offer a service such as Twitter for free due to the cost and demand it placed on the mobile network. “Twitter was originally in...
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