How many different languages can you Twit?…or is it Tweet?
Since the July 2006 launch of the famous micro-blogging platform, Twitter has grown phenomenally in popularity and recognition, with over 175 million registered users and still increasing. Of these users, it is estimated that there are about 65 million tweets sent out daily and over 800,000 search queries launched on a daily basis. This week, Twitter launched its services to its Korean users by providing the platform in Korean. In Twitter’s announcement to the 48.5 million South Korean citizens, the company stressed that it’s interested in serving a segment of the users who are already online and perhaps under-served in that social area. This launch will give those users access to the micro-blogging service in their native language.
As of the launch, the total number of supported languages is now at seven. Other supported languages include German, Italian, French, Spanish, English and Japanese. There are plans and talks to release other language versions, but Twitter has not speculated on which market will be next.
Twitter chose Korean as the next language to launch since the number of Korean twitter users has increased in the last year about tenfold. In addition to the Korean language being provided, there are also iPhone apps and the Twitter Android for mobile users.
There are more Twitter users in English-speaking countries than there are anywhere else in the world. But, according to a previous study launched by Semiocast, half of the tweets at that time (Feb. 2010) were in English, and had declined about 25% from the previous year. The study was based on an analytical comparison of 2.8 million tweets.
In addition to the launch with the service, Twitter also provided Korean users with a recommended user list which included Park Joong, the actor and the actor, Lee Oisoo.
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