MANILA, PHILIPPINES | If fast and reliable internet connection evades you most of the time, or data allocation is gold on your mobile device, Twitter has a solution to keep you updated in the social media realm.
Twitter Lite is the latest product from popular social media platform Twitter. The new platform’s main objective is to provide social media connection the fastest way possible with minimal data to its users.
Twitter Lite, according to Twitter executives who recently visited Manila, is a fast and responsive Twitter platform that uses less data and takes up less storage space. It also supports push notifications and even has offline use in modern browsers.
“By having [Twitter Lite] actually, they only need to install or save on their homescreen less than 1 megabyte of data,” said Dwi Adriansah, head of Business Development, Southeast Asia and Australia, in an interview with InterAksyon. “This is especially for the first time internet users, or those using low-end devices; it will make them get easier access to the internet.”
On its website, Twitter explains that Twitter Lite is a client-side JavaScript application, which is small, light and will work on any mobile device with an internet browser. Further it said, to get connected: “[T]he server handles user authentication, constructs the initial state of the app, and renders the initial HTML application shell. Once loaded in the browser, the app requests data directly from the Twitter API.”
In a simple description: Twitter Lite works on top of a mobile device browser to connect to the internet. From the browser, the user can create a shortcut on the screen panel to access the application , creating an icon as if Twitter Lite is acting like a separate app.
However, since most of the world is still using 2G or 3G networks, where a fast initial experience is essential, Twitter Lite is described as interactive in under 5 seconds over 3G.
“Imagine having Twitter Lite in outlying islands, rural provinces, and for anybody to access the same way people in the metro cities do, you get the same experience to users every where, and the same type of content they get to experience as well,” said Tina Pang, head of Sales, Twitter Southeast Asia.
Now, to reach all those outlying areas mentioned by Pang, Twitter announced a strategic collaboration with Globe Telecom and Smart Communications to provide daily updates via Twitter Lite to help Filipinos stay updated, particularly on entertainment, providing news on what’s happening with their favorite showbiz personalities and be part of the global conversation.
“In terms of our partners here, Smart and Globe, we have the same vision, that the usage across and opportunities for themselves and us, is the same: to get users more connected,” said Pang. “It’s great for the industry and for us.”
The Twitter executive added that the partnership extends the benefits of Twitter Lite to over 120 million mobile subscribers throughout Philippines.
“We’ve seen good traction in emerging markets, like in the Asia Pacific we’ve seen the growth, with the Philippines as one of our important markets we really need to focus, and that’s one of the reasons after India and Indonesia, why we launched this partnership with both telcos in the Philippines,” said Andriansah. “Globally we also seen traction with people using Twitter Lite and from our last earning call report [Twitter as a whole] have 14 percent daily active user increase year-on-year, and I think that’s one good indication for us.”
With over 328 million monthly active users, “[T]he unique value proposition of Twitter is we are like the fastest platform that provide real-time information and we position ourselves as the platform where you want to find what’s happening now in the world,” said Pang. “Our role is really clear: real-time; be it in entertainment or sports or news, Twitter is the place to be if you want to know what’s happening now.
Twitter Lite is available at mobile.twitter.com — on smartphone or tablet in 42 languages including Tagalog. Both partners will also be doing roadshows across the country to support promoting Twitter Lite.
How to use Twitter Lite? click the link.
Twitter Lite: An introduction
