Twitter catches the language bug

Twitter currently has language support for English and Japanese. Just recently they have announced they will spread outward by offering support for four more languages. They will be French, Italian, German and Spanish.

Many internet based companies when they look to consolidate they often announce support for FIGS countries. FIGS is a acronym of France, Italy, Germany and Spain.

This seems to reaffirm my view that Twitter does not just want to be only known as place where celebrities can be followed but also become a serious player when it comes to distributing content. It seems to be looking at being an alternative to RSS feeds in the future.

Why FIGS?

Outside US the biggest market for any internet based company is Europe. The economic powerhouses of Europe are France, Italy, Germany and Spain. So now Twitter wants to expand its user base in those countries.

Currently with the recent recession the rise of the Asian economies have been quite evident. Hence its quite likely that in a few months Twitter will support Mandarin. I do not think Hindi will be supported anytime soon as the Hindi speaking population using Twitter would is quite comfortable with English. Obviously more options have never hurt anyone. 😉

Link: Twitter Blog