Twitter - Why don't South Africans like it?

Twitter is growing, rapidly, but it doesn't seem to be catching on in South Africa. Facebook grew very quickly in the country - The same can't be said about Twitter...
In case you don't know what Twitter is, (because you live in a cave) here's an explanation:

Twitter -  Twitter is a social networking and microblogging service, owned and operated by Twitter Inc., that enables its users to send and read other users' messages called tweets. Tweets are text-based posts of up to 140 characters displayed on the author's profile page.

So what's stopping Twitter from growing in SA? Here are a few of my theories:

• Advertising - While Facebook didn't ever actively advertise in SA, it was spread by word of mouth and through the Media using it. Twitter, in some sense, doesn't have this advantage as what you say on Twitter is limited to 140 characters and no provision is made for albums, banners and adverts. Many companies therefore stick to Facebook as their preferred Social Network.

• Youth in South Africa - Many youth in SA don't know what Twitter is or how to use it, and when they do find out about it they ask themselves: "What's the use of typing a small status?" For them: No pictures, No Video, No Chat AND "My friend's not using it" = FAIL

•  140 Characters - Many people don't see the use of posting a status comprising of 140 characters. They say it limits them and they don't think they can express themselves in so few characters. My opinion is that if it can't be posted in 140 characters, then it's not worth sharing. The world we live in wants information on the go, in bite-size pieces. Adapt or die...

All this really means is that people are still stuck up on Facebook. I have to admit that Facebook does have a lot more features than Twitter, but Twitter has caught up with features like Twitpic and location based tweeting and it looks like twitter will be the future.

 Facebook is a smart service for simple people. Twitter is a simple service for smart people.


Sources
- Wikipedia
- Twitter Bird

Follow me on Twitter @ali_hen