Sending tweets up to 280 characters is now a possibility for all users, though Twitter has stated Korean, Mandarin and Japanese messages will be sticking to the original 140-character limit. (Image: Korea Bizwire)
SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 8 (Korea Bizwire) – Sending tweets up to 280 characters is now a possibility for all users, though Twitter has stated Korean, Chinese and Japanese messages will be sticking to the original 140-character limit.
On November 7, an announcement detailing the change was posted on Twitter’s official blog.
What is eye-catching is the social media giant’s rationale for maintaining the status quo for the three Asiatic languages. According to Twitter, Asian languages can more effectively convey meaning in fewer words.
The argument is believed to be partly derived from company data that analyzed the language of tweets 140 characters long, which revealed 9 percent were English, while 0.5 percent were Korean and 0.4 percent Japanese.
Social network penetration of Twitter and Instagram were neck and neck by the end of last year, with Facebook leading all social media sites.
(Image: Korea Bizwire)
The Chinese written language is composed of logograms, characters that represent a word or a phrase. Both Japanese and Korean have been heavily influenced by Chinese; Kanji are Chinese characters used in modern day Japanese writing, and a wide spectrum of Korean words are derived from Chinese logograms.
Twitter use has been rising incrementally in South Korea over the past few years, with the 4.66 million users in 2014 growing to 5.13 million by 2016, per online database Statista. Social network penetration of Twitter and Instagram were neck and neck by the end of last year, with Facebook leading all social media services.
Initial reactions to Twitter’s announcement has been mixed; whereas some in the tech industry consider it a necessary move to attract more users, others have made the case that the company should focus more on content rather than length, in particular beefing up oversight of cyberbullying and hate speech on the platform.
Lina Jang (linajang@koreabizwire.com)
