Twitter has just switched off SMS notification of messages to users outside the US, India and Canada, citing concerns about the costs involved in providing the service.
The Twitterverse has gone mad with complaints – especially in the UK where they tend to whine assert their perspective more readily.
I’ve always been dubious about Twitter as a monetisable model but here would seem to be a perfect opportunity for them to test the model. People have already desired a preparedness to pay for a SMS notification service – clearly if Twitter doesn’t provide it then some other third party will – it’d be a huge surprise is Twitter didn’t very shortly offer just this functionality to customers – if the uptake is significant I’d expect a similar move in the US.
Ben Kepes is an analyst, an entrepreneur, a commentator and a business adviser. His business interests include a diverse range of industries from manufacturing to property to technology. As a technology commentator he has a broad presence both in the traditional media and extensively online. Ben covers the convergance of technology, mobile, ubiquity and agility, all enabled by the Cloud. His areas of interest extend to enterprise software, software integration, financial/accounting software, platforms and infrastructure as well as articulating technology simply for everyday users. 
Yep – its one very good way. Do deals with mobile opcos and take a 10% slice of the text revenue. Will just take a while to do it.
Seems to me there is an opportunity to do a global SMS clearing house – that would really rock…
@Miki – yup – I remember saying, oh about a million times, that it’s all about aggregation…..
SMS costs and Twitter has apparently got a new shareholder who is probably concerned about the burn rate and why not