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Internet industry sees Twitter taking off in Israel: LGiLab GM Ohayon: It just needs a prominent character outside of high-tech.Apr 22, 2009 (Globes - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- The news pages and blogs have been saturated with reports about Twitter lately. Reports cover celebrity news, company releases by computer giant Dell Inc. (Nasdaq: DELL) and others about how Twitter can be used to maintain continuous contact with consumers, and how President Barack Obama is using it to boost political involvement by citizens. Twitter is a very popular messaging service in the US, Japan, UK, and some other countries. However, there are only 2,500-3,000 users in Israel, compared with the hundreds of thousands of Israelis on FaceBook, for example. Nevertheless, Israel's Internet community believes that Twitter will become a craze in the same way that FaceBook has done. Twitter is a service that enables users to send brief messages of up to 140 characters. Despite the Twitter buzz, which is mostly driven by the media battle between actor Ashton Kutcher and CNN's Larry King, Twitter has yet to make any real penetration of the Israeli market. LightSpeed Gemini Internet Lab (LGiLab) general manager Ouriel Ohayon believes that 2009 will the Year of the Twitter in Israel. "It will greatly expand over the next six months. It's important to remember that this is a fairly new service compared with FaceBook. It's mainly an American service, and there are few other countries where it has caught on so strongly. Israel is no exception in this regard," he says. About 5,000 people read Ohayon's blog, and he is considered a leading Twitter opinion-maker in Israel. "There has been growth in recent months, but I think that the service hasn't yet caught on in Israel because there is no prominent character outside of the high-tech scene that will encourage many new users to join," he says. "Globes": What do you mean by "prominent character"? Ohayon: "In the US, Obama and McCain's use of Twitter gave the service the whiff of mainstream, and it began to spread to the world of actors and singers. In the UK, too, Twitter most caught on in the entertainment world, through figures like John Cleese, who began to use it extensively. Israel has no leading personality who will drive Twitter forward." FaceBook Inc. reportedly wanted to acquire Twitter Inc. for $500 million and was turned down. Will Twitter catch on strongly in Israel? "I think so. People are beginning to talk about. It's highly infectious and creates a network effect. It's also possible to connect chat on FaceBook and tweets on Twitter, which creates exposure and interest." Media consultant NewsGeek blogger Niv Calderon also believes that Twitter will catch on in Israel during the second half of 2009. "Even users who do not follow me can see it, if they search Twitter's website by certain keywords, so that the readership is even greater," he says. Why do you think that Twitter hasn't yet caught on in Israel? Calderon: "It will come. The media has already been talking about it quite a lot lately, which creates curiosity. It's only a matter of time until companies begin using it properly, as well as television programs. Only imagination is needed, and for somebody to train these companies how to make money from it. It's important to remember that this is a free service with amazing capabilities." To see more of the Globes or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.globes-online.com. Copyright (c) 2009, Globes, Tel Aviv, Israel Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email [email protected], call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA. |