Twitter debuts 'Twttr' premium service

Starting Monday, tweeps may now have to fork over $5 a month if they want to continue using their favorite micro-blogging service with those pesky vowels.

 

In a blog post, Twitter product for revenue director Kevin Weil said this is part of a new two-tiered system where messages will remain free if they have no a, e, i, o, or u.

 

"We’re doing this because we believe that by eliminating vowels, we’ll encourage a more efficient and 'dense' form of communication. We also see an opportunity to diversify our revenue stream," he said (http://blog.twitter.com/2013/03/annncng-twttr.html).

 

The only exception would be the vowels in URLs, which he said "will remain free for everyone, forever."

 

Also, he said tweeting in non-Latin characters based languages, like Japanese, Chinese, Arabic or Korean remain free.

 

Weil also said they are offering a single-character extension that will expand a tweet's length to 141 characters —with the price of that one extra character based on a bidding system.

 

The new service, dubbed "Twttr," will roll out slowly over the next few days, he said.

 

"We recommend that you practice using only consonants (and 'y') with the hashtag #nvwls (or if you have paid for our premium service, use #icanhasvowels)," he said, adding tweeps can go to Twttr.com to automatically turn tweets into a "Twttr-friendly format."

 

Of course, tweeps would also do well to check when the announcement came out: Aprl Fl's Dy! — TJD, GMA News