Now, Twitter on mobiles without Internet

Twitter Inc is tying up with a Singapore-based startup to make its 140-character messaging service available to users in emerging markets who have entry-level mobile phones that cannot access the Internet.

Twitter Inc is tying up with a Singapore-based startup to make its 140-character messaging service available to users in emerging markets who have entry-level mobile phones that cannot access the Internet.

U2opia Mobile, which has a similar tieup with Facebook Inc, will launch its Twitter service in the first quarter of next year, chief executive and co-founder Sumesh Menon said.

Users will need to dial a simple code to get a feed of the popular trending topics on Twitter, he said.

More than 11 million people use U2opia's Fonetwish service, which helps access Facebook and Google Talk on mobile without a data connection.

Twitter, which boasts of about 230 million users, held a successful IPO last month that valued the it at around $25 billion (about `1.56 lakh crore).

U2opia uses a telecom protocol named USSD, which does not allow viewing of pictures, videos or other graphics.

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