It may be hard for Americans to imagine, but Twitter (News - Alert) isn’t doing so well in Germany. A new deal with a European telco giant could change that, however.
The microblogging service has entered into a strategic partnership with Deutsche Telekom (News - Alert), which owns Germany’s top mobile carrier, T-Mobile.
The partnership will allow T-Mobile Android phones to come preloaded with a Twitter widget on the homescreen that delivers live updates, the two companies explained.
This feature will be rolled out in Germany, the Netherlands, Romania, Greece and Croatia to start.
“This is an unusual deal for both parties,” noted tech watchers, Gigaom. “Twitter has partnered with many telcos before, but they tend to be in the developing world – there, Twitter basically subsidizes data access that is used for its service, making it affordable for the average person to use.”
It noted that Deutsche Telekom does, in fact, have strategic partnerships with service providers such as Evernote (News - Alert), but these partnerships give Deutsche Telekom subscribers free access to those apps’ premium tier as a perk.
But, “Twitter doesn’t have a premium tier,” noted Gigaom.
It is obvious why Twitter would make the partnership: It gives the service instant real estate in a market that it isn’t doing well in. Just as Internet Explorer became the browser of choice in the 1990s due to it being preloaded on all new Windows computers, having a Twitter app preloaded on the phones of German subscribers can only help.
The main benefit for Deutsche Telekom seems to be that it might get access to Twitter’s features and functionality a bit ahead of others – that and being “a preferred partner for Twitter when it comes to innovative marketing, advertising and customer services opportunities on Twitter,” according to the carrier.
What this access will amount to for Deutsche Telekom remains to be seen, however. Historically, Twitter hasn’t exactly led in terms of tech innovations that can benefit cellular carriers. It is not like a partnership with Google (News - Alert), for instance, that could bring to bear a range of new offerings and integrations.
So, on the face of it, it looks like a smooth move for Twitter, with perhaps just a little upside for Deutsche Telekom.
Edited by Blaise McNamee
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