Twitter Is Testing a New App That Uses Less Data in the Philippines

By Edward Leano, Christian Post Contributor Tuesday, September 26, 2017

Twitter is now testing an Android version of its app that's designed to be used in parts of the world with slow Internet connections. The social media platform has now found a perfect place to test Twitter Lite in the Philippines.

The Southeast Asian country is way behind the rest of the world when it comes to mobile networks, and this makes the Philippines a good place to test their new app. If successful, the Android version of Twitter Lite could be useful to regions where Internet access is limited, whether curtailed by lagging infrastructure or hampered by mobile data costs.

"The Philippines market has slow mobile networks and expensive data plans, while mobile devices with limited storage are still very popular there," said a Twitter representative, as quoted by Tech Crunch.

"Twitter Lite helps to overcome these barriers to usage for Twitter in the Philippines," the spokesperson said, adding that the test launch of the Twitter Lite app in the country's Google Play Store is just that, "an experiment."

The app still retains much of the features of Twitter, while also adding options to turn off images or videos. The app itself is just under 3 MB, a tiny footprint for Android devices in the market today, as The Verge notes.

The social media platform looks to be hoping to boost the adoption of Twitter in emerging markets similar to the Philippines, where mobile plans are limited and expensive.

Meanwhile, the current price war between Globe and PLDT, the two biggest networks in the country, has caused the price for mobile data in the country to plummet, according to Bloomberg.

Earlier this year, the cost of 1 MB of data brings telcos in the country an average of $0.001, a fraction of the revenue average of Chinese networks, for example, who earn $0.0113.

"The Philippines is a two-player market, yet they are killing each other," Karen Hizon, an analyst for UBS Group AG, noted. The competition has been a boon for subscribers who now have some access to cheaper mobile data, even in limited quantities.