Twitter which is apparently on the verge of announcing a data mining agreeement with Google and/or Microsoft (Bing). But in the meantime they are revealing a plan to expand internationally with FIGS.

In the beginning Twitter will attempt to crowdsource some of the initial translations. I know many users in Mexico, and internationally are using the English Language version yet however their Tweets are in Spanish.

Interestingly I see that market as a major place for expansion if they can make some deals with cell phone providers to provide cheap or affordable SMS communications with Twitter like they have with providers here in the United States.

“Twitter is currently available only in English and Japanese. With some help, we will soon be rolling out support for French, Italian, German, and Spanish. These languages are commonly referred to using the acronym FIGS and are often the starting point for services like Twitter when its time for more language support. Later, we hope to offer Twitter in several other languages. No matter how sophisticated technology gets, we’re reminded daily that it’s about people and that’s something we’ve taken to heart regarding translating Twitter. ”

Source: Twitter

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