Popular microblogging service Twitter had struck a strategic partnership with T-Mobile owner Deutsche Telekom, said a report on TechCrunch. The German carrier phone owner has a 140 million mobile and 31 million fixed-line subscriber base in Europe and the US.
Deutsche Telekom said about its partnership with the newly-public company, "(the company will become) a preferred partner for Twitter when it comes to innovative marketing, advertising and customer services opportunities on Twitter." Financial terms of the partnership deal, however, were not revealed.
According to the TechCrunch report, the partnership of Twitter with the German company will allow the microblogging service to increase the user and usage of its social networking platform. This will be achieved by Deutsche Telekom embedding a client of Twitter on Android devices homescreens on the German company's network.
Deutsche Telekom Chief Executive Officer René Obermann said in a statement, "Twitter shows how lively a communication in 140 characters is. We experience this in our daily dialogue with our clients for example via our customer care account ‘Telekom hilft' (Telekom supports). With the cooperation with Twitter we will reach even more people in the future even better. If you want to know about the latest topics you'll find the answers on Twitter. Twitter connects. Just as we do."
The German carrier said the partnership will be covering the areas of Germany, the Netherlands, Romania, Greece and Croatia initially. Deutsche Telekom in all has full ownership or stakes in carriers in around 14 countries.
On the other hand, Twitter's recent deal was seen as an effort to capitalize its growing user base and turn it into profits. In its S-1 prospectus filed prior to its listing last month, its 179 million monthly active users abroad and 52.7 million monthly active users in the US did not translate into better revenues. Twitter posted a measly USD106.7 million in revenues in the nine months ended in September this year from its non-US business.
In an earlier filing, Twitter noted, "If we fail to expand effectively in international markets, our revenue and our business will be harmed."
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