The instant message, or SMS service for Twitter users in the UK has been cancelled by the San Francisco startup. The company will still allow users to use and access 'Tweets' but owing to SMS operator costs in the UK they will no longer support Single Message Services.
The company has halted SMS services because of the costs. They are losing money to the British mobile phone operators, and will continue to offer a stripped down version of the service until a more favorable situation is obtained with the operators.
Twitter users based in the US, Canada and India will not be affected. The move is a big blow to the statrtup company that gained $15 million in funding last year and whose users have grown to 2.2 million worldwide since launching in 2006.
Perhaps now Ev Williams and Biz Stone, the company's two co-founders, will have to step up their plans to figure out how to make the Twitter system profitable.