Facebook acquired Snaptu and then removed support for various apps and the one affected most was Twitter. More than 26 million users in emerging markets depended on Snaptu for feature phones, mainly Nokia and Samsung, as the only way to get Facebook, Twitter and others services.
With Facebook stopping to support Twitter and other services on Snaptu, we found a very good work around which impressed even the Snaptu Chief technology Officer (CTO), Barak Naveh. Now snaptu did a smart thing and made it almost impossible to use the workaround after the discovery.
So Snaptu has announced that it is completely shutting down as from 26th December 2011. That means that if yours has not been shut down, then today is the last day you can use Snaptu.
The Facebook acquisition of Snaptu looked suspect because Facebook experience on the platform was never pleasant. Twitter was really great on Snaptu but not Facebook. So the acquisition looked like meant to cut the influence of Twitter in emerging markets. Facebook was not happy that we could find a workaround hence thee abrupt shutdown now. Unlike the announcement over support of Twitter and other apps, the shutdown notice is only one week old.
We will be showing you better options of accessing Twitter and Facebook from your feature phones. Just watch this space.
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