Twitter for FinlandTuomas KaittolaHeikki HemminkiPaulina Durán

Snapshot of Finnish culture

Power distance

Individualism

Masculinity

Uncertainty Avoidance

Pragmatism

Indulgence

0

50

100

Under the surface

Straightforward

No small talk

Antisocial Humble

Only true interest in things

Twitter & Finland

63,632 accounts tweeting in Finnish

Av. followers = 70 (median = 6)

Av. status updates = 280 (median = 10)

Sources: Finnish Twitter Census 2013 http://www.finnishtwitter.com/ Smartphone Penetration 2013 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_smartphone_penetration

25,965 truly active accounts per month

Av. followers = 141 (median = 15) per month

Av. status updates = 653 (median = 62) per month

0.5% - 1.17% of total population, use it

Smartphone penetration = 45.5 %

Redesign

Language Filters

Tweaked “Mute” “Only most important”

Surprise me Achievements Random questions Dual feeds

Language

Lack of consistency: Not all information is available in Finnish

Filters

Filter out retweets ”I’m following this person for a reason, I don’t want to hear what

other people have said!” Relatively high uncertainty avoidance -> more control

needed

Even more filters

Filter out work-related tweets Filter out certain hashtags Filter out non-important tweets

Surprise me

Finns like uncertainty, even if it is not always desired New ways to discover new people

Achievements

More reasons to tweet

Beat your friends

Get famous

Random questions

More examples:• Doing anything exciting this weekend?• I need to tell the world...• What's up?• What annoys you right now?• What’s going on?Increased

creativity!

Fresh ideas Less

uncertain

Dual feeds

Two things at

once!

Both sides of

the conversa

tion

Exclusively for big screens

Conclusions

Twitter is already working quite well Too much localization wouldn’t be a good idea Same design would work on similar cultures?

Let the user choose!

Lessons

Finnish & Mexican cultures

Power distance

Individualism

Masculinity

Uncertainty Avoidance

Pragmatism

Indulgence

0

50

100

• Collectivism & individualism• Relationship oriented vs. Goal oriented• Tolerance & understanding