Twitter turns off lights in Australia

Ok, so it’s not really as bad and earth-shattering as it may sound. But according to this story on Mashable, Twitter had to discontinue their SMS service in Australia. Apparently down-under SMS fees are too hefty both for Twitter and the users (nice of them to tell them whether they can afford something or not, don’t you think?).

I couldn’t help but think of my latest update on here, which in part dealt with the growing pains massive growth like Twitter’s surely entails. While Australia may not be the biggest country in this beautiful little world of ours, it sure is a continent. And once a service has to be shut down for an entire continent, it just doesn’t shed a very good light on their ability to scale.

Also see this Techcrunch article on scaling doubts.