Twitter, the social media platform for folks that enjoy coming together to be miserable, is setting up its first office on the continent of Africa. Ghana will be the home of Jack Dorsey’s money-making pit of despair.
It’s baffling that Twitter has taken this long to establish a physical base in Africa but hey, at least they’re finally here to do… office things. In Africa. Which is a massive continent and will no doubt have country-specific issues with Twitter that can’t be solved with a singular office. Still, at least it’s something for the time being.
Twitter wrote up a brief blog post explaining the establishment of the office. “Today, in line with our growth strategy, we’re excited to announce that we are now actively building a team in Ghana. To truly serve the public conversation, we must be more immersed in the rich and vibrant communities that drive the conversations taking place every day across the African continent,” reads the post.
Ghana with the wind
So why Ghana? Well, according to Twitter the choice was based on the country’s support for “free speech, online freedom, and the Open Internet,” which aligns with Twitters particular set of values. Good thing that Twitter didn’t choose Uganda then, a country that represents the opposite of all those features.
So as neat as this whole thing is, what is Twitter hoping to achieve by establishing a base of operations in Africa? Well, it sounds like they want to deeper embed themselves in Africa, a growing region that may have been slower in adopting Twitter due to a general lack of internet infrastructure. “As part of our long-term commitment to the region, we’ll continue to explore compelling ways we can use the positive power of Twitter to strengthen our communities through employee engagement, platform activation, and corporate giving.”
In other words, it looks really good for Twitter to be doing business in Africa.
