Turkey Mobile Operators Team Up on Messaging in Snub to WhatsApp
Turkey Mobile Operators Team Up on Messaging in Snub to WhatsApp
(Bloomberg) -- Turkey’s mobile operators have joined forces on messaging applications and social media, amid widespread consumer reaction to a policy shift by Facebook Inc.’s WhatsApp.
Mobile subscribers of Turk Telekomunikasyon AS and Turkcell Iletisim AS will be able to use Turkcell’s messaging app BiP and Turk Telekom social media app Yaay without spending from their online quotas, according to a joint statement by the companies. The two apps will be offered free of charge in a subscription package of Vodafone Plc’s local unit.
Subscribers of the three companies will be able to use Turkcell’s domestic messaging application BiP and Turk Telekom’s social media app Yaay, according to an emailed statement. The cooperation aims “to keep Turkey’s data in Turkey,” the companies said. BiP has registered about 10 million new users in less than a week, Turkcell said in a separate statement on Thursday.
WhatsApp has begun alerting its 2 billion users to an update of its privacy policy, with the new terms triggering a wave of defections to rival services. The company will be reserving the right to share data it collects about users with the broader Facebook network, which includes Instagram, regardless of whether they have accounts or profiles there.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s media office and the country’s defense ministry switched to BiP from WhatsApp, urging journalists to follow them. Erdogan switched to Telegram and BiP, Anadolu Agency reported on Jan. 12.
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