Twitter Considers 10,000 Character Limit – Shares Plummet

New Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey is considering dropping the site’s unique selling point, the 140-character limit for Tweets, in favour of up to 10,000 characters, according to a report by Re/code. Since the rumour broke, the price of shares in Twitter Inc. have dropped by 0.65 points (-2.86%) after normal trading hours.

“Twitter is building a new feature that will allow users to tweet things longer than the traditional 140-character limit,” Re/code’s Kurt Wagner claims, “and the company is targeting a launch date toward the end of Q1, according to multiple sources familiar with the company’s plans. Twitter is currently considering a 10,000 character limit, according to these sources. That’s the same character limit the company uses for its Direct Messages product, so it isn’t a complete surprise.”

“There is no official launch date set in stone, these sources say,” Wagner added. “It’s also possible the character limit could fluctuate before it rolls out the final product, which people inside Twitter refer to as “Beyond 140.””

Twitter is aware that a greater character limit could leave the site open to exploitation and is working on a way to prevent spamming.

While boasting over 200 million accounts, Twitter has been haemorrhaging users for the past few years, and new Chief Executive Dorsey hopes that new innovations with the microblogging site can turn the company’s fortunes around.