Rio gifted prized Twitter handle for Olympics
Olympic organizers in Rio have been given a ‘valuable’ gift after a Spanish shoeshine man handed over the prized Twitter handle @riodejaneiro for free.
Javier Castano, 50, registered it and several other key Twitter names back in 2007 when the social network was still in its infancy.
He said he spent many years sending messages to Rio city hall offering the Twitter handle for free.
Officials finally replied and accepted his gift.
"We are very happy to at last be able to use the name of our city on the social network," said tourism secretary Antonio Pedro Figueira Mello in a statement.
"This will be of great value now that we are getting closer to the Olympics."
Castano used to be a graphic designer at the time but now earns about $34 a day shining shoes in Malaga, southern Spain.
He also has ownership of the @japan name and wants to pass it on to Olympic officials in charge of the 2020 Games.
"I am a shoeshine man with not much money, but I have the privilege of being able to give a gift to 130 million Japanese people or eight million people in Rio," he said.
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Editor for TravelMole North America and Asia pacific regions. Ray is a highly experienced (15+ years) skilled journalist and editor predominantly in travel, hospitality and lifestyle working with a huge number of major market-leading brands. He has also cover in-depth news, interviews and features in general business, finance, tech and geopolitical issues for a select few major news outlets and publishers.
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