diff --git a/src/utils/utf8.php b/src/utils/utf8.php
--- a/src/utils/utf8.php
+++ b/src/utils/utf8.php
@@ -256,7 +256,10 @@
  * @return int   The character length of the string.
  */
 function phutil_utf8_strlen($string) {
-  return strlen(utf8_decode($string));
+  if (function_exists('utf8_decode')) {
+    return strlen(utf8_decode($string));
+  }
+  return count(phutil_utf8v($string));
 }