Twitter is one of the most popular social networks, ranking among the top sites in terms of traffic and interaction, following Facebook and YouTube. It is a platform designed for microblogging, allowing users to share their thoughts and updates in short messages known as tweets, which are limited to 280 characters. Users can also share images and videos within these tweets. Once a user posts a tweet, it is sent to the platform’s servers and shared with their followers—people who have subscribed to receive updates from that user. The platform also allows users to follow specific topics through hashtags, making it a significant tool in shaping politics and culture in the early 21st century. It has become a news platform and a space for influential figures, including politicians, celebrities, and athletes, to share news, opinions, and interact with their followers.
History of Twitter
Twitter originated from a podcasting project called Odeo, founded in 2004 by Evan Williams, Biz Stone, and Noah Glass. (Williams and Stone had previously worked at Google, and Williams had created the popular blogging tool Blogger.) When Apple announced in 2005 that it would add podcast support to its iTunes digital media application, Odeo’s team realized they couldn’t compete. An engineer, Jack Dorsey, suggested a short messaging service (SMS) where users could send brief blog-like updates to friends. Noah Glass proposed the name “Twttr” for the service. On March 21, 2006, Dorsey sent the first official tweet, which read, “just setting up my twttr.” The full version of Twitter debuted in July 2006, with the name changed from “Twttr” to “Twitter” to align with the naming convention of similar sites, like Flickr.
In October 2006, Williams, Stone, and Dorsey acquired Odeo and started developing it further, with Twitter gaining significant attention after its presentation at the South by Southwest (SXSW) festival in Austin, Texas, in March 2007. The following month, Twitter Inc. was established to attract venture capital, and Dorsey became the first CEO of Twitter.
Although initially considered a service for short messaging, Twitter’s evolution into a social network became evident in April 2009, when actor Ashton Kutcher became the first user to surpass one million followers. Companies soon started tweeting about promotions and events, and political campaigns discovered Twitter’s value as a communication tool. During the 2008 U.S. presidential election, Barack Obama outpaced his rival John McCain in social media, amassing over 20 times more followers. This highlighted the importance of social networks in political strategies.
A significant development in Twitter’s evolution was its use by journalists as a real-time news source. On January 15, 2009, Janis Krums, a passenger on US Airways Flight 1549, posted a hurriedly taken photo of passengers leaving the partially submerged plane on Twitpic, a photo-hosting service for Twitter users at the time. Due to the high traffic to view the image, the site experienced a major outage.
Twitter became an emerging platform for information dissemination, particularly during the 2009 Iranian presidential election. Media reports claimed President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had won easily, but opposition supporters led by Mir Hossein Mousavi protested, resulting in government suppression. The hashtag #IranElection became one of the most-followed topics on Twitter as Mousavi’s supporters coordinated protests and posted live updates. Twitter postponed its routine maintenance to accommodate the flow of information from Iran. Despite the protests not changing the election results, these tweets demonstrated the power of alternative media in circumventing government censorship.
Following the January 2010 earthquake in Haiti, Twitter reaffirmed its role as a vital tool for information dissemination and fundraising. The Red Cross launched a fundraising campaign via Twitter, which exceeded expectations, raising over $8 million in 48 hours with help from prominent users and their followers.
In September 2013, Twitter went public, raising $1.8 billion in its initial public offering (IPO), giving it a market value of $31 billion. It became profitable in the last quarter of 2017 with 330 million monthly active users.
In October 2015, Jack Dorsey returned as CEO. Twitter continued to grow in popularity but struggled with profitability. To enhance user engagement, features like Moments were introduced in October 2015, allowing users and the platform itself to create organized collections of tweets and other content. Moments were later replaced by the Explore tab in January 2017, which consolidated trending topics, including Moments. Twitter also doubled the character limit for tweets from 140 to 280 in 2017. Fleets, introduced in November 2020, were designed to be temporary tweet collections disappearing within 24 hours, similar to Stories on other social networks. However, Fleets failed to engage users and were discontinued in August 2021. Twitter Spaces, introduced in May 2021, allowed accounts with over 600 followers to host live audio conversations.
In November 2021, Dorsey stepped down as CEO again, succeeded by Chief Technology Officer Parag Agrawal. By late 2021, Twitter had 217 million daily active users.
In 2022, Twitter was acquired by billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk for $44 billion, becoming privately owned. After initially withdrawing his offer over concerns about fake accounts and alleged breaches of the purchase agreement, Musk eventually completed the acquisition in October 2022 following a legal battle.
Rebranding to X
In August 2023, Twitter was rebranded as X, reflecting a shift in focus and strategy. The rebranding marked a new phase for the platform, with expanded functionalities and a renewed vision under Musk’s ownership.
Tweets are typically visible to the public by default, but users can restrict their tweets to followers only. Users can also block unwanted followers, remove them from their followers list, and control interactions. Tweets can be posted via the website, compatible external apps (like smartphone apps), or through SMS in certain countries. Users can follow others to receive their updates, known as “followers.” Tweets can be retweeted, which is similar to sharing on Facebook, and users can also quote tweets to add comments. In 2015, Twitter introduced the “Quote Tweet” feature, allowing users to add comments to retweets. Users can also like individual tweets. In 2016, Twitter announced that media such as photos and videos would not count against the 140-character limit, which was later expanded to 280 characters in 2017.
