A Retrospective of Twitter’s 17-Year Journey: Examining the Development of the Social Media Platform

On July 15, 2006, Twitter was established by Jack Dorsey, but it is currently owned by tech tycoon Elon Musk. Throughout its existence, the micro-blogging platform has developed its unique identity. Twitter has experienced notable changes in leadership and modifications to its character limit. As the platform celebrates another year, let’s take a glimpse at its progression over time.

History

The concept of Twitter originated from the podcasting company Odeo, founded by Biz Stone, Evan Williams and Noah Glass. When Apple announced the addition of podcasts to iTunes in 2005, Biz, Evan and Noah thought the app would compete with Apple. Jack Dorsey, who worked at Odeo as an engineer, proposed the idea of a short message service (SMS). After being accepted, Dorsey began developing the project, which was originally called Twttr.

After months of development, Jack Dorsey sent the first message in March 2006. The iconic tweet simply stated, “Just setting up my twttr.”

Later that year, Biz Stone, Evan Williams, Noah Glass, and Jack Dorsey released the final version of the app, allowing users to join the platform. In 2007, Twitter, Inc. was founded, where Jack took on the role of the company’s first CEO.

Evolution

1. In 2007, Chris Messina introduced the hashtag concept. At first the idea was rejected, but it quickly gained attention and became an integral part of not only Twitter but also other social media platforms.
2. In 2009, as Twitter gained popularity and attracted prominent figures, concerns about fake accounts came to the fore. To solve these problems, the company launched a verification token.
3. Since its early days, the company has gone through several changes and introduced new features to improve the user experience.
4. They introduce Promoted Tweets and Retweet feature.
5. To compete with other social media platforms, Twitter introduced direct messages (DM), Spaces and Fleets, a feature similar to stories, but it was discontinued due to lack of user interest.
6. Under the leadership of its original founder, Jack Dorsey, Twitter was introduced with a tweet length limit of 140 characters.
7. As the company developed, the maximum length increased to 280 characters.
8. However, after Elon Musk’s official takeover, the app now supports up to 25,000 tokens for users who pay per subscription.