Twitter launch anniversary: History and how the microblogging platform has evolved since 2006

Social media giant Twitter was launched on this very day 16 years ago. On 15 July 2006, the microblogging website was launched to the public. Since then, it has emerged as one of the biggest social media platforms with millions of active users.

These days, the company is under controversy after Tesla CEO Elon Musk said that he was abandoning his $44 billion takeover deal of the company. Twitter’s share price plunged $36.81 after the news broke, a sharp decline from Musk's $54.20 bid.
As the company plans to take the world’s richest man to court over the abandoned deal, here is a look at the company’s history and how it has evolved since its launch in 2006:

History:

The idea for Twitter came from the podcasting venture Odeo, which had been formed by Biz Stone, Evan Williams and Noah Glass. After Apple announced in 2005 that it was adding podcasts to its iTunes applications, the management at Odeo realised that they needed to give their company a new direction to compete with Apple.

At that point of time, Jack Dorsey was working at the company as an engineer. He came up with the idea of a short message service (SMS) where users could share small blog-like updates with their friends. After the go-ahead, Dorsey began working on the project named Twttr.

On 21 March 2006, he sent the first tweet ever (“just setting up my twttr”). On 15 July the same year, the completed product (Twitter) was launched. In October 2006, Dorsey, Williams and Stone bought out Odeo and started Obvious Corp. to further develop the platform. In 2007, Twitter, Inc. was created as a corporate entity and Dorsey became its first CEO.

Evolution:

The microblogging platform soon emerged as a great way to communicate with others, share information and more. The number of Twitter followers also became a barometer of one’s popularity.

To entice more users towards the platform, Twitter has undergone some major changes since its launch. Here are some of them:

Introduced hashtags (2007):

While hashtags had been around for a while, it was brought over to Twitter by Chris Messina. According to a CNBC report, the idea was initially dismissed as “too nerdy” and something “that would never catch on.” However, the hashtag soon became an indispensable part of social media and Twitter itself.

Introduced verified accounts (2009):

The microblogging platform introduced verified accounts and the verification tick after several celebrities started complaining of impersonation.

Introduced retweeting (2009):

The platform came up with the retweet option, making it easier for users to repost what someone else had shared.

Use of promoted tweets for advertising (2010): 

After Twitter gained 100 million new users in 2010, the company launched the promoted tweets option as a monetisation feature.

Launched Anti-abuse tools (2014):

To counter growing harassment, Twitter introduced options like new anti-abuse options. Over the years, these have evolved into quality filters, blocking, mute option and content reporting.

Increased character limit to 280 (2017):

Twitter, which had gained fame for its 140-character limit, decided to alter it over a decade after its launch. The move was met with praise and criticism in equal measure.

Added modern features like DMs, Stories, Spaces and more (2020):

To counter the growing rise of other social media platforms, Twitter introduced a host of features like Stories, DMs and Spaces.

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