Jack Dorsey sent the first Tweet on
21 March 2006. At that time, he had no idea that his
creation was set to become one of the most important and most
popular social media networks in the world. Initially intended to
be a microblogging platform for Dorsey and his
colleagues.
Today Twitter boasts an active user
base of more than 332 million, with approximately 6,000 tweets now
being sent every second.
Twitter has undoubtedly changed the way people
communicate online, most notably with its 140-character format
that, for better or worse, urges users to be judicious with their
words. The social platform has also become a go-to for following
world events in real time.
Since its conception, Twitter has changed the way in
which we consume media and has become increasingly influential over
the news agenda itself: more than being just a distribution
platform.
Today Twitter plays a crucial role
in how news is gathered and reported from the start. As the website
celebrates its 10th birthday we take a look back at some of the
defining moments in Twitter's history.
Twitter's decade of hashtagging dominance began on March
21, 2006, though no one knew then exactly how pervasive the site
would become. We now live in an age where it's hard to find
anything at all that isn't prefixed with a # or @. Here's the first
tweet ever sent on that fateful day, posted by none other than
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey :
Though the platform is loved by many, the last few years
for Twitter have been turbulent. Its share price has hit new lows
time and again since the start of the year. Executives have been
leaving the company in droves. And investors have expressed doubt
about Dorsey, who works 18-hour days running Twitter and
the payments company, Square, simultaneously.
