Who Owns Twitter?

Who Owns Twitter? – Whenever you find yourself on a social platform like Twitter, you begin to question yourself on who founded the brilliant app. By acquainting yourself with the founder, you get to understand how the app operates as well as what it truly entails. In 2006, Twitter was co-founded by three individuals – Jack Dorsey, Evans Williams, and Biz Stones. It was designed to become a microblogging site where users can send and receive short messages with ease. After a while, it incorporates social networking features to allow its users to communicate through brief messages known as “tweets.” Today, over 1.3 billion accounts have been registered on the site with 330m individuals actively using the platform monthly.

What is Twitter?

Twitter is a microblogging site that allows people to share their ideas or experiences, upload images or videos in a timeline. What makes Twitter unique from other social media platforms is the timeline. The timeline encourages democracy, thereby allowing millions of people to share their ideas or perspectives about a specific happening, conversation, or event. Here, people can express their opinions or tell their stories. Also, companies can use it to target their respective audience, advertise to them, and respond to their complaints with ease.

As a microblogging site, Twitter allows its users to publish their content in 280 different characters. This makes the message brief and concise. Besides, it incorporates other content types such as images, videos, audio, and more. Thanks to its timeline, Twitter updates itself with recent happenings thereby enlightening its users on content such as the latest news, latest trends, keeping in touch with favorite celebrities and artists, and more.

Jack Dorsey alongside Evan Williams, Noah Glass, and Biz Stones all co-founded the online micro-blogging site in 2006. Although much relevance is not given to Noah Class, he is still acknowledged as one of the early founders who contributed a great deal of effort to the success of the company. In 2000, Jack first considered an instant messaging platform to keep in touch with friends. However, he couldn’t achieve that until he met Evan Williams and Biz Stones who supported his idea. Together, the three individuals built a prototype of what today is recognized as Twitter.

The first tweet ever made on the site was that of Jack Dorsey on March 21, 2006. As at that time, the platform allowed messages of no more than 140 characters to communicate. Thanks to a series of events, the company became recognized by different individuals, agencies, and organizations that understood the need of the company. Until 2008, Dorsey served as the CEO of the company to ensure its growth. In 2013, he was involved in Twitter’s initial public offering which raised about $1.8 billion and increased its valuation to $24 billion. Today, Twitter has three main shareholders with Jack Dorsey as the CEO.

History of Twitter

After leaving Google due to the acquisition of his previous startup, Evan Williams alongside his co-workers, Noah Glass and Biz Stones started a new business venture that involved podcasting. The podcasting company, Odeo was created to offer services in the podcasting world. It was at this time that Jack Dorsey joined the company as a new employee. However, Odeo did not live long following the emergence of Apple’s iTunes in the industry. Hence, Williams organized a hackathon involving the company’s employees to introduce new innovations that could keep the business afloat.

Jack Dorsey had an idea he called “status.” It involved using live blogging services to send messages to a recipient who was inactive on a platform. The messages could be updating one’s status, moments, or ideas to the public. He introduced this idea to Glass who also felt it was a good one. On the last day of the hackathon, Dorsey developed the first version of his idea using the Ruby computer programming language. With the project, Williams became convinced it was a smart move that could replace Odeo. Hence, Noah looked up the dictionary to find a name that will suit the idea. Hence, the term “Twttr” was coined. On March 21, 2006, the Twitter idea emerged after the initial startup, Odeo failed to gain the attention it truly deserved.

Timeline of Twitter

Twitter didn’t just rise to prominence after its invention. It took a series of processes to get it to where it is today. Here, this section explores the timeline that defined modern-day Twitter.

November 2004 – Evans Williams and Biz Stones leave Google to create a new startup Odeo, Twitter’s parent company
February 2005 – Odeo starts its podcasting service but receives low attention from the public
February 2006 – Following Dorsey’s idea, Evan Williams, Noah Glass, Jack Dorsey, and Biz Stones discusses the idea of text messaging status to the public
March 2006 – Noah researches for a name that will suit the new idea. Hence, the name Twttr is coined
March 21, 2006 – Twitter is officially developed and Jack sends his first tweet
August 2006 – Twitter users tweet about a mild Californian earthquake. This event helped the Twitter team to see the project as an avenue of reporting live events from different perspectives.
October 2006 – Obvious company was created by Twitter’s founder to acquire assets from Odeo and Twitter.
March 2007 – Twitter becomes successful at South by Southwest Interactive (SXSW).
April 2007 – Twitter spins off as its own company
June 2007 – Twitter announced its first official funding which increased the company’s value to $20 million
August 2007- The Hashtags (#), makes its first debut on Twitter thanks to a user, Chris Messina
October 2008 – Jack Dorsey stepped down as the company’s CEO allowing Evans Williams to take over
April 2009 – A Twitter feud occurs between actor Ashton Kutcher and CNN on who will gain the first one million followers. Kutcher won and appeared in an Oprah Winfrey’s show alongside Williams explaining the platform to the audience
April 2009 – Dorsey travels with other tech entrepreneurs to Iraq to advise the Iraqi government on how to create a tech-friendly environment. This campaign was part of Dorsey’s effort to assert his status as the inventor on Twitter.
April 2009 – Time’s 100 influential people was published including Twitter Executives such as Evan Williams and Biz Stones.
January 2010 – The first tweet from space is sent by a NASA astronaut, T.J Creamer from the International Space Station
April 2010 – Twitter introduces its own advertising medium in form of promoted tweets
October 2010 – Williams steps down as CEO while allowing Dick Costolo, the former COO take over the CEO position
July 2011 – The White House hosts Twitter Town Hall with President Obama as the chief speaker and Jack Dorsey as the moderator
September 2011 – Twitter reaches 100 million monthly active users
December 2011 – Twitter redesigns its homepage by adding features such as Home, Connect, and Discover Tabs to the layout
June 2012 – Twitter redesigns its logo giving more prominence to the bluebird symbol
February 2012 – Twitter partners with the Russian search engine, Yandex due to its news feeds on the timeline
October 2012 – Twitter acquires Vine, a video-clipping company
December 2012 – Twitter’s monthly active users reaches 200 million.
April 2013 – Twitter releases a music app called Twitter Music for iPhone users.
November 2013 – According to Time, Twitter’s valuation increased to $24 billion and raised about $1.8 billion after releasing its IPO.
December 2014 – Twitter announced the release of new anti-harassment tools that will curb online abuse
January 2015 – Twitter introduces the “while you were away” feature
March 2015 – Twitter introduces the “Quality Filter” Feature for IOS users to block tweets incite abuse and bullying
April 2015 – Twitter’s shares fall by 15%
May 2015 – Dick Cistolo steps down as the CEO with Jack Dorsey taking over the position again.
October & November 2015 – Twitter includes features such as “Twitter moments” and replaces the favorite button with a heart and like symbol.
October 2016 – Twitter lays off about 9% of its employees, cutting off 350 jobs.
October 2016 – Twitter stops the use of the Vine app.
January 2017 – Twitter sells its developer platform to Google.
November 2017 – A rogue employee deactivates the former US President, Donald Trump’s account. It was later restored after 11 minutes.
September 2018 – Jack Dorsey appears before the US Senate together with Facebook’s COO, Sheryl Sandberg.
November 2018 – Twitter expands the limits of its characters, from 140 to 280
June 2019 – Twitter reveals thousands of fake accounts linked to the Iraqi and Russian government

How to Sign up on Twitter?

Twitter’s microblogging site is useful for getting news, raising awareness about an event, sharing ideas and experiences. You can sign up on Twitter through these five simple ways.

Go to Twitter.com and click on the signup option
Provide the page with your name, email, or phone number.
Then, Twitter will send a code to you that you can use to verify your email or phone number
Create a password to finalize the step.

After this, you will have successfully created an account. Then, you can optimize your page and enjoy Twitter.

Who Owns Twitter? – History and Timeline