Twitter is an American microblogging and social networking service on which users post and interact with messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and retweet tweets, but unregistered users can only read them. Users access Twitter through its website interface or its mobile-device application software ("app"), though the service could also be accessed via SMS before April 2020.[13] The service is provided by Twitter, Inc., a corporation based in San Francisco, California, and has more than 25 offices around the world.[14] Tweets were originally restricted to 140 characters, but the limit was doubled to 280 for non-CJK languages in November 2017.[15] Audio and video tweets remain limited to 140 seconds for most accounts.
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US$3.72 billion (2020)
US$13.37 billion (2020)
Twitter was created by Jack Dorsey, Noah Glass, Biz Stone, and Evan Williams in March 2006 and launched in July of that year. By 2012, more than 100 million users posted 340 million tweets a day,[16] and the service handled an average of 1.6 billion search queries per day.[17][18][19] In 2013, it was one of the ten most-visited websites and has been described as "the SMS of the Internet".[20] As of Q1 2019, Twitter had more than 330 million monthly active users.[10] Twitter is a some-to-many microblogging service, given that the vast majority of tweets are written by a small minority of users.[21][22]
History
2006–2007: Creation and initial reaction
Twitter's origins lie in a "daylong brainstorming session" held by board members of the podcasting company Odeo. Jack Dorsey, then an undergraduate student at New York University, introduced the idea of an individual using an SMS service to communicate with a small group.[23][24] The original project code name for the service was twttr, an idea that Williams later ascribed to Noah Glass,[25] inspired by Flickr and the five-character length of American SMS short codes. The decision was also partly due to the fact that the domain twitter.com was already in use, and it was six months after the launch of twttr that the crew purchased the domain and changed the name of the service to Twitter.[26] The developers initially considered "10958" as a short code, but later changed it to "40404" for "ease of use and memorability".[27] Work on the project started on 21 March 2006, when Dorsey published the first Twitter message at 9:50 p.m. PST (UTC−08:00): "just setting up my twttr".[3]
Dorsey has explained the origin of the "Twitter" title:
...we came across the word 'twitter', and it was just perfect. The definition was 'a short burst of inconsequential information,' and 'chirps from birds'. And that's exactly what the product was.[28]
The first Twitter prototype, developed by Dorsey and contractor Florian Weber, was used as an internal service for Odeo employees.[29] The full version was introduced publicly on 15 July 2006.[11] In October 2006, Biz Stone, Evan Williams, Dorsey, and other members of Odeo formed Obvious Corporation and acquired Odeo, together with its assets—including Odeo.com and Twitter.com—from the investors and shareholders.[30] Williams fired Glass, who was silent about his part in Twitter's startup until 2011.[31] Twitter spun off into its own company in April 2007.[32] Williams provided insight into the ambiguity that defined this early period in a 2013 interview:
With Twitter, it wasn't clear what it was. They called it a social network, they called it microblogging, but it was hard to define, because it didn't replace anything. There was this path of discovery with something like that, where over time you figure out what it is. Twitter actually changed from what we thought it was in the beginning, which we described as status updates and a social utility. It is that, in part, but the insight we eventually came to was Twitter was really more of an information network than it is a social network.[33]
2007–2010
The tipping point for Twitter's popularity was the 2007 South by Southwest Interactive (SXSWi) conference. During the event, Twitter usage increased from 20,000 tweets per day to 60,000.[34] "The Twitter people cleverly placed two 60-inch plasma screens in the conference hallways, exclusively streaming Twitter messages," remarked Newsweek's Steven Levy. "Hundreds of conference-goers kept tabs on each other via constant twitters. Panelists and speakers mentioned the service, and the bloggers in attendance touted it."[35] Reaction at the conference was highly positive. Blogger Scott Beale said that Twitter was "absolutely ruling" SXSWi. Social software researcher Danah Boyd said Twitter was "owning" the conference.[36] Twitter staff received the festival's Web Award prize with the remark "we'd like to thank you in 140 characters or less. And we just did!"[37]
The company experienced rapid initial growth. It had 400,000 tweets posted per quarter in 2007. This grew to 100 million tweets posted per quarter in 2008. In February 2010, Twitter users were sending 50 million tweets per day.[38] By March 2010, the company recorded over 70,000 registered applications.[39] As of June 2010, about 65 million tweets were posted each day, equaling about 750 tweets sent each second, according to Twitter.[40] As of March 2011, that was about 140 million tweets posted daily.[41] As noted on Compete.com, Twitter moved up to the third-highest-ranking social networking site in January 2009 from its previous rank of twenty-second.[42]
Twitter's usage spikes during prominent events. For example, a record was set during the 2010 FIFA World Cup when fans wrote 2,940 tweets per second in the thirty-second period after Japan scored against Cameroon on 14 June 2010. The record was broken again when 3,085 tweets per second were posted after the Los Angeles Lakers' victory in the 2010 NBA Finals on 17 June 2010,[43] and then again at the close of Japan's victory over Denmark in the World Cup when users published 3,283 tweets per second.[44] The record was set again during the 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup Final between Japan and the United States, when 7,196 tweets per second were published.[45] When American singer Michael Jackson died on 25 June 2009, Twitter servers crashed after users were updating their status to include the words "Michael Jackson" at a rate of 100,000 tweets per hour.[46] The current record as of 3 August 2013 was set in Japan, with 143,199 tweets per second during a television screening of the movie Castle in the Sky[47] (beating the previous record of 33,388, also set by Japan for the television screening of the same movie).[48]
The first unassisted off-Earth Twitter message was posted from the International Space Station by NASA astronaut T. J. Creamer on 22 January 2010.[49] By late November 2010, an average of a dozen updates per day were posted on the astronauts' communal account, @NASA_Astronauts. NASA has also hosted over 25 "tweetups", events that provide guests with VIP access to NASA facilities and speakers with the goal of leveraging participants' social networks to further the outreach goals of NASA. In August 2010, the company appointed Adam Bain from News Corp.'s Fox Audience Network as president of revenue.[50][relevant? ]
Twitter acquired application developer Atebits on 11 April 2010. Atebits had developed the Apple Design Award-winning Twitter client Tweetie for the Mac and iPhone. The application, now called "Twitter" and distributed free of charge, is the official Twitter client for the iPhone, iPad and Mac.[51]
2010–2014
From September through October 2010, the company began rolling out "New Twitter", an entirely revamped edition of twitter.com. Changes included the ability to see pictures and videos without leaving Twitter itself by clicking on individual tweets which contain links to images and clips from a variety of supported websites including YouTube and Flickr, and a complete overhaul of the interface, which shifted links such as '@mentions' and 'Retweets' above the Twitter stream, while 'Messages' and 'Log Out' became accessible via a black bar at the very top of twitter.com. As of November 1, 2010, the company confirmed that the "New Twitter experience" had been rolled out to all users. In 2019, Twitter was announced to be the 10th most downloaded mobile app of the decade, from 2010 to 2019.[52]
On April 5, 2011, Twitter tested a new homepage and phased out the "Old Twitter".[53] However, a glitch came about after the page was launched, so the previous "retro" homepage was still in use until the issues were resolved; the new homepage was reintroduced on April 20.[54][55] On December 8, 2011, Twitter overhauled its website once more to feature the "Fly" design, which the service says is easier for new users to follow and promotes advertising. In addition to the Home tab, the Connect and Discover tabs were introduced along with a redesigned profile and timeline of Tweets. The site's layout has been compared to that of Facebook.[56][57] On February 21, 2012, it was announced that Twitter and Yandex agreed to a partnership. Yandex, a Russian search engine, finds value within the partnership due to Twitter's real time news feeds. Twitter's director of business development explained that it is important to have Twitter content where Twitter users go.[58] On March 21, 2012, Twitter celebrated its sixth birthday while also announcing that it had 140 million users and 340 million tweets per day. The number of users was up 40% from their September 2011 number, which was said to have been at 100 million at the time.[59]
In April 2012, Twitter announced that it was opening an office in Detroit, with the aim of working with automotive brands and advertising agencies.[60] Twitter also expanded its office in Dublin.[61] On June 5, 2012, a modified logo was unveiled through the company blog, removing the text to showcase the slightly redesigned bird as the sole symbol of Twitter.[62][63] On October 5, 2012, Twitter acquired a video clip company called Vine that launched in January 2013.[64][65] Twitter released Vine as a standalone app that allows users to create and share six-second looping video clips on January 24, 2013. Vine videos shared on Twitter are visible directly in users' Twitter feeds.[66] Due to an influx of inappropriate content, it is now rated 17+ in Apple's[needs update][67] app store.[68] On December 18, 2012, Twitter announced it had surpassed 200 million monthly active users. Twitter hit 100 million monthly active users in September 2011.[69]
On January 28, 2013, Twitter acquired Crashlytics in order to build out its mobile developer products.[70] On April 18, 2013, Twitter launched a music app called Twitter Music for the iPhone.[71] On August 28, 2013, Twitter acquired Trendrr,[72] followed by the acquisition of MoPub on September 9, 2013.[73] As of September 2013, the company's data showed that 200 million users sent over 400 million tweets daily, with nearly 60% of tweets sent from mobile devices.[74]
2014–2019
In April 2014, Twitter underwent a redesign that made the site resemble Facebook somewhat.[75] On June 4, 2014, Twitter announced that it would acquire Namo Media, a technology firm specializing in "native advertising" for mobile devices.[76] On June 19, 2014, Twitter announced that it had reached an undisclosed deal to buy SnappyTV, a service that helps edit and share video from television broadcasts.[77][78] The company was helping broadcasters and rights holders to share video content both organically across social and via Twitter's Amplify program.[79] In July 2014, Twitter announced that it intended to buy a young company called CardSpring for an undisclosed sum. CardSpring enabled retailers to offer online shoppers coupons that they could automatically sync to their credit cards in order to receive discounts when they shopped in physical stores.[80] On July 31, 2014, Twitter announced that it had acquired a small password-security startup called Mitro.[81] On October 29, 2014, Twitter announced a new partnership with IBM. The partnership was intended to help businesses use Twitter data to understand their customers, businesses and other trends.[82]
On February 11, 2015, Twitter announced that it had acquired Niche, an advertising network for social media stars, founded by Rob Fishman and Darren Lachtman.[83] The acquisition price was reportedly $50 million.[84] On March 13, 2015, Twitter announced its acquisition of Periscope, an app that allows live streaming of video.[85] In April 2015, the Twitter.com desktop homepage changed.[86] Twitter announced that it had acquired TellApart, a commerce ads tech firm, with $532 million stock.[87][88] Later in the year it became apparent that growth had slowed, according to Fortune,[89] Business Insider,[90] Marketing Land[91] and other news websites including Quartz (in 2016).[92] In June 2016, Twitter acquired an artificial intelligence startup called Magic Pony for $150 million.[93][94]
Since May 2018, tweet replies deemed by an artificial intelligence to be detractive from conversation are initially hidden, and only loaded through actuating a Show more replies button at the bottom.[95]
2019–present
In 2019, Twitter redesigned its user interface yet again. This newest "new Twitter" was deployed in "a gradual rollout".[96]
On July 15, 2019, Twitter ended support for TLS 1.0 and 1.1 connection.[97]
In October 2019, the tweet history of the Fortnite video game's account was resurrected after appearing deleted during a marketing campaign. This is the only documented occurance of such resurrection.[98]
Twitter saw somewhat dramatic growth in 2020, possibly due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[99] During said pandemic, Twitter saw an increased use of the platform for misinformation related to the pandemic.[100] Twitter announced in March 2020 that it would start marking tweets which may contain misleading information, in some cases it will provide links to pages of fact-checking information.[101]
A major hack of Twitter on July 15, 2020 affected 130 high-profile accounts, both verified and unverified ones such as Barack Obama, Bill Gates, and Elon Musk; the hack allowed bitcoin scammers to send tweets via the compromised accounts that asked the followers to send bitcoin to a given public address, with the promise to double their money.[102] Within a few hours, Twitter disabled tweeting and reset passwords from all verified accounts.[102] Analysis of the event revealed that the scammers had used social engineering to obtain credentials from Twitter employees to access an administration tool used by Twitter to view and change these accounts' personal details as to gain access as part of a "smash and grab" attempt to make money quickly, with an estimated US$120,000 in bitcoin deposited in various accounts before Twitter intervened.[103] Several law enforcement entities including the FBI launched investigations into the attack to determine the perpetrators over concerns of broader implications of such a hack in the future.[104]
On June 1, 2020, Twitter deactivated the legacy desktop front end of their web site that had originally been introduced in 2014,[105][106] leaving the progressive web app version which was originally introduced in April 2017 as "Twitter Lite" for mobile phones[107] and used by default since July 2019[108] as the only option.
"M2 Mobile Web", the original mobile web front end of Twitter, later served as fallback legacy version to clients without JavaScript support and incompatible browsers such as game consoles with limited web browsing capability. It was shut down in December 2020.[109]
During the George Floyd protests and through the 2020 election, misinformation spread by Donald Trump led to Twitter expanding a policy where they added disclaimers to misinformation.[110][111] Twitter was among the platforms associated with the storming of the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021. According to the Associated Press, "federal law enforcement authorities said that there was activity on Twitter, but that they weren’t expecting the level of violence they ultimately saw last Wednesday."[112] This led to Trump being suspended from Twitter for glorifying violence, among other reasons such as false allegations of election fraud. According to researcher Shannon McGregor, "Twitter's permanent suspension of Trump's Twitter account is long overdue."[113] However, among conservatives and some European leaders, a degree of controversy ensued over the power held by a private company over speech.[114] Nathan Akehurst of Jacobin Magazine suggested that "Twitter profited from Donald Trump's racist outbursts for years, only to delete his account a few days before his departure".[115]
On January 26, 2021, Twitter acquired Revue, an email newsletter service to compete with platforms like Substack.[116]
On February 25, 2021, Twitter announced Super Follows, a subscription service allowing content creators to receive payments for their content.[117][118]
On March 5, it was announced that Twitter was working on a feature that would offer users a short window of time to rethink a tweet after they hit send. Twitter confirmed to CNN that it is testing an undo option that could potentially let users correct or even to retract a tweet before it is officially to the site. The feature was discovered by Jane Manchun Wong, an app developer who has a proven track record of uncovering new tools on social networks before they are officially released. Wong posted a GIF on the platform which show a blue "undo" bar that appears under the words "Your Tweet was sent."[119]
In 2021, Twitter is advancing an open source initiative that could be used by any social media platform and would make content moderation more transparent with a more robust appeals process. Called Blue Sky, the use of such an open protocol would relieve companies of the sole responsibility for being centralized curators of content.[120] The Twitter research team that began work on this effort was set up in late 2019.[121]
In April 2021, Twitter announced that it was establishing its African headquarters in Ghana.[122][123] In May 2021, Twitter's offices in Delhi and Gurgaon were raided by the local police. The raid came after Twitter labeled one of the tweets by Sambit Patra, a spokesman of the local ruling party BJP, as "manipulated media".[124] Twitter issued a statement, calling the police visit "a form of intimidation".[125]
On June 5, the Nigerian government issued an indefinite ban on Twitter usage in the country after the platform removed tweets made by the Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari.[126] The company claimed the tweets violated its policies against "abusive behavior". Twitter called the ban "deeply concerning". Several human rights organizations, including Amnesty International[127] and the local Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP),[128] spoke out against the ban as well. The Nigerian government stated that the ban was not based solely on the removal of the tweets and was a result of "a litany of problems with the social media platform in Nigeria, where misinformation and fake news spread through it have had real world violent consequences".[129]
In June 2021, Twitter announced the beta rollout of its Super Follows feature. A group of users will be allowed to charge followers monthly for access to extra content, not available in their regular feed. The company also launched the Ticketed Spaces program in beta, a premium version of its audio room feature Spaces, which makes access to certain audio rooms paid.[130]
On 5 July 2021, the Indian government released a statement claiming Twitter has lost its liability protection concerning user-generated content. This was brought on by Twitter's failure to comply with the new IT rules with a filing stating that the company failed to appoint executives to govern user content on the platform.[131]
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