Twitter is 9: First Tweet posted today in 2006 by co-founder Jack Dorsey

It was today that the "global watercooler of news and inane chatter" took birth nine years ago with the first tweet posted by co-founder Jack Dorsey.

Dorsey took to Twitter on 21 March 2006 to compose the succinct message: "just setting up my twttr" and the rest, as they say, is history, reported The Independent.

The micro-blogging platform was initially named "Twttr" before it was padded out with vowels and was launched publicly four months after it first hatched.

Celebrating its ninth birthday, Twitter said, "At our nine-year mark, we continue to say that Twitter is what it is because of the people who use it."

The website added that they will continue to celebrate their users in the coming years as they used Twitter to reflect on both the world at large and their surroundings.

At least 288 million people use the service each month and almost 500 million tweets are sent per day, making the platform the second most popular social site.