Congratulations! Twitter just turned 18

While much has changed at Twitter over the years, including its name, and it has lost advertisers under Mr Musk, the big cake at its 18th birthday celebrations is well-deserved

Earlier in the week, Twitter turned 18 —a landmark birthday for the world’s most popular microblogging site.

Not many know that Twitter, which has now become X, emerged from the podcasting venture Odeo, which was founded in 2004 by Evan Williams, Biz Stone, and Noah Glass. (Messrs Williams and Stone had previously worked at Google, and Williams created the popular Web authoring tool Blogger.) Apple announced in 2005 that it would add podcasts to its digital media application iTunes. Odeo’s leadership felt that the company could not compete with Apple and needed a new direction.

Odeo’s employees were asked about any interesting side projects they had, and a young engineer Jack Dorsey proposed a short message service (SMS) on which one could share small, blog-like updates with friends. Mr Glass proposed the name Twttr. Mr Dorsey sent the first message (“just setting up my twttr”) — called a tweet — on March 21, 2006. The completed version of Twitter, however, debuted only on July 16, 2006 – hence, the 18th birthday celebration this week.

Seeing a future for the product, Williams, Stone, and Dorsey bought out Odeo and started Obvious Corp in October 2006 to develop the idea further. Interest in the platform sharply increased after it was presented at the South by Southwest music and technology conference in Austin, Texas, in March 2007. The following month, Twitter Inc was created as a corporate entity, thanks to an infusion of venture capital, and Mr Dorsey became Twitter’s first chief executive officer (CEO). In 2008, Mr Williams ousted Mr Dorsey as CEO, and two years later Mr Williams was replaced as CEO by chief operating officer Dick Costolo.

Twitter’s social networking roots became obvious in April 2009, when actor Ashton Kutcher emerged as the victor in a race with CNN to become the first Twitter user to collect more than a million followers. Ever since celebrity “e-watching” has remained a significant draw to the service and Twitter soon became everyone’s site for new news, opinions and one-upmanship. 

There have been many tent-pole happenings, which we sometimes tend to forget have helped shape the Twitter of today:

* The 2008 US presidential election saw Barack Obama dominate his opponent, John McCain, amassing more than 20 times as many Twitter followers. This development ensured that future political candidates would include a significant social networking presence in their media strategies to get elected.

* On January 15, 2009, a tweet by commuter ferry passenger Janis Krums broke the story of the successful water landing of US Airways flight 1549 on the Hudson River in New York City. A hastily snapped camera phone image of passengers disembarking the half-submerged aircraft established the platform as a breaking news source.

* In June 2009, as state media sources reported that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had secured an easy victory, supporters of Opposition candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi took to the streets. The topic #IranElection became one of the most-followed hashtags on Twitter, as Mousavi supporters coordinated protests and posted live updates of events throughout the Iranian capital. Twitter thereon became the favoured platform for mass movements.

* Following the earthquake that struck Haiti in January 2010, Twitter reaffirmed its role as a powerful tool for the dissemination of information. It became an effective fundraising platform when the Red Cross launched a mobile “giving” campaign that surpassed all expectations.

Much has changed at Twitter since Elon Musk moved in as the new boss. For one, he killed the bird and rebranded the platform as “X”. He fired almost 75 per cent of his workforce, lost advertisers due to concerns over the changes to community guidelines and launched a paid subscription.

While it was once taken for granted that most of the world’s top brands would include Twitter in their campaign strategies, many are now reallocating those ad dollars toward other channels. So what is it that could help Twitter/X retain its supremacy?

* The possibility of X launching a viable video ad product to align with its enhancement as a long-form video hub.

* X, under Mr Musk, is headed towards becoming a closed platform where everyone needs to pay to participate. After a few months when the spammers, trolls, bots and general cruft are cleared, an ad-supported model will open up to the world.

* With the introduction of features such as Twitter Spaces, video capabilities and incentives for content creators, the platform is paving the way for diverse ad formats, attracting a wider range of advertisers.

From Threads to Koo — many have tried to edge out X, with little success. The big cake at the 18th birthday celebrations is well deserved.

The writer is chairman of Rediffusion