In this picture illustration, former U.S. President Donald Trump’s archived Twitter account is proven on a phone monitor with the Twitter brand in the qualifications.
Sheldon Cooper | Lightrocket | Getty Photographs
A ten years ago, Twitter’s foreseeable future was on the lookout shiny. The enterprise was benefiting from a flood of funding into the social-networking house, finally top to an IPO in 2013 that lifted $1.8 billion.
Now the company is back again in private hands. And they materialize to be the hands of Elon Musk, the richest man or woman in the world and a person of the app’s most superior-profile provocateurs.
It really is a enormous second. Twitter has come to be a vital put for people to discussion, joke and pontificate in their possess circles of politics, athletics, tech and finance. It’s also served as a system that offers voice to the voiceless, assisting protesters organize and convey by themselves in repressed regimes all around the world.
In recent years, having said that, Twitter and social media rivals like Fb have been at the heart of controversy in excess of the distribution of pretend news and misinformation, in some cases primary to bullying and violence.
Buyers experienced developed worried about Twitter as a enterprise. The firm was typically unprofitable, struggled to maintain pace with Google and Facebook, and frequently killed popular goods with no authentic rationalization.
What follows is a temporary history of Twitter, which — despite its quite a few flaws — is a single of the most legendary companies to come out of Silicon Valley in the past 20 many years.
2006
In March, Jack Dorsey, Noah Glass, Biz Stone, and Evan Williams designed Twitter, which was at first a side task stemming from the podcasting software Odeo. That month, Dorsey would send the initially Tweet that study, “just environment up my twttr.”
2007
In July, Twitter acquired a $100,000 Series A funding spherical led by Union Square Ventures. The app’s recognition started off to explode following becoming seriously promoted by the tech community in the course of the annual South by Southwest conference.
2008
Dorsey stepped down as CEO in October, and was changed by Williams. According to the reserve “Hatching Twitter” by journalist Nick Bilton, Twitter’s board fired Dorsey above fears about the executive’s management type and general public boastings.
2009
Twitter’s recognition continued to soar, primary to a large-profile physical appearance from Williams on Oprah Winfrey’s talk clearly show along with movie star Ashton Kutcher. Kutcher would also produce about Williams and Stone as component of Time Magazine’s Time 100 challenge. Twitter was now a mainstream phenomenon.
2010
Twitter arrived at space, with NASA Astronaut Timothy Creamer sending the initial tweet are living from outer orbit. Powering the scenes, having said that, management woes continued with Williams stepping down as CEO, changed by running chief Dick Costolo.
2011
Twitter grew to become an critical social media device used for the duration of the Arab Spring, the wave of antigovernmental protests during Egypt, Libya and Tunisia. Protesters used the website to submit reports and to arrange. As the Pew Analysis Centre observed, Twitter’s position in “disseminating breaking news” was not “not minimal to the Arab uprisings – the death of Whitney Houston, for example, was announced on Twitter 55 minutes prior to the AP confirming the tale.”
2012
Twitter’s arrive at expanded to 200 million active buyers. Barack Obama utilized the “platform to 1st declare victory publicly in the 2012 U.S. presidential election, with a Tweet that was considered somewhere around 25 million occasions on our platform and widely distributed offline in print and broadcast media,” according to corporate filings.
2013
Twitter went community in November. The mixed wealth of Williams, Dorsey, and Costolo hit approximately $4 billion.
“I think we’ve bought a great established of views and tactics to increase the slope of the development curve,” Costolo told CNBC at the time. “I would think about some of them ways, some of them broader strategies, in provider of executing what I referred to as bridge the hole concerning the substantial consciousness of Twitter and deep engagement of the platform.”
2014
Slowing user progress led to quite a few stock drops and analyst downgrades. Twitter also deemed 2014 the year of the “selfie.”
2015
As opposed to rivals like Google, Fb, and even LinkedIn, Twitter was beginning to search like the runt of the World wide web litter. Twitter was however unprofitable as its advert small business struggled mightily towards its more substantial rivals. Dorsey would also return as CEO of the organization, when continue to preserving the best position at his other business, Square (now Block).
2016
Rumors began circulating that Twitter was hunting to be obtained, with Salesforce as a probable suitor. Meanwhile, Twitter and Fb have been criticized for their part in allowing prominent consumers like Donald Trump, who would gain the U.S. presidential election that year, distribute misleading information devoid of consequence.
“Obtaining the president-elect on our assistance working with it as a immediate line of communication enables everyone to see what is on his brain in the instant,” Dorsey mentioned at the time. “We’re undoubtedly coming into a new environment the place almost everything is on the floor and we can all see that in real time and we can have discussions about it.”
2017
For a moment, Twitter appeared to be on the upswing. Its stock was finally trending upward as the company’s finances were improving. In the meantime, Trump as president continued to use Twitter as his megaphone. According to Twitter’s own info, “Trump was the most-tweeted-about world wide chief in the world and in the United States” that calendar year, CNBC documented.
2018
Dorsey and Facebook’s then-running chief Sheryl Sandberg testified right before the Senate Intelligence Committee about alleged interference by Russia-connected actors in the 2016 election. Trump and fellow Republicans grew to become progressively vocal about alleged political bias by Twitter and other social media sites.
“In point, from a uncomplicated enterprise standpoint and to provide the public discussion, Twitter is incentivized to continue to keep all voices on the platform,” Dorsey reported at the time.
2019
Analysts located correlations in between President Trump’s voracious use of Twitter and numerous marketplaces, together with gold, underscoring the cultural electricity of Twitter. Trump satisfied with Dorsey — a Twitter spokesperson stated “Jack experienced a constructive conference with the President of the United States nowadays at the president’s invitation.”
“They reviewed Twitter’s dedication to guarding the well being of the general public conversation ahead of the 2020 U.S. elections and efforts underway to react to the opioid crisis,” the spokesperson reported.
2020
As Covid-19 distribute across the globe, the distribute of misinformation dominated the on line dialogue. And Twitter continued to battle to mature its small business. The service was also hacked that yr, and miscreants attained entry to in excess of a dozen significant-profile accounts, such as those people controlled by Joe Biden, Jeff Bezos, and Musk
2021
Twitter forever banned Trump in excess of inflammatory opinions the president manufactured in the course of the U.S. Capitol riots in January that the company explained could lead to “even more incitement of violence.” Trump would allege that Twitter employees “coordinated with the Democrats and the Radical Left in taking away my account from their platform, to silence me.” Afterwards, Dorsey all of a sudden stepped down as CEO and was changed by Parag Agrawal, the firm’s chief technological innovation officer.
2022
Musk took in excess of Twitter immediately after a protracted lawful spat that would have culminated this week in a trial in Delaware’s Court of Chancery. The Tesla CEO agreed in April to pay out $44 billion for Twitter, but then attempted to renege on the offer. He adjusted system and opted to progress, going for walks into the company’s San Francisco business office on Wednesday with what appeared to be a porcelain rest room sink in his fingers.
“Coming into Twitter HQ – allow that sink in!” he tweeted, with a video clip of his entrance.
Musk right away commenced producing improvements, firing Agrawal, finance head Ned Segal, and head of authorized plan Vijaya Gadde.
Watch: Billionaire Elon Musk techniques into Twitter HQ, sink in hand
