#TwitterHistory

What social media app coined the action of “tweeting” and has 126 million users today? That’s right, it’s Twitter.

           

Twitter is considered a “microblogging service” which allows users to send out messages or “tweets” from an electronic device. Users are able to follow others and “retweet” tweets from another user’s account. According to this Britannica.com page, it all started in 2006 when designers Evan Williams and Biz Stone created the service based on William’s previously created blogging website “short message service” which was later called “Twttr.” At first, Twitter was considered a SMS messaging service but then later added “promoted tweets” in April 2010 to keep up, financially, with Facebook. At this time, Twitter had a photo-sharing companion (yes it was a separate service to share photos to twitter) called Twitpic.com.

Since then, Twitter began to take off. Ashton Kutcher was the first twitter user to gain more than a million followers. President Obama gained popularity through the social media service during his 2008 presidential run. This site began the movement of political figures using social media in their campaigns.

Twitter rose to become not only a thought-sharing site but also one that shares news. After the earthquake in Haiti, Twitter took off with sharing news. It helped with spreading information all over the globe, including fundraising opportunities.

Seeing how Twitter has strived to become one of the most used social media platforms in the world. I would say Twitter is between the phases of saturation and matoration. With its ways of communication and popularity, we can say that Twitter will be here for a long time.

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