Twitter is marking the 10th anniversary of its founding and very first tweet. It was sent by co-founder and now CEO, Jack Dorsey.
But just how much does the company have to celebrate?
Twitter’s cultural presence has come a long way in 10 years.
Performers, heads of state, the Roman Catholic Pope...they’re all on Twitter.
Even so, the site still ranks behind Facebook and Instagram...and Youtube...and WhatsApp and Tumblr…
While the company DID nearly double its revenue last year, Twitter has never made a profit. And in February, it revealed its fourth quarter was the first time it’s failed to achieve growth since going public.
Which has left many people wondering...
CEO Jack Dorsey’s attempts to attract new users seem to have done nothing but anger existing ones...
Dorsey first ran the company until 2008. And has been back in charge for the past nine months. He was brought in to ‘save the company,’ which he says needs a ‘bold rethinking.’
Dorsey had suggested expanding Twitter’s 140-character limit as a way to get more people to use it. But after a backlash, he’s backpedaled.
But the micro-blogging site HAS implemented a new platform that sorts tweets on an algorithm that includes popularity rather than the original newest-first timeline. Shortly, articles and tweets explaining how to disable the feature sprouted up.
But even as Twitter’s changes frustrate users..
A recent study from the Center for Media and Social Impact at American University suggests that Twitter was instrumental in bringing attention to the issue of police brutality against black people in the US. It found that most major news outlets learned about the Ferguson protests through Twitter or Instagram. The study recorded that between June 2014 and May 2015, more than 40 million tweets used the hashtag Black Lives Matter.
And that’s just one example…
Then there’s the hashtags Bring Back Our Girls, Occupy Wall Street, Ice Bucket Challenge...and the list goes on…
As Dorsey has previously said, Twitter has ‘unbelievable brand awareness.’ But at its IPO just three years ago, people were questioning if it would last…
Clearly that prediction hasn’t come true and Twitter is still around.
So now, 10 years after its began in San Francisco, Larry the bird is still tweeting around the world.
