Twitter has come a long way from its very first tweet on March 21, 2006 to being a microblogging site where140 million active users post more than 340 million tweets a day. Twitter has influenced other mediums of communication and cut across barriers that kept people apart. The social site has exponentially grown from its initial days, to being a handy tool, used for protests, politics and natural disaster responses. Here are some mind blowing facts about how Twitter has grown in the last 6 years:
- After one and a half years of launching, Twitter reached 500k users
- 3 years after its inception, Twitter reached 1 billion tweets
- Today Twitter accounts for more than 250 million tweets per day and 1 billion tweets every three days
- Twitter is being increasingly used for business, research and politics, apart from keeping up with friends
Why everyone loves Twitter
- Twitter is an easy way to communicate, find interesting trending information, voice out social/political issues or market your business.
- Twitter gives people a direct access to celebrities, businessmen, athletes, government officials and other prominent figures without the interference of the media
Twitter has a huge impact across the world
- When celebrities like Oprah Winfrey and Bill Gates tweeted about the video that showcased the Ugandan warlord Joseph Kony and his army, it generated a whopping 57 million viewings on YouTube within four days.
- When a destructive tsunami and earthquake struck Japan last year, it was Twitter that became a lifeline for people to contact their loved ones. The devastating 2010 earthquakes in Haiti and Chile also made people turn to Twitter.
- Twitter has also evolved as an important tool of communication, after the key role it played in the 2011 Arab spring uprising in Egypt, 2009 emergency landing of a U.S Airways jet in the Hudson River and the 2009 Iran government crackdown.
The road ahead
Twitter has plenty of plans of expanding their base and becoming an even greater business that would last for decades. At present, Twitter is expanding their suite of advertising products, increasing the amount of ad content and offering advertisers more ways to target people on the site.
