From its founding in 2006 to Musk takeover

A decade ago, Twitter’s future was looking vibrant. The corporate was benefiting from a flood of funding into the social-networking space, eventually resulting in an IPO in 2013 that raised $1.8 billion.

Now the corporate is back in private hands. And so they occur to be the hands of Elon Musk, the richest person on the planet and one among the app’s most high-profile provocateurs.

It’s an enormous moment. Twitter has turn out to be a key place for people to debate, joke and pontificate in their very own circles of politics, sports, tech and finance. It is also served as a platform that offers voice to the voiceless, helping protesters organize and express themselves in repressed regimes around the globe.

Lately, nonetheless, Twitter and social media rivals like Facebook have been at the middle of controversy over the distribution of faux news and misinformation, sometimes resulting in bullying and violence.

Investors had grown concerned about Twitter as a business. The corporate was generally unprofitable, struggled to maintain pace with Google and Facebook, and infrequently killed popular products with no real explanation.

What follows is a temporary history of Twitter, which — despite its many flaws — is some of the iconic corporations to return out of Silicon Valley prior to now 20 years.

2006

In March, Jack Dorsey, Noah Glass, Biz Stone, and Evan Williams created Twitter, which was originally a side project stemming from the podcasting tool Odeo. That month, Dorsey would send the primary Tweet that read, “just organising my twttr.”

2007

In July, Twitter received a $100,000 Series A funding round led by Union Square Ventures. The app’s popularity began to blow up after being heavily promoted by the tech community through the annual South by Southwest conference.

2008

Dorsey stepped down as CEO in October, and was replaced by Williams. Based on the book “Hatching Twitter” by journalist Nick Bilton, Twitter’s board fired Dorsey over concerns concerning the executive’s management style and public boastings.

2009

Twitter’s popularity continued to soar, resulting in a high-profile appearance from Williams on Oprah Winfrey’s talk show alongside celebrity Ashton Kutcher. Kutcher would also write about Williams and Stone as a part of Time Magazine’s Time 100 issue. Twitter was now a mainstream phenomenon.

2010

Twitter reached space, with NASA Astronaut Timothy Creamer sending the primary tweet live from outer orbit. Behind the scenes, nonetheless, management woes continued with Williams stepping down as CEO, replaced by operating chief Dick Costolo.

2011

Twitter became an important social media tool used through the Arab Spring, the wave of antigovernmental protests throughout Egypt, Libya and Tunisia. Protesters used the positioning to post reports and to prepare. Because the Pew Research Center noted, Twitter’s role in “disseminating breaking news” was not “not limited to the Arab uprisings – the death of Whitney Houston, for instance, was announced on Twitter 55 minutes prior to the AP confirming the story.”

2012

Twitter’s reach expanded to 200 million lively users. Barack Obama used the “platform to first declare victory publicly within the 2012 U.S. presidential election, with a Tweet that was viewed roughly 25 million times on our platform and widely distributed offline in print and broadcast media,” in response to corporate filings.

2013

Twitter went public in November. The combined wealth of Williams, Dorsey, and Costolo hit roughly $4 billion.

“I feel we have an amazing set of thoughts and methods to extend the slope of the expansion curve,” Costolo told CNBC on the time. “I’d consider a few of them tactics, a few of them broader strategies, in service of doing what I known as bridge the gap between the large awareness of Twitter and deep engagement of the platform.”

2014

Slowing user growth led to several stock drops and analyst downgrades. Twitter also deemed 2014 the yr of the “selfie.”

2015

In comparison with rivals like Google, Facebook, and even LinkedIn, Twitter was beginning to appear like the runt of the Web litter. Twitter was still unprofitable as its ad business struggled mightily against its larger competitors. Dorsey would also return as CEO of the corporate, while still maintaining the highest job at his other company, Square (now Block).

2016

Rumors began circulating that Twitter was seeking to be acquired, with Salesforce as a possible suitor. Meanwhile, Twitter and Facebook were criticized for his or her role in letting distinguished users like Donald Trump, who would win the U.S. presidential election that yr, spread misleading information without consequence.

“Having the president-elect on our service using it as a direct line of communication allows everyone to see what’s on his mind within the moment,” Dorsey said on the time. “We’re definitely entering a latest world where the whole lot is on the surface and we will all see that in real time and we will have conversations about it.”

2017

For a moment, Twitter gave the impression to be on the upswing. Its stock was finally trending upward as the corporate’s funds were improving. Meanwhile, Trump as president continued to make use of Twitter as his megaphone. Based on Twitter’s own data, “Trump was the most-tweeted-about global leader on the planet and in america” that yr, CNBC reported.

2018

Dorsey and Facebook’s then-operating chief Sheryl Sandberg testified before the Senate Intelligence Committee about alleged interference by Russia-linked actors within the 2016 election. Trump and fellow Republicans became increasingly vocal about alleged political bias by Twitter and other social media sites.

“The truth is, from a straightforward business perspective and to serve the general public conversation, Twitter is incentivized to maintain all voices on the platform,” Dorsey said on the time.

2019

Analysts found correlations between President Trump’s voracious use of Twitter and various markets, including gold, underscoring the cultural power of Twitter. Trump met with Dorsey — a Twitter spokesperson said “Jack had a constructive meeting with the President of america today on the president’s invitation.”

“They discussed Twitter’s commitment to protecting the health of the general public conversation ahead of the 2020 U.S. elections and efforts underway to reply to the opioid crisis,” the spokesperson said.

2020

As Covid-19 spread across the globe, the spread of misinformation dominated the net conversation. And Twitter continued to struggle to grow its business. The service was also hacked that yr, and miscreants gained access to over a dozen high-profile accounts, including those controlled by Joe Biden, Jeff Bezos, and Musk

2021

Twitter permanently banned Trump over inflammatory comments the president made through the U.S. Capitol riots in January that the corporate said could lead on to “further incitement of violence.” Trump would allege that Twitter employees “coordinated with the Democrats and the Radical Left in removing my account from their platform, to silence me.” Later, Dorsey suddenly stepped down as CEO and was replaced by Parag Agrawal, the corporate’s chief technology officer.

2022

Musk took over Twitter after a protracted legal spat that will have culminated this week in a trial in Delaware’s Court of Chancery. The Tesla CEO agreed in April to pay $44 billion for Twitter, but then attempted to renege on the deal. He modified course and opted to proceed, walking into the corporate’s San Francisco office on Wednesday with what gave the impression to be a porcelain bathroom sink in his hands.

“Entering Twitter HQ – let that sink in!” he tweeted, with a video of his entrance.

Musk immediately began making changes, firing Agrawal, finance head Ned Segal, and head of legal policy Vijaya Gadde.

WATCH: Billionaire Elon Musk steps into Twitter HQ, sink in hand