Essay*1

Omar Abdulla CJG-1103

Twitter: Social Networking

Introduction:

Twitter is a social networking website that incorporates a micro-blogging integration so that users are able send and read small blog like posts known as tweets. Since it’s conception, Twitter has attracted more than 200 million active users and is one of the top 10 visited sites on the Internet (Twitter.com Site Info, n.d). This essay will discuss the early history, development, modern development, and success of Twitter.

Early History:

While studying as a full time undergraduate in New York University, Jack Dorsey was struck with the idea of creating the trendy website. The word “twitter” when defined means - "a short burst of insignificant information, and chirps from birds" (Sano, 2009). Jack Dorsey thought that the definition of the word matched the concept of the site, which is communicating with a small group as an SMS type of conversation (Sano, 2009).

Development:

Jack Dorsey completed the development of Twitter in March 2006, and launched it by July of the same year. Twitter’s breakthrough came in 2007’s South by Southwest interactive – a film, interactive, and musical conference in Austin, Texas (Twitter - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 2013). During the event, the usage of Twitter messaging increased significantly from 20,000 to 60,000 tweets per day. Many of the people attending the conference used Twitter as a way to keep tabs on what is going on in the conference. In addition, Twitter messages were being displayed for the people attending, this served as publicity for the social networking site. Twitter’s undeniable success rate was unmatched the number of tweets grew to 100 million tweets per quarter in 2008. By June 2012, Twitter has surpassed 500 million users around the world, and 140 million of them in the United States (Lunden, 2012).

Modern Developments:

Celebrity endorsements are considered to be major contributions to the company’s lap of luxury. The attractions of some of the world’s most exceeding familiar faces from reality star Kim Kardashian to pop singer Britney Spears. Artists usually keep their fans posted about their news, by either giving them updates on their release dates or giving them an inside peak on their personal lives. In addition, 95% of the teams in all sports use Twitter to talk to the fans, get their opinions, and inform them of the latest news, signings, or results. Twitter became so infused into our everyday life and pop culture that even the candidates for the Whitehouse used it to promote their campaign with a constant update.

In order to further expand the usage, the company virtually “localized” their website so that it could cater to the rest of the world on an international scale. A strong example of international usage would be the infamous Arab spring of 2011 (BBC News - Twitter Arabic, Farsi, Hebrew and Urdu version launch, 2012). Many believed that one of the most prominent factors leading to the revolutions would be the social networking website Twitter.

Success:

There is no doubt that Twitter has proved to be one of the top social networking website of our time. Having amassed an unprecedented number of users through a relatively short period of time, saying that 7 of every 10 people have Twitter is no surprise.

Conclusion:

In conclusion, Twitter revolutionized the social networking world in many ways where it has been described as the SMS of the web (Twitter - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 2013). Since its start, it has been experiencing rapid growth, and by the efforts and the innovation of its makers, the journey of Twitter won’t stop here.

Word Count: 589

Bibliography:

BBC News - Twitter Arabic, Farsi, Hebrew and Urdu version launch. (2012, March 7). BBC - Homepage. Retrieved March 27, 2013, from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-17286684

Lunden, I. (2012, July 30). Analyst: Twitter Passed 500M Users In June 2012, 140M Of Them In US; Jakarta Biggest Tweeting™ City  |  TechCrunch. TechCrunch. Retrieved March 27, 2013, from http://techcrunch.com/2012/07/30/analyst-twitter-passed-500m-users-in-june-2012-140m-of-them-in-us-jakarta-biggest-tweeting-city/

Sano, David. "Twitter creator Jack Dorsey illuminates the site's founding document. Part I - latimes.com." Blogs - latimes.com. N.p., 18 Feb. 2009. Web. 17 Apr. 2013. <http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2009/02/twitter-creator.html>.

Twitter - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. (2013, March 25). Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved March 27, 2013, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter

Twitter.com Site Info. (n.d.). Alexa - The Web Information Company. Retrieved March 27, 2013, from http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/twitter.com