How Cool Twitter Was Before Elon Ruined It
Scaling the “Fail Whale” Just to Fail Again
Believe it or not, X wasn’t always the social media “powerhouse” that it is today. Or used to be up until Elon Musk bought the thing.
The real Twitter, the good old one, started as a simple side project of a podcasting company called Odeo, back in 2006.
Co-founder Jack Dorsey had a vision for a platform that would allow people to share short messages, or “tweets,” with the world in real time.
History in the making.
Simple beginnings
The first tweet was sent on March 21, 2006, by Jack Dorsey himself.
It read: “just setting up my twttr.”
Little did he know that this simple message would pave the way for a revolution in social media.
In the early days, Twitter was primarily used by techies and bloggers. It wasn’t until the 2007 South by Southwest (SXSW) conference that Twitter really started to take off.
Attendees used the platform to share updates, connect with each other, and coordinate events in real time, and the buzz surrounding the platform quickly spread.
Real-life beta testing.
The “Fail Whale”
As more and more people started using Twitter, the company began to face some serious scaling issues.
At one point, the platform was famously dubbed the “fail whale” due to its frequent downtime and error messages.
Luckily, the team persevered, and in 2008, they introduced a new version of the platform that was more stable and scalable.
Around this time, Twitter also started to attract the attention of celebrities and influencers, who began using the platform to connect with their fans and promote their work.
This helped to fuel Twitter’s growth even further, as more and more people signed up to follow their favorite stars.
Retweet me
In 2010, Twitter introduced the now-iconic “retweet” feature, which allowed users to easily share other people’s tweets with their own followers.
It’s a shame that the X rebrand removed one of the greatest features and namesakes of the digital age.
The Retweet feature helped to increase the virality of content on the platform and made it easier for users to discover new accounts to follow.
Every platform stole this idea.
Timeline
Over the years, Twitter has continued to evolve and add new features, such as the ability to add photos and videos to tweets, live streaming capabilities, and a subscription model that allows users to access exclusive content from their favorite creators.
Here’s a short timeline of highlights:
2006: Jack Dorsey creates Twitter as a side project while working at a podcasting company called Odeo.
March 2006: Twitter is launched to the public.
2007: Twitter becomes a standalone company with Jack Dorsey as CEO.
2008: Twitter experiences explosive growth and is used extensively during the US presidential election.
2009: Twitter introduces the hashtag, allowing users to categorize their tweets and make them easily searchable.
2010: Twitter introduces Promoted Tweets, its first advertising product.
2012: Twitter reaches 100 million active users.
November 2013: Twitter goes public with an IPO.
2015: Twitter introduces Moments, a feature that allows users to follow real-time events and news stories.
2017: Twitter introduces a 280-character limit for tweets, up from the previous 140-character limit.
2021: The introduction of Twitter Blue
2022: Elon Musk buys Twitter for $44 billion
April 2023: Bye-Bye Legacy Checkmarks, You can buy your own
July 2023: Birth of “X”: The saddest rebrand in history (possibly)
October 2024: Introduction of premium tiers (Premium, Premium+)
November 2023: Following controversial posts by Musk, several major companies pulled their advertising from X
2024: Elon goes nuts
2025: TBD
At the core
Despite all the changes and even the removal of a character limit for premium users, the core of X has remained the same: a platform for sharing short, real-time updates and connecting with people all over the world.
Some things have changed quite drastically. Unfortunately.
Many have tried competing with Twitter/X, but all used to failed. Since Elon’s takeover, competition has gotten stronger, though. Meta’s Threads, Bluesky, and even Substack Notes are notable competitors these days.
The bottom line
The history of Twitter is interesting.
From its beginnings as a side project to its current status as one of the world’s most influential social media platforms, Twitter has come a long way in a relatively short amount of time.
With new features and capabilities being added regularly and the tumultuous reign of Elon Musk, it’s safe to say that X’s story is far from over. Positive or negative.
Is it worth it 2025? I don’t know. I left for Substack Notes, mostly. But for many creators, it still is a valuable platform. For now.