Twitter turns 10 years old today

Twitter in its earliest days. Photo: Twitter

Twitter in its earliest days. Photo: Twitter

Twitter turns 10 years old today — with the company having been founded back in the halcyon days of March 2006, when V For Vendetta had just arrived in theaters, James Blunt’s “You’re Beautiful” was being played on repeat by every radio station, and the iPhone was still an excited rumor on tech sites.

#ManyHappyReturnsOnYourBirthday.

It’s been a whirlwind ride for the micro-blogging site since then. As you can see from the lede image with this article, we’ve gotten a (much) better interface in the decade since its founding, while the phrase “hashtag-[insert word]” has entered the global lexicon, celebrities have raced to hit one million followers (and more), journalists have flocked to the “Twitter reactions to [insert event]” stories, and we’ve witnessed endless skirmishes about Twitter harassment and Twitter activism.

More recently, the company has been plagued by financial difficulties. After going public back in 2013, last month Twitter reported that it had lost 2 million users in the last quarter of 2015, while adoption (around 305 million users) is still a tiny fraction of the 1.6 billion who use Facebook, and smaller than the 400 million who use Instagram. It’s also nowhere close to turning a profit.

But, hey, there’s always the next ten years, right?

Do you use Twitter? Leave any birthday messages you may have for the company below.