3 known investors
Twitter, Inc. was the San Francisco social media company behind the Twitter microblogging service, merged into X Corp. in 2023.
Also known as Twitter, Inc. · Twttr · X · X Corp.
Founders & leadership
Investors · 3
Also in the syndicate · 1
Company profile
researched Aug 2026Twitter, Inc. was an American social media company headquartered in San Francisco, California, that operated and was named after its flagship microblogging and social networking service. The platform allowed users to publish short public posts ("tweets"), originally capped at 140 characters and raised to 280 characters in 2017, alongside images and video. Beyond the core service, the company also operated the Vine short-video app and the Periscope livestreaming service, both later discontinued, and at various points owned the MoPub mobile advertising exchange, the Revue newsletter platform and the Scroll ad-free reading subscription.
The service was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey, Noah Glass, Biz Stone and Evan Williams as an internal project at the podcasting company Odeo, and was publicly launched on July 15, 2006. Twitter, Inc. was formally spun out as its own company in April 2007, with Obvious Corporation as its predecessor entity. The company scaled to more than 100 million monthly active users by September 2011, over 200 million by December 2012, and more than 330 million monthly active users by 2019. It listed on the New York Stock Exchange in November 2013 and was an S&P 500 component from 2018 to 2022.
In 2022 Elon Musk acquired the company for approximately $44 billion ($54.20 per share), returning it to private ownership. Twitter, Inc. was subsequently merged into X Corp. and ceased to exist as an independent company on April 4, 2023; the platform itself was rebranded as X in July 2023 and its domain moved from twitter.com to x.com in May 2024. Sources indicate roughly 1,000 employees remained at the company in 2023 after large-scale layoffs.
Founding story
The concept originated in a brainstorming session among board members of the podcasting company Odeo, where Jack Dorsey — then a student who had earlier worked on dispatch routing software and had conceived of a web-based real-time status messaging service in 2000 — proposed using an SMS service to communicate with a small group. Work began in February 2006, and Dorsey with contractor Florian Weber built a prototype used internally at Odeo; Dorsey posted the first message, "just setting up my twttr", on March 21, 2006. The project was initially named twttr, partly because the twitter.com domain was already taken; the domain was purchased and the name changed about six months after launch.
Business model
Twitter operated a free, registration-based consumer social platform monetized primarily through advertising, supported by acquired ad-technology assets such as MoPub (mobile ad exchange) and TapCommerce (mobile retargeting), plus data licensing via Gnip, which became Twitter Data. Later efforts added consumer subscription products, including Twitter Blue, which incorporated the acquired Scroll ad-free reading service, and creator monetization through the Revue newsletter platform.
Advertising was the core revenue source, complemented by data licensing (Gnip/Twitter Data) and subscription offerings such as Twitter Blue. Reported revenue for 2021 was $5.1 billion, with an operating loss of $493 million and a net loss of $221 million.
Traction
More than 100 million monthly active users by September 2011 and over 200 million by December 2012; over 100 million users producing 340 million tweets per day by 2012; more than 330 million monthly active users by 2019. Tweet volume grew from 50 million per day in February 2010 to about 65 million per day in June 2010, peaked around 661 million per day in August 2014, and fell to about 300 million per day by January 2016. Over 70,000 registered applications were recorded by March 2010. Reported 2021 revenue was $5.1 billion with $14.1 billion in total assets.
Latest developments
Twitter shut down Revue, the newsletter platform it acquired in January 2021, announcing the closure in December 2022 with account access ending January 18, 2023 and all data deleted; paid subscriptions were set to cancel from December 20, 2022. Around the same time the company was reported to be developing 4,000-character long-form posts. Twitter, Inc. was dissolved into X Corp. on April 4, 2023. Linda Yaccarino became CEO in June 2023 and stepped down in July 2025. X Corp. was acquired by xAI in March 2025, and xAI was acquired by SpaceX in February 2026.
▸Full profile — market position, technology, go-to-market, geography, history, risks & controversies
Market position
Twitter was described as one of the world's largest social media platforms and among the most-visited websites, though its user growth slowed relative to peers; daily tweet volume fell from a peak of about 661 million in August 2014 to roughly 300 million by January 2016. It was an S&P 500 component from 2018 to 2022 and was one of tech's most active acquirers, completing 86 acquisitions between 2008 and 2024 with roughly $1.2 billion in disclosed spending.
The defining constraint was brevity: posts limited to 140 characters, later 280, and after 2023 unlimited for subscribers. The service combined SMS-style immediacy with public, one-to-many broadcast, and Dorsey articulated guiding principles of simplicity, constraint and craftsmanship. Community Notes offered a crowd-verified context mechanism distinct from centralized moderation.
Technology
The service was built as an SMS-derived short-message broadcast system and was written in Scala, Java, Ruby, JavaScript and Python, with native clients for Web, Android, iOS, iPadOS and Amazon Fire Tablet. The company acquired technology to extend the platform, including Summize (search), Atebits/Tweetie (mobile app), Crashlytics (crash reporting), Magic Pony Technology (machine learning for media processing) and Gnip (data licensing). Recommendation algorithms were introduced into the main feed in 2016, and Community Notes (formerly Birdwatch) provided crowd-sourced context on posts.
Go-to-market
Growth was largely organic and event-driven, with the 2007 SXSW Interactive conference serving as a breakout moment. The company built out a global sales and office presence — more than 25 offices worldwide — including a Detroit office opened in 2012 to serve automotive advertisers and agencies, an expanded Dublin office, and an African headquarters announced in Ghana in April 2021.
Consumers and organizations worldwide posting and consuming short public messages, plus advertisers and brands (including automotive brands and advertising agencies targeted from its Detroit office), developers using its API and applications platform, and data customers licensing the firehose.
Geography
Headquartered in San Francisco, California, serving users worldwide, with more than 25 offices globally including Detroit and Dublin and an African headquarters announced in Ghana in 2021. Under Musk, the headquarters of X was moved to Bastrop, Texas, in 2024.
History
After the public launch in July 2006, Biz Stone, Evan Williams, Dorsey and other Odeo members formed Obvious Corporation in October 2006 and acquired Odeo and its assets, including Twitter.com, from investors; Williams then fired co-founder Noah Glass. Twitter spun off as an independent company in April 2007 with Dorsey as CEO. The 2007 South by Southwest Interactive conference was a turning point, with daily tweets rising from 20,000 to 60,000. Dorsey was replaced as CEO by Williams in October 2008 and became chairman; Dick Costolo succeeded Williams in 2011, and Dorsey returned as executive chairman, then as interim CEO in July 2015 and permanent CEO in October 2015. The company IPO'd on the NYSE in November 2013. Takeover interest surfaced in September 2016 from potential buyers including Alphabet, Microsoft, Salesforce, Verizon and Disney, but no deal materialized. Elon Musk disclosed a 9.1% stake in April 2022, offered $44 billion on April 14, attempted to terminate the deal in July, was sued by Twitter in Delaware's Court of Chancery, and closed the acquisition in late October 2022. Twitter merged with X Holdings and became part of X Corp. in April 2023; the platform was rebranded X in July 2023, X Corp. was acquired by xAI in March 2025 in an all-stock deal valuing X at $33 billion ($45 billion including $12 billion of debt), and xAI was in turn acquired by SpaceX in February 2026.
Risks & controversies
Following Musk's takeover, the platform was criticized for increased hate speech and disinformation, systemic prioritization of right-wing content, removal of misinformation reporting, the Twitter Files disclosures, suspension of journalists' accounts, and state-affiliated media labeling. It reportedly has the lowest rate of enforcement against violations of law among peers, and in February 2026 France raided X offices and fined the platform for failing to remove harmful and illegal content. X Corp. has sued nonprofits Media Matters and the Center for Countering Digital Hate. Earlier controversies included Dorsey's 2009 role in delaying site maintenance during Iranian protests, his 2018 Senate Intelligence Committee testimony on election interference, and reports that 2016 takeover suitors withdrew partly over abuse and harassment concerns. Roughly 15% of accounts (about 48 million) were estimated to be bots in 2020, and spam bot accounts were cited by Musk in his attempt to terminate the acquisition. The company posted operating and net losses in 2021 and underwent mass layoffs and resignations after the takeover.
Compiled by commissioned research from 8 cited public sources — announcements, filings, and press listed under research sources below.
Key figures
latest reportedCompany-reported or press-reported figures, each dated to when it was claimed — not independently audited.
Founder mafia
2 people who came through Twitter went on to found or lead other companies.
In the news
▸Research sources · 8
primary sources listed
- Twitter, Inc. - Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org · web
8 public sources were cited for this profile; the first-party ones are listed here.
Frequently asked questions
- What does Twitter do?
- Twitter, Inc. was the San Francisco social media company behind the Twitter microblogging service, merged into X Corp. in 2023.
- Who are Twitter's investors?
- Twitter's investors include Felicis Ventures, 1789 Capital.