The Rise and Fall of Social Media Empires: Twitter (X), Part 1 Podcast Transcript

Have you ever wondered (or do you remember) how Twitter started?  This episode we go right back to the beginning and think about what made Twitter (X) so successful early on, often in spite of the technological limitations of the time.

Taryn Ward  Hi. I'm Taryn Ward,

Steven Jones  and I'm Steven Jones,

TW.  and this is Breaking the Feed, Social Media: Beyond the Headlines. 

SJ.  We're taking a closer look at the core issues around social media, including the rise and fall of social media empires, to better understand the role social media plays in our everyday lives and society.

TW.  In recent episodes, we've been looking at the rise and fall of several different social media empires. Today, we'll turn our attention to Twitter, or as it's known, X.

SJ.  There's a lot to unpack here, and we may well take deep dives into specific aspects of both Twitter and X.

TW.  But over the next couple of episodes, we'll focus on the rise of Twitter, from a staff messaging system and a podcasting company to one of the world's biggest social media networks, and its eventual transformation to 'X' and what the future likely holds. 

SJ.  We will start as always, with the core question, what made Twitter, Twitter?

TW.  Hoooo, that's a really good question, and so hard to answer, because Twitter's been around a long time, and I think the answer has changed. Umm, I think when I think back to when I used it first. Initially, it was really this ability to chat with experts in a way that felt like you could, you could reach them directly, almost like you were directly texting them. It felt informal and familiar and says this, there is an element of comfort, and maybe even security and I think part of that was because it was like texting, and sort of like AOL Instant Messenger, or GChat, rolled up into one sort of experience, at the same time, you could talk to experts, so it wasn't just talking to friends who already had or strangers, it was talking with people who were, you know, really leading, they were really thought experts and leaders in their field, which was so cool. It was very, very, very cool and hard to describe, if you didn't experience it yourself, because it's so different to what happens on Twitter now. So we're a long way from that now, and there are a lot of different things that went into making it what it is. But I would say that, for me, that's what made Twitter, Twitter. 

SJ.  Yeah, I think I think that's, that's probably a large part of it, it was this instant access to people that you could, they would never be in your social circle. Unless you were extraordinarily fortunate, but the average person would never know what, you know, well, a reporter for The Guardian was actually thinking when they were on the ground in Iraq, for example, or, you know, any example you like, you know, it was a unique sort of experience, I think, and that techs pace nature of it, particularly when it started was really, you know, it was really familiar, I think you tapped into something that there this is absolutely right, you know, we were used to texting our friends. So it didn't feel quite so weird. When we were texting people we didn't really know, it sort of made it familiar. I really liked that characterization. So that's really cool, and let's, let's move on and think about where Twitter actually started, and it is one of the older, large platforms in existence it. They began in 2006. Right?

TW.  Yeah, yeah, I mean, let's go right back to the beginning, right? So Twitter back then, TW T TR, was the result of a session from February so February 2006, where Jack Dorsey Noah Glass, Evan Williams, Biz Stone, they discussed this idea of using SMS text messaging to share statuses, which might sound sort of blah now, but at the time, it was a brand new concept in so you know, another thing that I think is worth mentioning is that famous informative 140 character limit was actually the result of the SMS origins of the platform. That was the limit. So it wasn't they didn't, you know, make up this number or anything like that. It was it was a function of the technology at the time, and we can think about whether that helps the platform or hindered it, but it's it has been really important to how it developed and how it was used, and we'll come back to all this later. But one other fun fact, during development, the team incurred hundreds of dollars in SMS charges, sending tweets because it was still you were still being charged per text back then. 

SJ.  Yeah, I mean, for anybody who's a little younger than either of us, this would be an alien concept because instant messaging of all kinds is just included and has been for years now. But back in the day, you were actually it was a bit like developing actual film photographs. You were careful about what you sent because you were gonna get charged and in some cases, depending on your carrier it was it was actually ridiculous amount of money when you think about it.

TW.  Yes, I am now when I'm texting someone, it is sort of like sometimes I'll send one or two words, and then I'll send another message, and then I'll send another message, and I, you know, I don't really have to think that long before I send a text. But I can remember a time when you, you would definitely take your time and think about exactly how much you wanted to say and put it in one chunk of text if you could fit it before hitting send.

SJ.  Yeah, absolutely, and that is a completely alien, alien concept, and we were paying 10 to 15 Pence, a text at one time, which is absolutely, absolutely stupid. But tweets sort of warped, still valuable, even if you weren't paying for them and, and the first tweet ever sent, which was actually sent on the 21st of March 2006, at 9:50 pm, which just goes to show that Jack Dorsey was burning the late night oil, and it wasn't particularly profound it read "Just setting up my TWTTR". But what's really interesting is, though, whilst it must have cost 15 cents for him to send that an NFT of the tweet was sold by Dorsey in 2021 for $2.9 million, quite a return on the 15 cents it cost to send it, and a year later, it was offered for sale by the person who originally purchased it for $48 million. Unfortunately, the highest bid he received was $9968, and in July of this year, it was actually valued at $3.75, and I have this terrible feeling that at some point soon, it will actually be worth the cost of the original s SMS message. So not a great investment. Twitter launched to the public in July of that year, and users tweeted about a minor earthquake in California in the August and that gave the team insight into how Twitter will be used to share individual experiences of of major events.

TW.  Yes, and it wasn't until South by Southwest that Twitter actually hit a tipping point. So the number of tweets during that conference went from 20,000 to 60,000. Partly because the team placed, brilliantly, 60 inch TV screens in the hallways and streamed the tweet, so people walking by could see them and participate.

SJ.  Isn't that an absolutely genius marketing tool, you had to think that people didn't really understand what a tweet was, and so here you have people who are obviously extremely interested in tech actually seeing in, presumably almost real real-time, you know, what other people are saying, and then, you know, getting excited and joining into the conversation, absolutely, absolutely brilliant, and I think that, you know, clearly built on that insight from the earthquake, which was, you know, I think I read quite small like 4.4 on the Richter scale, but just the fact that they saw that people were tweeting about what how they experienced it, and, you know, they were they were tracking that, presumably, that gave them the idea for using this event that they were at to one to sort of like build build enthusiasm for and it absolutely was the tipping point, which really got them started. Very clever. 

TW.  Yeah, amazing. 

SJ. Like the earthquake, Twitter activity spikes during major events. The tweeting record was broken in 2010, when 2940 tweets per second was sent in the 30 second period, after Japan scored against Cameroon. It was broken again three days later, when the LA Lakers won the NBA final, and again seven days later, when Japan beat Denmark in the World Cup.

TW.  It's really interesting because, you know, we've talked about this 140-character limit and what Twitter was meant to be initially and how it really became fairly quickly about the ability to post about something that a lot of people were experiencing or something that a few people were experiencing, but a lot of people were interested in, in or curious about, and this connection between, you know, the character limit and how it evolved in what it ended up meaning to people is a really interesting line of thought to follow.

SJ.  Yeah, I think that I think that's right. I mean, Ty, that sort of like the immediacy of the reaction and group participation in a extended group participation in a major event with, you know, the ability to hear from experts, earthquake happens, everybody's gonna tweet about that what they feel, but a geological scientist can also come in and explained what they're doing and of course, you know, as time went by emergency management services for local jurisdictions would also tweet out, you know, what was actually happening and what people should do and, you know, it became really a way of, of communicating in, you know, when something interesting was going on, and, you know, I think we often think of crises or, you know, public safety incidents, but obviously, you know, sporting events are also really important because the the those records were all broken during, you know, major sporting events, which is, which is really interesting, and also a lot of a lot of fun. I think we, err, in the recent years, we've, we've heard a lot about, you know, the serious side of Twitter and very often negative the negative way that Twitter has been used, it's not always been that, and in fact, there are a lot of things happening even now, which are not dreadful, and potentially damaging to society. 

TW.  Yes, and I think that that mix is is really important to the community too, and it has been for a long time. But there are some technological challenges to operating a network that functions in that way. So this ability to go from, you know, a few 1000 tweets per minute to lots and lots, you know, 10 or 100 times where that is, you know, certainly back then was challenging, it's still challenging now, as you and I both know. But you know, for example, when Michael Jackson died in 2009, the Twitter servers crashed. So users were updating their status and including the words Michael Jackson, and it was, you know, it was at a rate of something like 100,000 tweets per hour, doubling the normal load, and the servers crashed as a result. 

SJ.  Yeah, and it's really interesting, because users, particularly now not terribly tolerant overall of this kind of service failure. It's just, it's expected to work like a utility is expected to work, you turn on a light switch, the light comes on, you tweet, it goes out, and you know, we do see new platforms, who crash as a result of, you know, unexpectedly large growth, and sometimes the cynic in me might suggest that it's not just technical insufficiency, but it's a it's a marketing ploy to indicate how popular they are, and get some some lines of print of coverage online, and and I'm pretty sure in some cases, that is the case. But it wasn't the only thing that went wrong that day in, you know, I read as I was preparing this that, that Google searches spiked from Michael, umm, the phrase Michael Jackson, and the system at Google felt that he was under attack, and so it actually returned error messages for those those those search requests, right, which is, you know, can you imagine Google not respond to a link to a request about Michael Jackson's health at the moment he died, or around the time he dies? It's really, you know, we've come a long way in that timeframe because I think that would be extremely bad for business at Google. 

TW.  Yes, I would think so, and I think your cynicism, at least to this case, is well founded. But I think probably back then, it really was a genuine technical problem. The question, though, is, why did they get away with it in the way that they did? Right, and I don't mean that in like a throwing stones kind of away. But, you know, when you depend on a platform, or you think you can depend on a platform as a way to get immediate news or share immediate use, and then it lets you down at a moment when it's really important, not that Michael Jackson's death was necessarily that important in a in a news way, or like an emergency. But obviously, it was important to a lot of people, and they couldn't they couldn't engage at that moment when it really counted. Why do you think people didn't just say, That's it? I'm, you know, we're moving on or finding something else?

SJ.  It is a really, it is a really good question, and I'm not really sure why you would get away with that. I guess we were, it was a simpler time, you know, even though it was only 2009, which to the two of us doesn't really feel like that long ago. Maybe there were just other things to worry about. It was also interesting that CNN didn't really report this until they actually had a confirmation from the coroner that Michael Jackson was dead, and I don't think they're that responsible anymore. So maybe it just was the time and that people weren't so obsessed with the immediacy of access and response. But, you know, I really think that now, when the platform goes out, and it did go out, actually, not that long ago, you remember it shortly after Elon Musk took over? They had a failure, and I think we were probably somewhere that one of the future episodes in this series. That was major age news, and there was a certain amount of consternation. So I think it's it probably is true that it doesn't work. But do you think any any final thoughts on that one?

TW.  I think there are a few things going on. I think we were more tolerant of those things back then, and not that we were more tolerant as a people, but I think we understood it. We're used to technology not always working the way we wanted it to in the time we wanted it to or how we expected it to, and so I think because, you know, it wasn't brand new, but it was still new enough that I think people understood that there were going to be some of these hurdles and you know, stumbles along the way and it would take some time to get to point where things work the way they work now, it's a different story, who is with what's happened more recently, but I think back then, you know, people were still really hopeful that this would that these issues would work themselves out. The other thing to think about is there was no other alternative. So now, you know, we're gonna do a whole series on this, there are a dozen Twitter alternatives and competitors. But in 2009, it was Twitter. That was it, and the other social media networks were so different, and not conducive to this kind of engagement, that it really wasn't. You couldn't just say, All right, well, Twitter crashed. We're done with Twitter, let's move over to Facebook, and so it was just a different time and context.

SJ.  Yeah, I mean, that's, that's the nice thing, having a monopoly on a on a way of communicating, right that? What are you gonna do? So? I think that's, that's really cool. That's a really good answer, actually. So in 2010, Twitter rolled out "new Twitter", which significantly changed the character of the platform and introduced the ability to see pictures and videos, which was, you know, transformational at the time. You know, we only worked for a limited number of sites like YouTube. But previously, it was, as you know, text only, or you had to leave, you clicked on a link, and if you left Twitter, they also changed how mentions and retweets and messages were displayed, and, of course, much to everyone's annoyance, and disappointment. They introduced advertising, what extent do you think the addition of those photos and videos and I guess we'll talk about advertising as well, but just first of all, the photos and videos changed the core nature of Twitter. And what impact? Do you think he's had long-term?

TW.  Oh, I can tell you at the time, I really disliked it. I mean, you know, I don't like change anyway. But none of these changes seemed necessary or positive to me at the time, you know, what possible use could there be to post a photo or video on Twitter? Why are they introducing ads, this was you know, overall, for me, personally, a less a less enjoyable experience. Over time, I think, you know, I've softened a little bit on that very little bit I understand why you would want to add photos and videos to something like Twitter, and of course, you know, ad revenue is we'll talk more about that, too. But I think it both changed Twitter and didn't, I think some people do post photos, and some people do post videos. But by and large, the core of Twitter has remained about the text, and I think that both shows its resilience and the lack of a real need to make that change.

SJ.  Yeah, I mean, I feel the same way, and I think I've become more negative about the addition of photos and videos, or at least links to photos and videos, on Twitter over time, I think there's, there's, there is a benefit to being able to take a photo of video on your phone and upload it to Twitter of an event, which is happening right now, and I think we've seen lots of examples where that's been done, and, you know, that's a positive thing on the whole. But I just sort of come back to this idea that this the this short, punchy, 140, character text limit, communication was really, even if they didn't have a planned reason for it, other than that was the length of SMS messages. So maximum length of SMS messages that it worked out that that was really, I think, a good hook, and then being able to have people share YouTube videos, particularly. I mean, I just don't I don't see that. I mean, I can see from the business point of view, having links to specific sites with which you perhaps have commercial agreements, to share revenue makes a lot of sense. That was probably part of it. But I don't, I don't think it was good for the platform for what I think up until this point had been really good for, which was like the engagement with experts engagement with what was going on, and I think it did change it, and of course, you know, we have to we have to talk about it. The the introduction of the advertisements, fundamentally changes the way that a service will interact with you because suddenly you're not the customer. You're the product and the the advertisers or the or the customer service, right?

TW.  Yes, absolutely, and, you know, a lot more changes followed, and next time we'll, we'll talk about those. So we'll pick up from 2011 and follow more of those changes Twitter's evolution through all of it; Twitter's role in the Arab Spring, the Trump years, and Elon Musk's eventual purchase of the platform. In our final episode of this series, we'll look at what's happened since Musk's purchase and what the future holds. 

TW.  In the meantime, we'll post a transcript of this episode with references on our website. You can find this and more information about us at TheBrightApp.com. 

SJ.  Until next time, I'm Steven Jones. 

TW.  and I'm Taryn Ward.

SJ.  Thank you for joining us for Breaking the Feed, Social Media: Beyond the Headlines.