It’s been 20 years since the first tweet

2026-03-21 · Source: TechCrunch · Field: Business & Management — Corporate Strategy & Leadership, Entrepreneurship & Start-ups, Marketing, Branding & Advertising · Depth: Fundamental Awareness, quick

Summary

Jack Dorsey posted the first tweet, "just setting up my twittr," on March 21, 2006, on the platform now known as X, formerly Twitter. Elon Musk acquired Twitter, renamed it X, and subsequently integrated it into xAI, which later became part of SpaceX. Musk's ownership has been marked by significant workforce reductions and controversies, including the integration of the Grok chatbot, which generated offensive content and sexual deepfakes. Despite competition from platforms like Bluesky and Meta's Threads, with Threads reportedly surpassing X in daily mobile users, X maintains a strong user base in certain demographics. Dorsey's original tweet was sold as an NFT for $2.9 million, but its value has since plummeted to less than $4.

Key takeaway

For CTOs and VPs of Engineering evaluating platform strategies, you should closely monitor user migration trends between competing social media services like X and Threads. The rapid shift in daily mobile users highlights the importance of agile feature development and community management to retain engagement, especially when facing controversial content issues or significant ownership changes that can alienate user bases.

Key insights

Social media platforms face intense competition and ownership changes can drastically alter their trajectory and public perception.

Principles

• Platform rebranding carries significant user perception risks.
• AI integration requires robust content moderation.
• NFT valuations are highly volatile.

In practice

• Monitor competitor user growth metrics.
• Implement strict AI content governance.
• Assess NFT market liquidity before investment.

Topics

• X Platform
• Elon Musk's Ventures
• xAI Chatbot Grok
• Social Media Competition
• NFT Digital Assets

Best for: CTO, VP of Engineering/Data, Director of AI/ML, Tech Journalist, Executive, General Interest

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Editorial summary, takeaway, and curation by AIssential. Original article published by TechCrunch.