Twitter celebrates a decade of tweets

Illustration picture (REUTERS/Kacper Pempel).

It might seem like Twitter has been around forever, but it was just 10 years ago—on March 21, 2006— that Jack Dorsey posted the first message to the service.

"Just setting up my twttr," the company founder wrote.

Ten years later, Twitter is celebrating a decade of tweets—including Dorsey's first, which has been shared more than 76,550 times and liked by 55,330-plus users.

"As we mark this milestone, it's you we want to celebrate," the company said in a blog post.

"Throughout the years, you've made Twitter what it is today and you're shaping what it will be in the future," the message continued. "Thank you for making history, driving change, lifting each other up and laughing together every day."

The brainchild of Dorsey, Evan Williams, Biz Stone, and Noah Glass, Twitter was built as an SMS shortcode for the Web: A place to post real-time, up-to-date news, goings on, and thoughts.

Initially mocked by Luddites, Twitter quickly found its footing—particularly among entertainment and news junkies.

When a US Airways flight made an emergency landing in the Hudson River in January 2009, a tweeted photo was the first from the scene. Later that year, Ashton Kutcher became the first person to reach 1 million followers, beating CNN's Breaking News feed. He now has 17.5 million, while CNN sits at 36 million.

By 2012, the company had more than 100 million users posting 340 million messages a day, including President Obama's massively popular "Four more years" tweet. The social network currently boasts 320 million monthly active users, who can show their appreciation for the service today with the #LoveTwitter hashtag.

Twitter went public in 2013, but has faced challenges in recent years, as growth stalled and the firm saw a revolving door of CEOs before landing on Dorsey last fall. It's now experimenting with new products like Twitter Moments and an algorithmic timeline. One thing that won't change: Twitter's 140-character limit.

This article originally appeared on PCMag.com.