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From Odeo to X— The Wild Journey of Twitter! In 2005, podcasting was booming. A startup called Odeo, co-founded by Evan Williams, was betting big on it. But then Apple announced podcasts on iTunes. Game over. The Odeo team needed a pivot. Jack Dorsey, Noah Glass, Biz Stone, and Evan Williams brainstormed a new idea: a status-sharing platform via SMS. Something quick. Something instant. On March 21, 2006, Jack sent the first message: "just setting up my twttr." Twitter (originally Twttr, inspired by Flickr) was born. But Twitter wasn’t an overnight success. Servers crashed often. People didn’t get the point. Even its creators weren’t sure if it was a product or just a side project. But something clicked. At SXSW 2007 (Major Festival in the US), Twitter set up live screens showing tweets in real-time. Suddenly, the world saw its power. Usage tripled overnight. By 2009, Twitter became the go-to place for real-time updates—Michael Jackson’s death, the Iran protests, breaking news. It wasn’t just a social network; it was a global town square. Everything was going great! But there was a problem! And that was Monetization! Twitter kept tweaking its ad model but struggled to be as profitable as Facebook. Leadership kept changing. Jack Dorsey was fired in 2008, came back as CEO in 2015, left in 2021. Twitter’s influence kept growing, but its stock price? Flat. Enter Elon Musk. In early 2022, Musk started buying Twitter shares. By April, he offered to buy the company for $44B. Twitter’s board resisted. Lawsuits followed. By October, the deal was done. First day? He walked into HQ carrying a sink (“Let that sink in”). Then came the chaos. - Laid off 50% of employees - Changed verification to a paid model - Reinstated banned accounts, including Trump - Rebranded Twitter to "X" in 2023 Today, Twitter (sorry, X) is in its next evolution—more than just tweets. Musk envisions a super app like WeChat. Whether it succeeds or not, one thing’s clear: Twitter never stays the same. From a failed podcast company to the most influential platform to an unpredictable Musk experiment—this is history in real-time.