Hatching Twitter

For my free post, I decided to write about the book I’m currently reading: Hatching Twitter by Nick Bilton. This is the true story about how Twitter was founded and the drama that ensued when the four founders clashed.

As a social media addict, when I started seeing reviews about this book I was immediately interested. Where did they come up with the idea? How did something so seemingly simple gain such intense popularity so quickly? How was it that one element that other platforms already had (status updates) could manage to hold its own so well? I picked up the book and although I’m not finished yet, I’m hooked on the story and what I‘ve learned so far.

The book starts off with one of the founders, Evan “Ev” Williams being ousted as CEO of Twitter and replaced by Dick Costolo, the COO (Bilton 2013, 2). It then flashes back to the early days, when Ev became famous for creating Blogger (Bilton 2013, 16). After selling out to Google, he then teamed up with some guys working on early podcasting (Bilton 2013, 26).  Not sure yet where it will evolve, but ultimately I’m sure it turns into Twitter.

While I’ve never watched The Social Network, I imagine it’s the same premise. Humanizing something like a social media really puts it into perspective. Something we are so heavily reliant on today started as a simple idea tossed around by a few young guys. It’s also fascinating to learn how intertwined a lot of these platforms were, that they were all the brainchild of only a few different individuals.

Source:

Bilton, Nick. Hatching Twitter. New York: The Penguin Group, 2013.