Cartoon: The History of Twitter

The English Blog              November 19, 2013

BACKGROUND

In a mere instant - or about the time it takes to send a 140-character message - Twitter became one of the Internet's most valuable properties, capping a dizzying seven-year rise from scrappy start-up to a major publicly traded company. Twitter Inc. surged 73% to $45.10 the moment its stock began trading Thursday on the New York Stock Exchange, even as other technology stocks and the overall market slumped. With that opening trade, the online short-messaging service was valued at $25 billion. Full story >>

THE CARTOON

The cartoon by Blower from The Daily Telegraph charts the rise of Twitter from its early days as a "peace and love" outfit run by hippies with little interest in profits to a money-grabbing, multi-billion dollar web giant. The cartoonist seems to be suggesting that somewhere along the way Twitter lost its innocence.

LANGUAGE

"We're floating" is a reference to Twitter's announcement that they were going to "float", i.e., offer shares to the public, on the Stock Exchange.