Twitter is a global platform for public self-expression and conversation in
real time. By developing a fundamentally new way for people to create, distribute
and discover content, we have democratized content creation and distribution,
enabling any voice to echo around the world instantly and unfiltered.
Our platform is unique in its simplicity: Tweets are limited to 140 characters
of text. This constraint makes it easy for anyone to quickly create, distribute
and discover content that is consistent across our platform and optimized for
mobile devices. As a result, Tweets drive a high velocity of information exchange
that makes Twitter uniquely “live.” We aim to become an indispensable
daily companion to live human experiences.
People are at the heart of Twitter. People come to Twitter for many reasons,
and we believe that two of the most significant are the breadth of Twitter content
and our broad reach. We have already achieved significant global scale, and
we continue to grow. We have more than 240 million MAUs spanning nearly every
country. Our users include millions of people from around the world, as well
as influential individuals and organizations, such as world leaders, government
officials, celebrities, athletes, journalists, sports teams, media outlets and
brands. Our users create approximately 500 million Tweets every day.
Twitter is a public, real-time platform where any user can create a Tweet and
any user can follow other users. We do not impose restrictions on whom a user
can follow, which greatly enhances the breadth and depth of available content
and allows users to discover the content they care about most. Additionally,
users can be followed by thousands or millions of other users without requiring
a reciprocal relationship, which we refer to as an asymmetric follow model.
This asymmetric follow model significantly enhances the ability of our users
to reach a broad audience. The public nature of our platform allows us and others
to extend the reach of Twitter content beyond our properties. Media outlets
distribute Tweets beyond our properties to complement their content by making
it more timely, relevant and comprehensive.
Products for Users
Twitter. Twitter allows users to express themselves and create, distribute and
discover content.
Home Timeline. The timeline is a key component of the user experience. A user’s
timeline displays the user’s individual Tweets as well as Tweets from
the users they follow, with the most recent Tweets appearing at the top of the
timeline. The timeline prompts the user to refresh whenever a followed user
sends a new Tweet. The timeline is designed to be simple and easy to digest,
and displays only the user profile picture and text content of each Tweet. Most
rich media content in a Tweet is previewed in a timeline. If a Tweet contains
rich media content or is part of a broader conversation involving favorites,
replies and Retweets, the user can expand the
Tweet to display this content in the timeline.
Timelines on Mobile. The timeline interface on our mobile apps allows users
to swipe from their Home timeline to their Discover timeline, where they can
find trends, popular Tweets and new accounts tailored for their interests, and
then to their Activity timeline, where they can see Tweets and accounts that
popular among their followed accounts.
Self-Expression Mechanisms.
Tweet Composer. When a user wants to create a Tweet, they can do so by simply
clicking on the “Compose new Tweet” box or icon, composing a Tweet
and clicking “Tweet” to send the Tweet to their followers.
Profile. The user profile includes a user’s name, Twitter username, location,
website, photograph and short biography, and also includes lists of the accounts
that the user is following, the user’s followers, the user’s Tweets
and media gallery.
Lists. A list is a curated group of Twitter users. Users can create their own
lists or subscribe to lists created by other users. Viewing a list timeline
will show the user a stream of Tweets from only the users on that list.
Social Mechanisms.
Follow. Users select which other users they want to follow based on what interests
them. The Tweets of the users they follow are displayed in their timeline.
Who to Follow. Our user recommendation engine, “Who to Follow,”
provides users with recommendations for other users to follow based on their
interests and who they are currently following.
Favorites, @Replies and Retweets. Various features enable users to interact
with Tweets created by other users. Users can click on the “Favorite”
button on a Tweet to demonstrate their support of or interest in the Tweet.
Users can also reply to a Tweet created by another user by clicking the “Reply”
button on the Tweet, which we refer to as an @reply, building on the original
content and sharing their thoughts and opinions with the sender. A Tweet can
also be resent, or retweeted, by a user that has received it by clicking the
“Retweet” button on the Tweet, which enables users to redistribute
the original Tweet to their followers.
Mentions. Users can refer to, or mention, other users in their Tweets and Retweets
by denoting the recipient with the “@” symbol followed by their
username. We display mentions, including @replies, on the @Connect page of the
user mentioned.
@Connect. Users can see their history of interactions with other Twitter users
by going to their @Connect page, which collects and displays information about
a user’s followers and interactions with other users on Twitter.
Direct Messages. In order to allow non-public communication among Twitter users,
Twitter allows users to send private messages, known as direct messages. Users
can only send a direct message to a user who is following them and can only
receive direct messages from users they follow.
Protected Tweets. Twitter also provides its users with the ability to make their
Tweets private. A user who chooses to utilize this feature must choose to accept
a new follower request before his or her Tweets are visible to that follower.
Discovery Mechanisms.
Trends. Topics that are tweeted about at a high rate can become trends on Twitter.
Trends are often indicators of what is current and popular at any given moment
in a particular country or worldwide. Some trends are preceded by “#,”
which we refer to as a hashtag. The use of hashtags on our platform was initiated
by our users and hashtags are included in Tweets to mark them as relating to
a topic, enabling trends to be more easily identified and conversations on a
given topic to be more easily found.
Search. Twitter Search enables users to find a real-time targeted list of the
Tweets and users most relevant to their search topic by keyword, hashtag or
username.
#Discover. The Twitter #Discover tool enables users to find interesting and
relevant information that they may not have found in their own timeline or through
searches. A user’s interests, their followers and activity determine what
is displayed on the user’s #Discover page.
Notifications.
Email, SMS and Push Notifications. Users can customize how they are notified
about activity on Twitter. They may elect to receive email notifications, SMS
messages and mobile push notifications, which are alerts sent to the home screen
of a mobile device by a mobile application.
Platform Ubiquity. We make Twitter available across a variety of mobile and
desktop applications and websites.
Mobile Applications. Twitter is available across a wide range of mobile devices,
including Android phones and tablets, iPhone, iPad, Blackberry, Windows Phone,
Nokia S40 and Nokia X. We tailor our products and services to each system to
create a rich Twitter experience for our users, taking advantage of the capabilities
of each device and its operating system.
Mobile Web and Twitter.com. Twitter is available on the web at mobile.twitter.com
and twitter.com. We operate tailored versions of our mobile website for smartphone
browsers and feature phone browsers to deliver a compelling user experience
for users, regardless of how they access our platform.
SMS. Users in many countries around the world can register, follow accounts,
receive notifications and send Tweets entirely through SMS. Our relationships
with many mobile carriers enable users who are customers of these carriers to
engage with Twitter through SMS.
Desktop Applications. Our TweetDeck application enables users to view multiple
streams of Tweets in real time, and execute custom search queries against real-time
content. A Twitter application is available on the Mac OS and Windows 8 platforms.
Vine. Vine is a mobile application available on the iOS, Android and Windows
operating systems that enables users to create and distribute short looping
videos of up to six seconds in length. Vine users create and distribute their
videos to their followers on Vine, with the option of tweeting them to their
Twitter followers and sharing them on social networks. Users on Vine can follow
other users, re-broadcast to their followers by revining, comment on videos
and embed videos on websites. We do not currently place, or currently plan to
place, ads on Vine.
#Music. #Music is a mobile application that helps users discover new music and
artists based on Tweets. #Music is available on the iOS platform. #Music uses
data from the Twitter API to surface trending music artists in a variety of
genres, and allows users to browse through artists based on social relationships
on Twitter. We do not currently place, or currently plan to place, ads on #Music.
Our terms of service govern our users’ access to and use of our products
and services, as well as any content uploaded, downloaded or appearing on our
products and services. By agreeing to our terms of service, our users agree
to be responsible for their use of our products and services, for any content
they post to our products and services and for any consequences thereof. Our
terms of service allow us to alter or limit use of our products and services
or terminate a user’s right to use them at our sole discretion. We have
the right to remove or refuse to distribute any content and to suspend or terminate
users at any time. Our users retain their rights to any content they submit,
post or display on our products and services and grant us a license to use,
publish and distribute such content, including to our third-party partners.
Our users also agree to our privacy policy which describes our collection and
use of their information. Our users agree that we, and the third parties with
whom we partner, may place targeted advertising on our products and services.
Any user may terminate this agreement with us at any time for any reason by
deactivating their account and discontinuing their use of our products and services.
Products for Platform Partners
We provide a set of tools, public APIs and embeddable widgets that developers
can use to contribute their content to our platform, distribute Twitter content
across their properties and enhance their websites and applications with Twitter
content. Websites integrating with Twitter add value to our user experience.
Indeed many applications have been registered by developers to enable them to
integrate with our platform, and leverage Twitter content to enhance and extend
their applications in new and creative ways. The goal of our platform product
development is to make it easy for developers to integrate seamlessly with Twitter.
Key elements of the Twitter platform products include:
Twitter Cards. Twitter Cards enable developers to attach content and functionality
to Tweets, and have that content appear wherever a Tweet is displayed throughout
web and mobile applications. Developers can link Twitter Cards directly to their
own mobile application or website, in order to drive visits and application
installs.
The Twitter Public API. The Twitter public API allows platform partners to integrate
Twitter content and follower relationships into their applications. For example,
a platform partner can connect to the Twitter public API in order to collect,
filter and integrate real-time content from Twitter into a live television program
or a third-party website to integrate Tweets into a sentiment monitoring application
to help companies monitor and measure conversation on Twitter about their brand.
Twitter for Websites. Twitter for Websites is a set of tools that enable platform
partners to integrate Twitter content and functionality into their websites.
Sites can embed single Tweets or timelines of Tweets, or add Tweet buttons to
their websites that make it easy for visitors to follow particular accounts
or Tweet about the content they are viewing.