Happy Birthday Twitter

Twitter is celebrating its 10th anniversary today, and the hashtag #LoveTwitter is trending royally all across the networking giant. Twitter has become a central part of breaking news, celeb break-ups, patch-ups, hook-ups, live event coverage, real-time advertising campaigns, even customer service. In fact, Twitter is considered one of the strongest marketing weapons for every business today.

The micro-blogging site has indeed come a long distance since its inception and has experienced its share of highs and lows.

Celebrating Twitter’s birthday today, Team CIOL is sharing some of the most iconic moments of Twitter India.

1. The date, 26th November 2008, when Mumbai was braving a terrorist attack, in a way redefined Twitter for India. Twitter was used by the captives inside the Taj hotel to connect with the outside world. Captives live-tweeted about the things happening in the hotel and people in and around the area shared the situation updates with the rest of the country using twitter. Even journalists used the micro-blogging platform extensively to report on the terrorist attack.

2. India’s World cup Win on April 2nd, 2011 was the second most iconic moment for twitter India. The victory which came after a 28-year-long wait brought a roaring crowd on Twitter.

3. An incident which shook India’s Collective Conscience, Nirbhaya Rape Case received extensive coverage on Twitter India. December 16th, 2012, a 23year old paramedical student was brutally gang-raped and was thrown out of a bus in New-Delhi. Twitter was used as a platform to express shock, outrage and demand justice by masses, celebrities and politicians alike.

4. Sachin Tendulkar’s retirement was mourned by one and all on Twitter. People from all walks of like used Twitter’s networking platform to thank master batsman for his services to sports and wish him good luck for future.

5. From April 7th to May 12^th, 2014, Twitter was “the” app for every political party and candidates’ updates. With near 60 million elections-related tweets, it was the first #TwitterElection for India.

6. Rajnikanth - the Tamil superstar joined Twitter on 5th May 2014 which marks the sixth iconic moment for Twitter India. And the not-so-surprising-fact is that, within first 24 hours of his joining Twitter, Rajnikanth had more than 200,000 followers.

7. The seventh iconic moment was when India's Mars Orbiter successfully entered Mars' orbit on the 24^th September 2014. India became the first nation to reach the Red Planet in its very first attempt and the first Asian country to complete the feat. The tweet from ISRO was re-tweeted 12,248 times.

8. On India’s 69th Independence Day, Taj Mahal joined Twitter. The moment was celebrated and marked by thousands of Taj fans on Twitter

9. In November 2015, with 1.8 million tweets with Diwali emoji from India and world, created the ninth iconic moment of Twitter India. The festival of light was celebrated on Twitter with Diwali moments using #HappyDiwali hashtag.

10. Twitter was on call once again when Chennai was reeling under devastating floods. Twitter was used by people and celebrities alike to report critical information and coordinate local relief efforts during the ravaging floods at the end of 2015. #ChennaiRains, #ChennaiFloods and #ChennaiRainHelps were the hashtags used by the local residents to assist and help each other in the times of natural disaster.

Thank you for an incredible 10 years. We can't wait to see what you Tweet next.

Love, Twitter#LoveTwitterhttps://t.co/nkOLoBkrvg

— Twitter India (@TwitterIndia) March 21, 2016