On July 15, 2006, the San Francisco-based podcasting
company Odeo officially released Twttr—later changed
to Twitter—its short messaging service (SMS) for groups,
to the public.

Born as a side project apart from Odeo’s main podcasting
platform, the free application allowed users to share short
status updates with groups of friends by sending one text
message to a single number (“40404”). Over the next few
years, as Twttr became Twitter, the simple “microblogging”
service would explode in popularity, becoming one of  
the world’s leading social networking platforms.

Twitter co-founder Evan "Ev" Clark Williams

Jack Patrick Dorsey Twitter co-founder and
former CEO. 

On July 15, 2006, the San Francisco-based podcasting company Odeo
officially releases Twttr—later changed to Twitter—its short messaging
service (SMS) for groups, to the public.

Born as a side project apart from Odeo’s main podcasting platform, the
free application allowed users to share short status updates with groups
of friends by sending one text message to a single number (“40404”).

Over the next few years, as Twttr became Twitter, the “microblogging”
service would explode in popularity, becoming one of the world’s
leading social networking platforms. Twitter was founded by Evan
Williams and another entrepreneur Noah Glass.  

Twitter co-founder Evan Williams.

Twitter co-founder Noah Glass

Facebook is an online social media and social networking service company
based in Menlo Park, California. The Facebook website was launched on
February 4, 2004, by Mark Zuckerberg, along with five other fellow Harvard
College students. They had initially limited the website’s membership to 
Harvard students; however, later they expanded it to higher education
institutions in the Boston area, the Ivy League schools, and to Stanford
University.

Mark Elliot Zuckerberg will turn 34 on May 14. He
was born in White Plains, New York.

Since 2010, Time magazine has named Zuckerberg
among the 100 wealthiest and most influential people
in the world as a part of its Person of the Year award
and in December 2016, Zuckerberg was ranked 10th
on Forbes list of The World’s Most Powerful People.