It's hard to believe it but Twitter has been around for 10 years. Or should we wonder how it has only been 10 years? It feels like a lifetime.

Since Jack Dorsey sent the first tweet on March 22, 2006, the 140-character service has grown to boast over 320 million monthly active users.

Twitter's push into the mainstream is quite recent, however, having doubled its user count in the past three years.

The company recorded just 138 million monthly active users in the early months of 2012, stretching to 204 million to begin 2013, 255 million in 2014 and 302 million at the start of 2015.

Brands take over

The growing pains were strong but in recent years brands have aced their social content, mixing humour in with great success for both their companies and the service itself.

Sporting events have played into Twitter's hands, with Oreo and Snickers famously reacting to the Super Bowl and FIFA World Cup in tweets that spread their personality to millions of users.

Even Twitter itself has capitalised on event Tweeting, with the Twitter Mirror appearing at numerous award ceremony red carpets over the past two years.

#ubiquity

Created by its users and adopted by Twitter, the hashtag might be the highlight of the company's first 10 years.

The symbol (#) is no longer just a hash to be used on telephones or to count numbers – to the kids of today, if not most adults, it's a hashtag and it's everywhere: on Twitter, on TV shows, on billboards.

With over 500 million tweets being sent per day, the company isn't short on content as it looks to capitalise on its growing presence and improve its bottom line.