Twitter Hashtag Celebrates 10th Anniversary

Today marks the tenth anniversary of the Twitter hashtag, which was first implemented in 2007. To celebrate the anniversary, several statistics have been released about their usage.

“Since it first appeared on Twitter, the hashtag has dramatically evolved — from grouping Tweets, to adding quirky commentary, to sparking social movements and global conversations. Using hashtags on Twitter, people worldwide have made this platform their microphone, shaped culture, and changed the world,” wrote Twitter Co-Founder Biz Stone in a blog post, Wednesday. “Combined with the power and influence of Twitter, the hashtag empowers everyone to see what’s happening in the world and what people are talking about.”

“It allows people from all over the planet to share their voice and join global conversations. When something happens in the world, it happens on Twitter,” he claimed. “Happy tenth birthday, hashtag. We’re glad we never called you by your technically correct name, ‘Octothorp.'”

In celebration of the anniversary, several statistics about the hashtag have also been released.

Hashtags are tweeted 125 million times per day, while the most used hashtag in 2017 so far has been posted over 300 million times.

In 2007, the most used hashtag was posted around 9,000 times.

Stone included in his blog post the first tweet with a hashtag:

how do you feel about using # (pound) for groups. As in #barcamp [msg]?

— Chris Messina (@chrismessina) August 23, 2007

#NowPlaying is one of the most popular hashtags ever used on Twitter, being posted more than one billion times. This is followed by #FollowFriday, or #FF, which has been used over half a billion times, and #ThrowbackThursday, or #TBT, which has been used around 120 million times.

Meanwhile, the most tweeted television show was The Walking Dead, the most tweeted movie was Star Wars, and the most tweeted sports league was the NFL.

“Five of the biggest hashtags of the past ten years actually derived from music award shows, which have been synonymous with live-tweeting,” reported Billboard. “Added up, these five have been used over 3 billion times: #MTVHottest, #MTVStars, #KCA, #iHeartAwards and #BestFanArmy.”

“Some of the biggest hashtags used to vote for artists include: #BTSBBMAs, #EMABiggestFansJustinBieber, #EMABiggestFans1D, #vote5sos and #PushAwardsKathNiels,” they continued.