Jack Dorsey steps down as Twitter CEO: Talking Tech podcast

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Hey there, listeners, it's Brett Molina. Welcome back to Talking Tech. Lots of big news in the world of Twitter. You recall that very first tweet that co-founder Jack Dorsey sent "just setting up my twttr," that has kicked off this social media giant and has helped make it what it is today.

More than 15 years after that first tweet, Jack Dorsey, the CEO and co-founder of Twitter, is stepping down the company confirmed on Monday. Parag Agrawal, who has been with Twitter for more than a decade and has been the company's Chief Technology Officer since 2017, will take over as Twitter's CEO effective immediately, the company said.

Here's a couple of quick quotes from Dorsey. "I've decided to leave Twitter because I believe the company is ready to move on from its founders." That is a theme that popped up quite a bit In a note that Dorsey sent to employees announcing his departure. He shared this on Twitter as well.

Here's another quote related to that. "There aren't many companies that get to this level and there aren't many founders that choose their company over their own ego. I know we'll prove this was the right move."

A little more background on Agrawal, who is taking over as Twitter CEO. He joined as an engineer in 2011, he was named the company's first distinguished engineer for his role on renewing audience growth in 2016 and 2017. Then that year, Agrawal was named Chief Technology Officer, where he's served ever since.

A lot has changed with Twitter in the last few years, once Dorsey took over. If you'll recall, he was serving as CEO of Square, which is the digital payment service. He was briefly CEO from May 2007 to October 2008, and he came back on an interim basis in 2015, while they were dealing with a shift in CEO at the time. And then he formally took over permanently in October.

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Since then, we've seen a lot of big changes in Twitter. And it's interesting. I did a little bit of research and just looked by act as some of the big changes to the platform, and it's really interesting to see how different Twitter has become.

He was in charge of Twitter when they made changes like... Remember when there was a star symbol for the Like button, now it's a heart? That happened under his watch. You'll recall, they also lengthened the character count during that time. Twitter was 140 characters for the longest time, and not long after, he extended that character count to 280.

Lots of other new features and products and things that they've experimented with and have tried. We saw what they did with Fleets, which was their take on Snapchat Stories, where you could post tweets that disappeared after 24 hours. You saw what they've done now with Twitter Spaces, which is their audio product, where folks can gather and have conversations on Twitter.

So there's lots of stuff that's happened with this platform in the last few years since Dorsey's been in charge. And it's going to be interesting to see how Twitter evolves over the next few months, few years, under this new CEO.

Twitter doesn't have the audience that a Facebook or an Instagram does, it is a smaller audience, but it's still impactful. We have a lot of news makers that are on Twitter and they announce a lot of big news on Twitter and that's how Twitter has stayed around for as long as it has, is those moments. You don't want to miss that on Twitter.

It is also a very good platform for Live coverage of anything, doing anything Live, in the moment. That's another big positive for Twitter. Something that really Facebook and other platforms really haven't cracked, that's something that's been really unique to Twitter and I think that's why it's thrived.

So that's going to be interesting to see over the next few months, few years, under this new leadership. How does that evolve? How does that change? And it'll be really fascinating to watch Twitter and see what kind of changes are in store.

Now as for Dorsey, he is going to stay on Twitter's board until his term expires at the company's 2022 stockholders' meeting. And then beyond that, he's out from Twitter. But again, definitely a good run for him as CEO and be interested to see what happens with Twitter here on out.

Listeners, let's hear from you. Do you have any comments, questions, or show ideas, any tech problems you want us to try to address? You can find me on Twitter @BrettMolina23. Please don't forget to subscribe and rate us or leave a review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, anywhere you get your podcasts. You've been listening to Talking Tech. We'll be back tomorrow with another quick hit from the world of tech.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Jack Dorsey steps down as Twitter CEO: Talking Tech podcast