But Twitter and every other thing that has grown big has 1) started small 2) was not initially created to be big and 3) was attractive to use.
EDIT can't reply to below cause I've used up all my commenting credits for now: My word selection (au fait) relates probably to cultural context. This is a phrase that people around me use frequently. Sorry not trying to be obscurantist or anything. I just have a life outside the Internet where people talk in non-Internet ways.
As someone very curious about language usage, why wouldn’t you just write the word “familiar” there.
I’m genuine curious as to your motivations. Is it brevity? Am I missing additional context this provides?
I'd love to see a good anthropological survey of how Twitter became popular enough that by the time of the Arab Spring it was the default "public communications" app.