Cannes Media Person of the year 2012 : Jack Dorsey, father of Twitter

The Cannes Lions Media Person of the year award 2012 goes to Jack Dorsey, the creator, co-founder and Executive Chairman of Twitter, Inc. and the co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Square, Inc. Join us in 2013 when the prize goes to Pinterest!

Originally from St. Louis, Jack's early fascination for mass-transit and how cities function led him to Manhattan and programming real-time messaging systems for couriers, taxis, and emergency vehicles. Throughout this work Jack witnessed thousands of workers in the field constantly updating where they were and what they were doing. Jack came up with the idea for a site that would combine the broad reach of dispatch software with the ease of instant messaging. Within a short space of time, he had built a simple site, Twitter, where users could instantly post short messages of 140 characters or less, known as "Tweets." On 21 March 2006, Jack Dorsey posted the world's first Tweet: "just setting up my twttr."
In the ensuing time, Twitter has become a communication platform that instantly connects people everywhere to what's most meaningful to them. Twitter is accessible to anyone, via the web, on smartphones and on the simplest of feature phones. And, with 340 million Tweets per day and more than 140 million active monthly users, there is something for everyone on Twitter, no matter what you're interested in or where you are in the world.

Jack Dorsey says, "Brands have always used Twitter in creative ways to engage directly with customers. This award celebrates those brands and customers alike."

Previous recipients of the Media Person of the Year Award include: Eric Schmidt, Executive Chairman of Google; Mark Zuckerberg, Founder and CEO of Facebook; Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft Corporation; Sir Anthony O’Reilly, CEO of Independent News & Media; Tsuneo Watanabe, Chairman and Editor-in-Chief of The Yomiuri Shimbun Holdings; Sumner Redstone, Chairman and CEO of Viacom and Gerald Levin, CEO of AOL Time Warner.