WordPress Turns 19! (19 Facts About the CMS)

by Vipe Team in WordPress Society; Published on 27.05.2022

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Guess what? Birthday wishes are in order for someone very special today! That’s right – May 27th, 2022 is the 19th anniversary of the first WordPress release! Our WordPress agency for enterprise thinks this is worth celebrating, and we want the WordPress community all over the world to join us in wishing a very Happy Birthday to the platform we love so much.

Let’s go on a quick trip down memory lane. On this day, 19 years ago, the first version of what would become the Web’s most popular Content Management System was released by Matt Mullenweg and British web developer Mike Little.

Since then, WordPress has been defined by ongoing innovation and progress, owing in large part to the committed community of WordPress developers and engineers who work tirelessly to enhance the platform.

This year’s milestone will be marked in a variety of ways, but our enterprise WordPress agency wants to bring your attention to wp19.day – a great online initiative that is helping the WordPress community celebrate the CMS’s 19th birthday. We recommend checking out their website to see the thoughts, photos, tweets, and videos that people have submitted to show their appreciation and support for the platform.

Whether you are celebrating or not, the majority of WordPress users will agree that the previous 19 years have been full of great advancements. Over the years, WordPress has evolved from a simple blogging platform to powering some of the Internet’s most dynamic and heavily visited sites.

? Happy Birthday, WordPress!

Our WordPress agency for enterprise wanted to join in the celebrations today, and we thought we’d do that by sharing 19 fascinating and super fun facts about our favourite birthday-CMS.

All of the facts below are solid proof that this open-source content management system is truly one of the most influential players in the web development world.

Without further ado, let’s go and see 19 of the most interesting WordPress facts that will remind you once again just how awesome the platform is!

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? 1. WordPress Is Older Than Facebook and Twitter

On May 27 2003, the first version of WordPress was launched. WordPress is, therefore, older than Facebook and Twitter.

? 2. What’s in a Name?

The name WordPress was suggested by Christine Selleck Tremoulet, a renowned blogger and a friend of Matt Mullenweg (co-founder of WordPress).

? 3. WordPress Is a Free and Open Source Platform

Our enterprise WordPress agency reminds you that WordPress is distributed under the GNU GPL licence. This means that the platform can be downloaded and used by anyone across the globe. All users are free to study, use, change, and build upon the source code.

? 4. WordPress is Not Owned by Any Company

The WordPress Foundation was founded by WordPress co-founder Matt Mullenweg to preserve the open-source freedoms. The ‘WordPress’ trademark is owned by this non-profit organisation, which defends the open-source software’s freedoms.

? 5. WordPress Doesn’t Have a CEO

WordPress does not have a CEO because it is an open-source project that is not controlled by any corporation. Volunteer developers from all around the world administer the project.

However, that doesn’t mean the platform is left to chance. On the contrary, a robust decision-making process is in place, and anybody may submit bug reports, fixes, feature suggestions, and so on.

? 6. WordPress Is a Big Part of a Multi-Billion Dollar Economy

Our WordPress agency for enterprise reminds you that all around the world, hundreds of organisations and thousands of people offer WordPress-based products, services, and solutions.

The CMS provides developers, designers, and entrepreneurs with the fantastic opportunity to establish their businesses with WordPress as a solid foundation.

? 7. Governments All Across the World Use WordPress

Our enterprise WordPress agency will never get tired of telling people that our favourite CMS is much more than a blogging platform.

In fact, WordPress is used to power thousands of government websites across the world. Hundreds of US federal and state government websites, as well as counties, small towns, and high schools, all rely on WordPress.

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? 8. WordPress in the Classroom

Thousands of educational institutions, colleges, and schools around the world utilise WordPress to power their authoritative websites.

Apart from that, students and academics may study, change, learn, and contribute to the development of WordPress core, plugins, and themes thanks to the open-source licence of the platform.

? 9. WordPress Relatives

Did you know that WordPress has several sister projects, including bbPress, BuddyPress, and GlotPress? Our WordPress agency for enterprise loves all of them as they are open-source software based on the WordPress core and concepts.

? 10. WordPress is Written in PHP and MySQL

WordPress is written in the PHP programming language, and it utilises MySQL for its database.

? 11. Some of WordPress is Written in JavaScript

There is code in the WordPress core that is written in JavaScript. As WordPress evolves into more of an application development framework, the JavaScript code will occupy a larger part of the code.

? 12. Free WordPress Support From the Community

WordPress is a community-driven project with plenty of free support that is easily accessible. Every day, thousands of people post on the official WordPress support forum.

? 13. WordPress Loves Jazz

Our enterprise WordPress agency adores the fact that our favourite CMS has a thing for jazz music. Every WordPress release is named after a jazz musician. For example, Miles Davis inspired WordPress 1.0.

? 14. WordPress Provides an Automatic Update System

WordPress has a built-in Auto Update System that does what the name implies – it automatically updates itself for minor releases. This feature can also automatically deploy plugin updates if a serious vulnerability that concerns millions of websites is discovered.

? 15. WordPress.com and WordPress.org Are Not the Same Thing

WordPress is a free and open-source platform for building highly scalable websites. To install WordPress, you’ll need to invest in a quality WordPress hosting service (? see our list of the best hosting companies for high-traffic WordPress websites).

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WordPress.com, on the other hand, is an Automattic-run blog hosting service.

? 16. Multisite WordPress

Our WordPress agency for enterprise wants to remind you that WordPress provides a multisite option that is disabled by default. It allows you to use the same WordPress installation to construct a network of websites, which is an amazing functionality for large-scale enterprise websites.

? 17. WordPress Wapuu

Wapuu is WordPress’ (un)official mascot, which was designed by members of the Japanese WordPress community. Every WordCamp event has its own Wapuu, as well as various other unique variations.

The mascot of our enterprise WordPress agency, Viptor, is actually good friends with Wapuu. 🙂

? 18. WordPress Wiggle

The WordPress Wiggle is the WordPress community’s unofficial dance. GravityView’s Zack Katz commissioned the tune. It’s super fun, check it out and spread the wiggle!

? 19. WordPress Logo

Jason Santa Maria designed the iconic ‘W’ WordPress logo back in 2005.

? Dear WordPress, Many Happy Returns!

Our WordPress agency for enterprise has been closely following the progression of WordPress since we established our company in 2016. It will be an understatement to say that we’ve loved seeing its growing popularity and adoption across the whole world.

We firmly believe that WordPress is the absolute best enterprise-grade, scalable digital experience platform that can be used by businesses of all shapes and sizes. And what does the future hold for our favourite platform?

It’s hard to tell given the fast-paced nature of the digital landscape, but if history is any guide, we can expect to see greater personalisation, increased adoption, and an even bigger share of the Web. Our enterprise WordPress agency is also excited about the stronger innovation aspect that is already becoming a reality in the form of Headless WordPress and WordPress REST API.

While we’re waiting for the future, it’s been an incredible 19 years, and here’s to many more from Vipe Studio and the whole WordPress community!

? Happy Birthday, WordPress! ?