WordPress was first launched on May 27, 2003, by its founders, Matt Mullenweg and Mike Little.
It has grown to dominate the Content Management System (CMS) market due to several key factors:
- Open-Source Nature: It is free, open-source software, which has fostered a massive global community of developers who contribute to its continuous improvement, security, and vast ecosystem.
- Vast Ecosystem: There are tens of thousands of free and paid themes and plugins (over 60,000 in the official directory) that allow users to add almost any function or design to their website without needing to code.
- Ease of Use: While initially a blogging tool, it has evolved into a versatile CMS that is relatively easy for beginners to set up and manage, while still being powerful enough for large-scale enterprise websites.
- Flexibility and Scalability: It can be used for everything from simple personal blogs to large corporate sites, e-commerce stores (via plugins like WooCommerce), and news publications.
- SEO Friendliness: It provides a solid foundation for Search Engine Optimization, which can be further enhanced with specialized SEO plugins.
As of recent statistics (around late 2024/2025), WordPress powers over 43% of all websites on the internet, and its market share among websites with a known CMS is typically reported to be over 60%.