Gone In 6 Seconds: The Fall Of Vine

Yesterday Twitter announced it was to shut down their video looping app Vine. Despite gaining huge popularity in 2013, introducing us to an entirely new form of influencer and being the home of the notorious screaming duck video, it appears that as social media has moved forward, Vine never managed to match it’s initial growth.

Despite only being around 4 years, the fun, creative and playfulness of Vine has left a lasting legacy. Where Myspace gave people internet celebrities like Jeffree Star and household names like The Arctic Monkeys. Vine has also made legitimate comedians, musicians and filmmakers out of many of it’s users.

Twitter haven’t given a reason for the shut down of Vine but with the rising significance of Snapchat it seems that Vine had possibly become overshadowed by the image and video sharing app, leading to a loss in traffic, content and ultimately profit. 

It seems likely that the closure of the Vine app could lead to Twitter finally incorporating a similar video sharing featuring into the Twitter platform. With it’s recent addition of Gifs, polls, videos and periscope videos into the main website, it’s possible that Twitter are now looking to focus solely on their core website and app, making one main hub, instead of owning a number of smaller, less profitable apps.

For those using Vine all is not lost, it’ll be a matter of months and may even be into the start of 2017 before a complete shut down, allowing users time to download their videos, before eventually support, updates and the ability to upload videos is discontinued.

There are however, still plenty of options out there for content creators, with apps and websites such as Snapchat and Youtube, Vine users may look to move on to new platforms in order to create unique content.

With a huge overhaul of Twitter in the pipeline, more focus on live streams, the continual growth of Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat and even Vine’s biggest influencers moving to newer platforms, it’s not a complete surprise that focus has been shifted onto new ventures.

The appeal of Vine was that it was quick, flexible and unfiltered, it not only worked for people wanting to show off ‘that backflip though’ but with it’s easy sharing functions Vine became the perfect place for both individuals and businesses to make a huge impact in only a short amount of time, something which appears to have transcended to Vine itself.