Commentary

Twitter Pulls The Plug On Vine

It’s appropriate, in a way.

Vine, the six-second video app started by Twitter just three ago, will fold in the next few months, Twitter has just announced marking the end of a short life for a short-video app.

But Twitter assured that Vines that are already there will still be accessible. (Still, if users doubt it, the Website Heavy.com offers a step by step way to save your Vines.)

Maybe Vine was just not the right size, in the Goldilocks way of thinking. A lot of the mind-set and even the video style Vine helped create is now being realized better on apps and modes that came after or just adapted better, like Snapchat and especially, live capabilities created by Periscope, also owned by Twitter.

Facecbook’s new TV ads touting its Facebook Live offshoot are Vine-like, but, to me, much more pointless.
Today, other observers also suggested that maybe Twitter thinks it can entwine Vine into the existing Twitter feed. That makes sense, too.

Business Insider, quoting research from Makerly, reported that over half of Vine’s “top” 9,725 accounts had “either deleted their profiles or stopped posting to the platform since the start of 2016.” Some Vine “stars” left for competing, and similar, apps. including YouTube, Facebook and Instagram.

Important News about Vine

Since 2013, millions of people have turned to Vine to laugh at loops and see creativity unfold. Today, we are sharing the news that in the coming months we’ll be discontinuing the mobile app.

Nothing is happening to the apps, Website or your Vines today. We value you, your Vines, and are going to do this the right way. You’ll be able to access and download your Vines. We’ll be keeping the Website online, because we think it’s important to still be able to watch all the incredible Vines that have been made. You will be notified before we make any changes to the app or Website.

Thank you. Thank you. To all the creators out there—thank you for taking a chance on this app back in the day. To the many team members over the years who made this what it was—thank you for your contributions. And of course, thank you to all of those who came to watch and laugh every day.

What’s next? We’ll be working closely with creators to make sure your questions are answered and will work hard to do this the right way. We’ll be sharing more details on this blog and our Twitter account, and will notify you through the app when we start to change things.

—Team Vine & Twitter

The transience of the Internet allows Twitter’s memo to thank its early adopters ”for taking a chance on this app back in the day,” way back before Trevor Noah even joined “The Daily Show,” let alone becoming its host. Back when America was still pretty great, we thought. And back when Twitter still seemed like it just needed a few tweaks to make the tweets work.

Things can change in a second. Or six.

The Vine announcement comes the same day Twitter officially announced it is laying off 300 workers. It did the same the year before, amid reports that it’s trying very hard to find a buyer.


pj@mediapost.com

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About the Author

P.J. Bednarski has written for MediaPost since 2012 on media and marketing topics. He can be reached at pj@mediapost.com