Twitter Offers Vine Camera

Rather than kill Vine, Twitter has decided to offer Vine Camera -- a “pared-down” version of the video app.

“With this camera app, you’ll still be able to make six-second looping videos and either post them directly to Twitter or save them to your phone,” Twitter -- Vine’s parent company -- notes in a new blog post.

Vine Camera is expected to launch in January.

Till then, the company plans to help Vine publishers encourage their fans to follow them on Twitter. A “Follow on Twitter” notification should be available shortly.  

Twitter is also inviting Vine users to download their videos through the app or the Web site.

“All of your Vines will continue to live on the vine.co site, so you can browse all of the amazing videos you created over the years,” Twitter promises.  

In October, Twitter shocked loyal Vine users and advertisers alike with its decision to discontinue the pioneering app.

Since its debut in 2013, Vine has changed the way millions of users experienced media. Short, snappy and mobile-friendly, many of the video clips shared on Vine have proved irresistible.

More recently, Vine has become something of an afterthought for many Snapchat-obsessed users. In turn, top “Viners” have taken their talents elsewhere -- but not before demanding Twitter compensate them for the work.

This year, Madison Avenue sort of forget about the app, as Tina Yip, a strategist at Big Spaceship, recently noted in MediaPost.

Yet, news of Vine’s demise was still startling, given the enormous popularity of video apps in general, and Vine’s still-respectable market share.

Recently, in fact, research conducted by the National Cyber Security Alliance and Microsoft found that 31% of U.S. teens still use Vine -- far less than the 91% who use YouTube, but not far behind the 40% who use Twitter, and more than the 24% who use Tumblr.

As Yip at Big Spaceship tell it, there are (were?) still loads of great opportunities for brands on Vine.

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