The 6-second video sharing service brought viewers to tears of laughter from humorous Vines and to dropped jaws in amazement over the Viners’ talents such as singing and dancing. The App has created a lot of stars such as King Bach and Shawn Mendes to name a few, but in a couple months from now, the Vine App will be shut down by Twitter.
Back in 2012, Twitter took a risk and bought the Vine service because they had faith that the company would turn out to be a success. Shockingly, Vine turned out to become more than a success. TechCrunch stated that Vine had reached more than 1 billion loops per day and 100 million viewers per month. Vine-famous people were also benefiting from the service by getting profit. For example, according to the pop-culture site Complex, Jessi Smiles was sponsored by Wendy’s and could make about $3,000 just for mentioning their name on a Vine, and Brittany Furlan can make up to $20,000 for a Trident branded Vine.
But the real question is, if Vine was doing so great, why are they shutting down? The sad truth is that people were outgrowing Vine.
Christopher Ratcliff from Econsultancy mentioned some of the overused Vines that were still being created such as the random selector, extreme sports or magic tricks that were originally not recorded from a phone, and the constant looping which many watchers found annoying. Also the one big thing that viewers disliked was the 6-second duration. Even though that is what made Vine so unique, at the end of the day, 6 seconds was just not enough time. As a result, Viners were turning to Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat to connect with their fan bases. Popular Viners used Youtube to create longer and more innovative content that their viewers would love to see. They wanted to seek bigger opportunities, and Vine just wasn’t enough to help expand their brand.
Recently, Vine’s owner, Twitter, has been losing money, which led them to cut 350 jobs, which is 9% of the company. While Vine’s popularity was rising, Instagram’s and Snapchat’s were rising as well, and Vine was not a strong enough competitor to knock them down. It’s hard to compare Vine’s 40 million users to Snapchat’s 150 million daily active users or Instagram’s 500 million active users. The tables quickly turned from, “Do it for the Vine” to “Do it for the Gram.”
Everything came down to Team Vine and Twitter’s announcement on Medium that they will soon discontinue the app, but the website will still be open to watch the Vines that have been made.
Who would have ever thought that 6 second videos could have such an impact. I’m sure we will all miss those days when we were the first to witness coined phrases like “Eyebrows on Fleek.” And we’ll all cherish the funny and unforgettable compilations and voice overs. Vine gave young talented individuals a platform to show off their comedic skills, as well as their other talents including singing, acting and dancing. Vine will truly be remembered for being a fantastic and simple way for people to express their creativity.
