By Craig Taylor | Staff Writer
Short-form video sharing app “Vine” will be discontinued “in the coming months,” according to Vine’s development team via a statement made with the online publishing platform Medium last Thursday.
Team Vine assured creators that their videos will not be going anywhere just yet and that they can still view and download their creations for the time being. The developers also said that the Vine website will be kept online, and that they will notify users whenever changes are made.
“We’ll be working closely with creators to make sure your questions are answered and will work hard to do this the right way,” Team Vine said in their statement.
The official date for the shut down has not been announced, but Twitter said in its press release that it would be occuring in the coming months.
Team Vine didn’t specify a reason for shutting down the service, although the announcement comes at a time when content creators can take advantage of a multitude of less restrictive video-sharing formats.
Instagram gave users the opportunity to post 60-second videos this summer, and even Twitter (which purchased Vine in 2013) increased their video length limit to 140 seconds. Along with the implementation of live video with Twitter’s Periscope and Facebook’s live video feature, creators now have more options than ever to produce content.
Vine also struggled with satisfying advertisers. Whereas platforms like Twitter and YouTube have ways to promote branded content, Vine never implemented such a service, and many major companies abandoned it.
In a study conducted in 2015 by video analytics firm Tubular Labs, Vines made up just 4 percent of all branded videos when compared to YouTube, Facebook and Instagram. Out of 2,500 videos posted by 40 major brands, only a handful of those companies utilized Vine for their viral marketing, and many of them hadn’t posted a Vine in months.
Vine’s six-second video clips were a staple on Twitter, as they complemented the social media platform’s bite-sized nature. Vine was a hotbed for physical and black comedy, and some of the more popular Vine stars garnered millions of followers on the service.
Jay Versace, a user with over 3 million followers on Vine, commented on how the app impacted his life.
“Heard vine [sic] is getting shut down. I will never forget how many opportunities that app brung [sic] into my life,” he posted on Twitter. “Even tho [sic] I haven’t Vined in forever I always go on there and remember how me making one decision changed my life forever.”
Twitter users honored the service by tweeting “#RIPVine” along with some of their favorite vines from the app’s four-year history.
Ty Sweeney, a senior integrated marketing communications and political science major, says that the death of one of the major social media sites was inevitable.
“It was a fine platform… but I think we can’t go on having as many social media sites as we have,” he said.
In their statement, Team Vine thanked the creators and users who made the service into the success it had become.
“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.”
