Twitter Pulling the Plug on Vine

[YourFaveIsAFlop]

Twitter just announced that they're abandoning Vine, which has had a major impact on the ability of hip hop songs to break through in the past few years and launching some singers into youtube stardom. Ruth B's Lost Boy got it's start as a Vine.

[Kurt]

And with no reason, which is weird (I know Twitter's trying to sell, so maybe they're trying to lower the cost of a package deal by taking Vine out of the equation? not entirely sure how that works). At least it gave us a couple good Carly Rae Jepsen memes, ha.

[Linnethia Monique]

It was to be expected. A lot of the people that started out on Vine have been transitioning to YouTube, Instagram, and other media endeavors because it was becoming a taxing and dead medium for them.

[nightshade]

Vine got stale quick. Good riddance.

[YourFaveIsAFlop]

There's only so much you can do with a 6 second loop. As stated above, most of the major vine "stars" used their vines to push audience to their snapchats or youtubes now.

[Harx]

So no more viral dance crazes? That's too good to be true, they will probably come back some other way

[YourFaveIsAFlop]

I just find it really interesting that Twitter is deciding to ax a product that is particularly popular with young artists, and artists of color in particular, while still doing absolutely nothing to combat racism and violent misogyny on their platform.

[aerodynamite]

Vine is dead?

Well that lasted about as long as its videos.

[Ginger Spice]

Disappointed.

[Au$tin]

Oct 27, 2016 14:55:55 GMT -5 Harx said:

So no more viral dance crazes? That's too good to be true, they will probably come back some other way

On the contrary, YouTube has always been a source for these as well. "Gangnam Style" and "Harlem Shake" are from YouTube.

[Raccoon]

sad. vine gives me life

[skizzo]

Good riddance!

[Deleted]

Why are people mad about Vine? 

Vine tanked because Snapchat and Instagram offer a similar, but more personal experience. Couple that with Twitter trying to sell [2] and starting to see losses as a social media platform and yeah, it was doomed. The company laid off virtually everyone working on the platform and transferred the rest. For me, this is kind of lame because there were some legitimately hilarious vines that damn near started an absurdist humor renaissance, including the CRJ memes, this, this, and f**king this one changed my life; and its contributions to pop culture were pretty significant. 2015 Jersey Club was defined by Vine remixes. It more or less served its purpose in that regard, but I'm going to miss it regardless.

I'm expecting whispers of Snapchat tanking to start next year with Instagram's new video share feature rolled out. It's already starting to see a shift in userbase.

[Linnethia Monique]

Oct 28, 2016 12:05:14 GMT -5 @touch said:

I'm expecting whispers of Snapchat tanking to start next year with Instagram's new video share feature rolled out. It's already starting to see a shift in userbase.

Once Instagram gets the hoe filters it's going to be a wrap.

[Deleted]

I don't know why but I'm still kind of in shock and disappointment about this - as Kunt pointed out Snapchat more or less stole its thunder by offering a more personal experience (and more importantly, giving you more time to do whatever it is you're trying to do). Those who were great at Vine made it an art form, but with only six seconds to work with, Vine shoeboxed itself in so that it couldn't be anything but an artform. Then, that kind of gets at why I find it disappointing - as an entertainment medium and quasi-promotional tool for some, Vine had its place; it hadn't yet reached a point of obsolescence IMO, so it's a shame to see its time being cut prematurely short.

Of course the real, underlying story here is Twitter's dwindling value. Vine is just an unfortunate and unnecessary side casualty - but ironically enough I think Twitter's owners probably could have made more money by shuttering actual Twitter and selling Vine off to someone, rather than axing Vine entirely in a (probably vain) effort to make Twitter a more attractive purchase.

[YourFaveIsAFlop]

I just don't see how shuttering vine makes twitter more attractive to a buyer. The while concept of vine was essentially an audio visual tweet. Do whatever you want, but you only have 6 seconds to do it. Say whatever in 140 characters They could have just integrated it directly into twitter and just axed the stand alone app.

[Deleted]

Oct 29, 2016 6:22:07 GMT -5 YourFaveIsAFlop said:

I just don't see how shuttering vine makes twitter more attractive to a buyer. The while concept of vine was essentially an audio visual tweet. Do whatever you want, but you only have 6 seconds to do it. Say whatever in 140 characters They could have just integrated it directly into twitter and just axed the stand alone app.

By "more attractive" I mean "cheaper." Vine at least theoretically increases Twitter's value and I'm guessing Twitter thought that if they lowered the value/price they might be able to pull in more offers (also, couple this with all the layoffs - for cutting costs, Vine was the most convenient place to start). I don't agree with this logic, but that is the logic I figured they were using. I think it shows how out of the loop the people currently running Twitter are - social media has moved in such a visual direction that Twitter's text-only makes it antiquated; Vine was the most valuable thing they had. They snipped the wrong part of themselves.

A Twitter/Vine integration could be the shot in the arm Twitter needs to rejuvenate itself, even if it would essentially make it a mini-Snap with a cap.

[Deleted]

Hip-hop has survived so long and become so resilient. They will find another platform to showcase. When you don't have formats tailored and geared for you ever you find a way. People like to have one or two multi use social media sites and having one geared just for quickie videos in the age of Snapchat,Instagram and even shitty Facebook live it was some time coming for the end of Vine. In a few years unless Snapchat evolves the too will be hard pressed to compete with install coming for their neck and offering more.

[maine]

Interesting read: 21 Vine stars were asking for a contract worth $1.2 million annually to produce three Vines a week. Vine rejected and they stopped posting for the most part. This is what led to the crash.

[Deleted]

Oct 31, 2016 16:33:58 GMT -5 maine said:

Interesting read: 21 Vine stars were asking for a contract worth $1.2 million annually to produce three Vines a week. Vine rejected and they stopped posting for the most part. This is what led to the crash.

Some greedy f**ks, 18 seconds for that much is ludicrous in every f**king way possible

[maine]

Oct 31, 2016 16:46:03 GMT -5 @mirza said:

Oct 31, 2016 16:33:58 GMT -5 maine said:

Interesting read: 21 Vine stars were asking for a contract worth $1.2 million annually to produce three Vines a week. Vine rejected and they stopped posting for the most part. This is what led to the crash.

Some greedy f**ks, 18 seconds for that much is ludicrous in every f**king way possible

Well technically it's 936 seconds a year. It's still a very large amount for what little they do.

I definitely understand why it was asked though. They were the drive for the views and Vine does nothing to support its creators. YouTube has so many benefits for their content creators and Vine basically paid them dust. If you read the article, there's a lot more to the story.

[Deleted]

Short summary of article: Vine shut down because the content creators had a better sense of business and innovation than the people who invented the actual app.

The Vine stars say at the end that they are all doing more than fine, and none of them are bitter or anything like that. It's just that, because Vine wouldn't even pretend to play ball, they all had to go elsewhere to earn their fortunes. Those are fortunes Vine could have helped nurture (and in turn increased its own) but the company lost out. The stars were probably asking for too much money upfront seeing that Vine likely was not making that much money itself, but the Vine peeps didn't even bother trying to negotiate beyond a one-hour meeting, apparently. (Also, the Vine stars may have considered that the 40 most well-paid stars on Youtube earn from $1 million to $12 million a year - and arguably, Youtube stars don't make or break YT nearly as much as Vine stars did for Vine - so offering a flat rate offer of $1.2 million for 21 people isn't really such an unreasonable offer once you have context and comparisons.)

Keep in mind there's more that goes into those vines than the six seconds it takes to make them. I don't see anything wrong with trying to place a value on both the time it takes to come up with regular content that is actually funny and engaging, and the visitors they were bringing to the site. Vine shut down a year after they walked, so it's kind of like 'were they wrong tho?'

Most disappointing but wholly unsurprising was the complete refusal to do anything about the abusive comments. It's just kind of mind-boggling how deep the culture of insensitivity to such problems runs at that company.

[Deleted]

Pornhub has made a bid on Vine, amazingly enough.

Oct 31, 2016 22:16:21 GMT -5 @antigonerising said:

Short summary of article: Vine shut down because the content creators had a better sense of business and innovation than the people who invented the actual app.

I don't think that's neccessarily true. Vine churned out stars, but because of the nature of the app new "stars" were born almost every day. It's safe to assume these demands complicated things, but I'm not sure their tapping out was directly responsible or even significantly so, especially when the handful that left could readily be replaced. Besides, taking the deal would've tanked them even faster than rejecting it.

[YourFaveIsAFlop]

Exactly. Remember the "I'm in me mum's car, vroom vroom" girl? Millions of views in a couple weeks and then...

[#LisaRinna]

Oct 28, 2016 13:28:38 GMT -5 Linnethia Monique said:

Oct 28, 2016 12:05:14 GMT -5 @touch said:

I'm expecting whispers of Snapchat tanking to start next year with Instagram's new video share feature rolled out. It's already starting to see a shift in userbase.

Once Instagram gets the hoe filters it's going to be a wrap.

Okay? The Snapchat thots won't know what hit 'em.

[#LisaRinna]

My fav Vine of all time.