On Oct. 27, Vine made a post on Medium announcing that it will be shutting down in the coming months. The website and app will remain for the time being, and users will be able to download their vine videos till its official closure. This coincided with the recent layoffs from Twitter, as the company is attempting to restructure, in order to turn over a healthy profit growth by 2017. Due to the lack of explanation on both Vine and Twitter, the notion that it's related to this process isn't too far-fetched.
In retrospect, Vine ended up suffering the same issues as their parent company -- they failed to sufficiently garner the interest of advertisers to spend ads on the platforms.
Granted, there was a social media talent agency that Twitter purchased in order to indirectly earn money from Vine creators. This came far too late, as the creators already worked out brand deals. Adding even more of a crisis is when popular Viners started to move to other platforms. This can be partially attributed to the co-founder's resistance to monetization on the app.
It didn't help that management wasn't exactly stable, either. The co-founders of the app either left voluntarily or were let go at some point. Coupled with glacial changes in features and leadership, it's little wonder why many executives quit prior to its announcement.
This is a rather unfortunate end to a platform that pushed the boundaries of what a person or team can do in six seconds. For those of you who wonder how much six seconds can produce, here are a few things to keep in mind:
1. It gave birth and re-popularized slangs and memes.
If I had a dollar for every time I heard the terms "on fleek," "what are thooooose," "dammmn [insert name]" and "look at all these chickens," I wouldn't have to worry about paying for college expenses.
2. It was unique music discovery tool.
Aside from Shawn Mendes and Ruth B, there was a host of other artists that did amazing covers like Us The Duo, and ones that made brilliant use of transitions like Kenzie Nimmo and Harris Heller. That and the memeification of songs help increase the fanbase of artists like Fetty Wap and Drake.
3. It set the trend for popular dance crazes.
Dancers on Vine complimented the music scene with pieces of choreography. This was included for songs both new and old and brought popularity to moves like the "Whip," "Nae Nae," "Yeet" and "Quan."
As Vine ends, all eyes are on Twitter to see if it'll suffer a similar fate.
