In October 2012, Twitter bought Vine, just months after its conception, in an attempt to monopolize on the social photo and video-sharing industry. In a world where Facebook had recently acquired Instagram, it seemed to be the only logical response.
Exactly three years later, Twitter killed off Vine.
Among those laid off is Rus Yusupov, one of the co-founders of Vine. The longest serving of the original three co-founders, Yusupov has been working as the creative mind behind the app's design for the past couple years. With the laying off of Yusupov comes the shutting down of Vine, as the other two co-founders already stepped down last year. This is just one part of Twitter's extensive history of trying to boost user satisfaction through reconstruction.
Years later, Twitter announced that it would be changing its categorization in the App Store from "Social Networking" to "News." Though this increased visibility for the app in the App Store, most users didn't even realize the change occurred.
Twitter took special care to release a statement that all past Vines will be available for download, but users are still not appeased.
"For me, it was one of the original social medias that I took part in," says first-year Allison Smith. "I went through a phase where I thought of myself as a Vine star, and I kept up with famous Viners and the trends. I'm very disappointed to see it go."
Yusupov's final take on being fired and the subsequent termination of his original enterprise?
"Don't sell your company!" (3.5K RT), via Twitter (@rus)
