Twitter Announces End of Vine, Video Creators Feel the Loss
Twitter, the parent company to Vine, announced yesterday that Vine will soon close. The app will be discontinued, but the Vine website will remain so that existing videos are accessible. Twitter promises to notify creators before any other changes take place, presumably so they can save work offline.
The announcement wasn't a shock for industry-watchers, who knew Vine's audience had eroded and top talent fled, but it still felt like a blow to the online community. While Vine has seen a lack of innovation and investment under Twitter, and was losing eyeballs to Snapchat and livestreaming platforms, it was the launching ground for many popular online video personalities.
Seeing as Vine's death notice came hours after Twitter announced it was cutting 350 jobs (9 percent of its staff), some wonder how stable Twitter itself is. Twitter still has a large and active user base, but is unable to find a buyer. Twitter is betting its future on live video efforts, such as a deal to stream Thursday night NFL games.
The lesson in corporate profitability has been a difficult one for Vine's passionate (if not large) user base, with many taking to social media to share their feelings. One person especially dismayed by the news is Rus Yusupov, who co-created the platform and sold it to Twitter for $30 million four years ago. "Don't sell your company!" he tweeted after hearing the news.
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