Short-form video app Vine is approaching its demise, as Twitter has announced it is closing up shop for the video service.
Vine was once a popular video service loved for its six-second clips that promoted creativity by challenging content creators to create brief and engaging content that would fit in just a few seconds.
Twitter acquired Vine in the hopes that it would complement its similarly brief microblogging service, fueling a creative community of independent creators. It seems that things are not going so great anymore, however, as Twitter announced plans to shutter Vine "in the coming months."
"Since 2013, millions of people have turned to Vine to laugh at loops and see creativity unfold," the company notes in a post on Medium. "Today, we are sharing the news that in the coming months we'll be discontinuing the mobile app."
Vine further points out that it will keep the website, apps and Vines as they are for now, as it's not a sudden shutdown without any warning. This means that users will still be able to access and download their Vines before the service reaches its demise.
Moreover, the Vine website will still remain online so that users can continue watching the creative Vines that have surfaced so far. Users will receive notifications in due time regarding any changes to the Vine website or app.
The post offers no explanation as to why the company reached the decision to shut down Vine. It doesn't note whether it's a popularity issue, a change in strategy or some other reason.
However, The Verge learned from a source that Vine faces "significant layoffs," albeit Twitter refused to detail just how many job cuts are involved or whether employees would be offered new jobs.
As a reminder, Twitter snagged Vine back in late 2012, when the service was not even launched yet. It released Vine in January 2013 and the video service rapidly grew in popularity, with the six-second clips becoming a common format for funny videos, visual effects and sports highlights.
As promising as it seemed at first, Vine failed to become the true force Twitter hoped it would, and its co-founders started to flee the scene. Twitter failed to make further investments and innovate to develop the core Vine offering and when Instagram added video in 2013, Vine started losing steam.
It didn't take long for Vine to face an exodus of top creators, with massive amounts of users either deleting their account or leaving it inactive. Considering its gradual decline, it was only a matter of time before Twitter made the hard choice to kill off Vine. The company did not offer a specific deadline other than the vague "in the coming months," but we'll keep you up to date as soon as we learn more.
