Why Did Vine Die? Because Vine

The end of Vine is upon us. But to be honest, I’m surprised it took this long. In terms of media platforms, Vine is barely older than a toddler. The social video app was bought by Twitter and officially launched on January 24, 2013. It was swiftly adopted by mobile phone users because:

1. YouTube was oversaturated with YouTube stars
2. Younger users were desperate for a social app to call their own
3. There was virtually no competition; social video just wasn’t really a thing

But almost four years later, Twitter is discontinuing the app, probably because:

1. Vine became oversaturated with Vine Stars
2. Snapchat ultimately won over Vine’s key demographic
3. There are now 3,321,321,443,323 social video apps out there

It’s easy to blame Twitter in this situation; plummeting stocks, prospective buyers, and a slashed workforce dominate the digital newsphere. Yet Twitter really isn’t really the villain here —

Vine is donezo because it never evolved past glorified GIF generator status.

The app’s video capabilities led the charge in the explosive growth of social video. But really, Vine was its own worst enemy.

6-second videos. That’s it.

When you’re the only social video app on the market, you can totally afford to limit yourself with arbitrary clip lengths. That doesn’t work once the competition starts to heat up. Combine that with the low-res video quality of front-facing cameras and a clunky user interface, and you’ve got a product that feels old before its even had the chance to properly age.

Instagram announced video hosting for clips up to 15 seconds in length just five months after Vine launched, with Snapchat adding the “My Story” function in October of 2013. Flipagram, a social video editing and hosting app, made its debut November of that same year, topping the download charts at the start of 2014 and paving the way for apps like Musical.ly.

All of the platforms mentioned have consistently reinvented themselves to stay ahead of the game. Vine…added a loop count in 2014. Loyal users honestly can’t be surprised it’s over when there was nothing to really set the app apart from the rest.

Monetization? Oops! We forgot about that!

Early adopters, particularly bored youngsters with enough time on their hands to craft intricately produced Vines, benefitted from the app’s explosive growth. Many of them, like Jack and Jack, and Us The Duo, went on to become “internet famous,” launching singing, acting, modeling and merchandise careers.

Apart from that however, Vine monetization was nonexistent. Only during the summer of 2016 was the idea even mentioned, and now, it’s too late. Influencers realized there was cash to be had elsewhere, especially with YouTube’s tried-and-trusted revenue programs, and the rise of Facebook Live.

Vine stars grew up and eventually realized that popularity didn’t really matter on the platform — if you weren’t making money from it, you were essentially wasting your time. So they peaced out. And in a diluted pool of social video apps, no one filled the voids these cyber stars left behind.

The video bubble is about to burst

Limited video capabilities on larger platforms allowed Vine to shine, despite, well, its own limited video capabilities. Twitter used this aqcuisition as a sort of video portal; users who wanted to share video content on Twitter had to do so by uploading it to Vine first.

That worked really well, until 2015, when Twitter decided to natively host video content. And with a whopping 30-second allotment, followed by 140-seconds the following year, maybe killing off Vine part of Twitter’s plan all along?

Social networks are prioritizing native video content, and companies are pouring money into video production and staffing. It’s all about snazzy features these days, when Facebook 360 and virtual reality offers publishers the chance to create beautiful, unique, and enhanced content.

Vine’s 6-second novelty never stood a chance.

In a world where video competition is fierce, companies want to invest wisely. It’s hard to justify large-scale usage of an app when the return just isn’t there.

I was never a fan of Vine myself. Mostly, I just didn’t see the point. But genuinely, at the heart of it, Vine’s biggest flaw was its inability to create viable stories. 6-seconds just isn’t enough to express the intricate messages people and brands work hard to produce.

Even the funniest, most well-done Vines left me wanting more. Maybe that wasn’t the point of it, but it was enough to keep me from using it.

I also strongly feel that Vine failed to nurture a sector of publishing where it could have remained relevant for a few more years — news junkies adored the grassroots footage created during events like suicide bombings in Turkey, and the Paris Attacks:

“It isn’t the experience of someone witnessing the attacks firsthand, it’s the experience of someone watching the attacks at home, edited to a bite-size length and then repeated indefinitely.” — Brendan Klinkenberg

At least journalists could save Twitter by using it as a tool to report out and source their content. Failing to capitalize on this community is just another reminder of how flawed Vine actually was.

We’ll all move on from Vine’s demise, as much as we don’t want to admit. And while the platform pretty much cannibalized itself, we all can appreciate what it did for the success of social video (**cough** one of 10 people employed on a Facebook Live team **cough**).

For now just mourn its loss, if only for the nostalgia it brings for the nights when you spent 2 hours before bed scrolling through memes like What Are Those or Look At All Those Chickens. Then go back to Snapchatting your Taco Bell $5 Buck Box; you’ll soon forget Duck Army ever existed.