The History of Vine
In 2013 Vine launched the app store. “Its founders had envisioned their tool for making 6-second clips as a way to help people capture casual moments in their lives and share them with friends.” However, after the app launched it became clear that users were using the app to be more creative with content on the app. Users took on the app to experiment with sounds and be creative with what they captured. Vine started its own culture within itself among users.
Vine reached over 200 million users before the app was shut down in early 2017. Some of the users on the app became influencers and started music careers. One of them being Us the Duo, a couple singing covers of popular songs. They were the first from Vine to score a major record deal.
Vine gained popularity, but struggled to find a way to make an income. Vine was managed by a small team trying to find ways to have the app make an income. Even after Twitter purchased the app it struggled to come up with an idea for Vine to make money. Meanwhile large social media networks were finding ways to add features like Vine to their platforms. Instagram is given credit as to one of the reasons Vine died. In 2013, Instagram launched the option to create and share 15 second videos on the app. “Average users and Vine stars alike wanted more time for their videos, so they say goodbye to Vine and started posting their videos on Instagram.” Social media users no longer needed Vine when everything was on Instagram for them.
Vine is a similar platform to the modern day phenomenon of TikTok. Both are short video sharing apps with content creators and influencer careers starting from the app. I believe Vine has a very interesting history and many people still love the app and miss it. Today, people still reference different Vines and watch compilation videos of them on YouTube. I think we can all learn from the quick growth of the app and how it developed its own culture. TikTok is similar in creating its own culture within the app with trends and popular sounds users use. Unlike Vine, TikTok has found a way to make money and to keep people on the app. Instagram has and is trying to be like TikTok with their Reels feature. However, TikTok is still successful with over 1 billion video views a day.
Vine in some ways paved the way for apps like TikTok. When TikTok first became popular I remember people describing it similar to Vine. Even though Vine is no more, it left an impression in digital history. Vine videos can still be found today on the internet. At one time there was a trend on TikTok to include old Vine videos in the video content. Social Network creators can learn from the success and failure of Vine. One of the biggest takeaways is to understand when creating a social network you really do not know how users will use the app and how successful it can be. The second takeaway is even if a social network app is successful you need to have a plan on how to make profit. The third takeaway is to not be scared to improve your social network with features to make users enjoy the app more.
