The popular video app, Vine, which boasts millions of users around the world, is now shutting down. The company announced the closure earlier today, while parent company, Twitter, laid off a small number of its employees. The four-year-old service intends to end operations within the next “few months”, and news hit the internet hard. A wave of fans have since flocked to Twitter, lamenting the social network and sharing some of their favourite six-second clips.
Vine was purchased by Twitter in 2012 – a year before the app had even launched. Shortly after its official release, the service garnered millions of users, and became the one of the internet’s most active social media circles. One of the app’s founders, Rus Yusupov, sent out a message to fans this morning. “Don’t sell your company,” Yusupov warned young entrepreneurs.
The move shouldn’t be entirely shocking to those active on social media. Twitter has been slowly integrating video into their main app, and Vine itself is hard-pressed to compete with monoliths like Snapchat and Instagram. The fallout of the termination will likely affect the so-called, Vine celebrities, some of whom have made a living off of the app.
Taking to their company Medium account, Vine reiterated that “nothing is happening to the apps, website or your Vines today”. The website will likely remain somewhat alive, acting as an archive for countless hours of clips. The process has no hard timeline, but Vine says it will notify users when it officially ceases services. In the meantime, rest in peace Vine! Where else will we get golden moments like this?
