Friday, February 22, 2019

Do you remember Vine? Here's why they're a memory of the past

Vine. Once a popular video sharing application with a 6 second time limit and looping capabilities, now a memory of the past. The app was effective in its infancy, so much so that it provided a platform for users that would later become pop music icons, singers Shawn Mendez and Cardi B. Many influencers and famous youtubers also got their start at Vine, such as Logan Paul and Lele Pons. The app was said to have an audience of 200 Million people. Impressive indeed. This was also the time when "pretty people" became better known around the world, and consequently brought them an influx of subscribers to their social media platforms, such as Snapchat and Instagram. It seemed that people enjoyed the challenge of a 6-second limit less than the creators thought, however, and once IG provided the same video sharing capability, with a 60-second limit, that was the beginning of the end for good ol' Vine.

Admittedly, it wasn't just that social media monsters quickly grabbed onto Vine's idea and made it their own x 10, reports claim that the leadership of vine was not effective and often clashed in big picture goals: "A couple of things plagued Vine, and it all stems from the same thing, which is a lack of unity and leadership on vision," said Ankur Thakkar, who was Vine's head of editorial." (Theverge, 2016). Personally, I was surprised to hear this since I remember watching videos of people going to Vine gatherings, events that resembled a celebrity meet-up, where thousands of kids and enfatuated teenage girls paid big bucks to meet their vine idols, standing in long lines for the chance of a quick picture. Vine was a force to be reckoned with and, in short, perhaps their biggest downfall was a failure to swiftly adapt; it's CEO remarked "we didn't move fast enough to differentiate."


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