It’s a dark day in the tech world: Twitter is shutting down Vine.
No doubt you’ve seen the news already circulating this morning. The decision comes after reports of mass layoffs at Vine today, though the app will not be discontinued immediately.
The company said it would not delete any Vines that have been posted — for now, anyway. “We value you, your Vines, and are going to do this the right way,” the company said in a Medium post. “You’ll be able to access and download your Vines. We’ll be keeping the website online because we think it’s important to still be able to watch all the incredible Vines that have been made.”
Though Vine started off as a great platform for budding comedians and entertainers, the introduction of video to Instagram in 2013 stunted its growth. With co-founders leaving Vine and Twitter slow to invest after it launched in January 2013, the platform slowly began to lose relevancy.
In the dance music world, many DJs have taken to the platform as an alternative social media. Most notably, Getter gained intense popularity on the platform with Nick Colletti for their various personas and “suh dude” virality. Caked Up, too, or at least Oscar Wylde, started and gained popularity on the platform before making the transition to DJ, as opposed to Getter who went in the other direction.
Twitter recently tried to sell Vine but failed when no one would meet their asking price. The mobile app will be discontinued “in coming months,” the company said.
via The Verge