Twitter announced Oct. 27 that it would be shutting down its video-sharing app Vine “in the coming months”—sad news for people with funny relatives, moms with cute kids or pets and one Vine star at Duke.
The news comes amid the company laying off about 350 employees, or nine percent of its total staff, according to CNN.
“The restructuring allows us to continue the fully fund our highest priorities while eliminating investment in non-core areas and driving greater efficiency,” the company explained to shareholders last Thursday.
Vine, which was acquired by Twitter in 2012 and officially debuted in 2013, allowed users to share six-second video loops. The platform brought fame to many previously unknown artists, such as filmmaker and YouTube star Zach King, comedic personality Thomas Sanders and singer-songwriter Shawn Mendes.
At Duke, sophomore Christian Leonard gained a fan base of more than one million followers through the app for his videos featuring visual effects.
“Based on the success that I achieved on Vine, I would never actually consider myself famous," Leonard said when asked about his fame on the platform. "Although there is a certain level of fame that I did reach, I am hesitant in saying it because I would never dare to compare it to the fame of most household celebrities.”
Many seemed upset about the shutdown. Author Goldie Taylor joked on Twitter, “who you gone do it for, it you cain’t do it for the Vine?”
However, others said they knew the shutdown was coming.
“It came as no surprise to me that Twitter announced that they were discontinuing the mobile application,” Leonard said, explaining that he had noticed a “steady decrease in follower engagement.”
He noted that during his first-year of college, the app was already a dying platform.
“People go to where their friends are [and] where the best content is,” said Howie Rhee, managing director at Fuqua’s Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation and managing director for Student and Alumni Affairs for Duke Innovation and Entrepreneurship. “So Instagram and Snapchat are the winners, and Vine unfortunately is one of the losers.”
He explained that in a market economy, companies often go out of business because their competition comes up with better ideas, citing Vine as a typical example of "creative destruction."
“It was a dying app,” first-year Rielle Quiambao said. “I guess it’s sad for popular accounts that got famous off of it, but it was time.”
Leonard explained that in 2015, users noticed a decrease in engagement on Vine and looked to other platforms like YouTube and Instagram to showcase their content.
Generating revenue was likely also an issue, Rhee noted.
“Vine struggled with how to make money, how to monetize their product,” he said. “Especially with social networking-type startups, figuring out how to make money is a pretty big challenge.”
Rhee said that capturing young people as an audience can often be challenging for new companies, which need to become "indispensable" so that users want to check the app regularly.
For Leonard, the app’s shutdown is bittersweet.
“I believe that I have much more to offer, and that on a personal level, there are many more dynamics to me,” he said. “But it will always be a large part of my life. Vine truly has changed my life for the better.”
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