About five months ago, Twitter announced it will be disabling uploads on Vine. Moving forward, the Vine app was eventually changed to Vine Camera, allowing videos to be posted directly to Twitter or saved to the camera roll. This change was met to the dismay of many who enjoyed the unique, fast-paced and typically comedic nature of Vines.
It doesn’t quite make a lot of sense why it was discontinued. Twitter offered no specific explanation in their blog post announcement, and although some speculated that the app was dying, to this day popular Vines continue to circulate on the internet. So, what gives?
In fact, Vine could have gone in many directions. It began as a simple concept and gained ground as time went on, in a similar fashion to Snapchat. However, the difference between Snapchat and Vine is that Snapchat began intelligently implementing popular changes (such as themed filters) along with monetizing the app. While I am certain the employees at Twitter are much more well-versed in business than I am, it seems that Vine could have fostered a similar community — in fact, it was already beginning to do so.
If Twitter had followed this same approach with Vine and kept what made it so special (the six-second videos), along with adding interesting features and clever monetization, the app could have become its own social media beast. Perhaps one day, “Vine-famous” would have ceased to exist, and said Viners would just be described as “famous.” Instead, Vine-famous does not exist because, well, neither does Vine.
Marco Omta is a sophomore studying games and animation. Please note that the views and opinions of the columnists do not reflect those of The Post. Do you miss Vine? Email Marco at mo183714@ohio.edu.
