In continuation of Elon Musk‘s Twitter regime, the brand new Twitter CEO has another brilliant idea. Alongside launching a paid verification system on the platform, Musk is deciding if Vine should return in 2022. In a world of social media dominated by multiple vertical video platforms, why not bring back the OG of short-form content?
Musk released a poll on Twitter with a simple question — “Bring back Vine?” and, as of writing, over 700k people responded, with a majority saying “yes.”
In case you didn’t know, Vine was launched by Vine Labs, a sub-division of Twitter in 2013. The app was praised for creating a platform where users used their creativity to produce entertaining six-second videos. It was reported that the app had over 200 million users and introduced big names such as David Dobrik, Thomas Sanders, and Jake and Logan Paul to the internet.
The idea to bring back Vine reached plenty of support from Twitter users. Especially to those who were curious to see if the original short-form video platform could compete against TikTok.
It’s been five years since Twitter shut down Vine. Other apps, such as Instagram, implemented video uploading features. Meanwhile, TikTok dominated the short-form video market and became the go-to platform. Vine’s creator, Dom Hoffman, launched a predecessor to Vine called ‘Byte’ and was launched in 2020.
Short-form video is now a market that multiple social media apps are trying to tap into after the success of TikTok. YouTube recently announced “Shorts” and will soon allow partnered users to monetize their content. Meanwhile, Instagram has been criticized by its user base for trying to be more of a video platform with the omnipresence of Reels.
Musk’s poll for Vine’s revival might be a distraction due to plans to launch a paid verification subscription service. At the same time, if Vine does come back, it’s going to be interesting to see how it would compete with TikTok as the Chinese social media app currently has over 1 billion monthly users.