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RIP Vine: Video App Announces Shutdown After Twitter Announces Staff Cuts

By Shayla D
Published on: 15:06 PST, Oct 27, 2016

Vine, the app that brought the world hilarious six-second videos, has announced it will be shutting down in a few months following its parent company Twitter’s announcement that it would be cutting jobs. While the news of Vine’s demise undoubtedly disappointed millennials who have grown accustomed to the brief interactions brought forth by technology, there was one ray of sunshine that came out regarding the Vine shutdown.

According to a statement distributed by Vine via their Twitter account, though they will be discontinuing the app itself, the website will remain active and your favorite Vines will be spared. That means if you want to go back and reflect on those Vines of puppies playing the air drums or people tripping and falling, you will still have the opportunity.

Vine was founded in 2012 and launched in 2013 by Twitter as a means of offering its users the chance to share videos. Limited to six seconds with continuous loops, Vine quickly launched several users into viral notoriety similar to that of YouTubers. Some of the more famous Vine celebrities took to Twitter to announce their dismay at the loss of their beloved social media platform.

Other Twitter users launched a #RIPVine campaign hoping to share some of their favorites of all time:

According to the New York Times, however, the death of Vine was imminent. The launch of Instagram’s video service seemed to spell out that it was curtains for Vine. Instagram videos have a 15-second capacity and the ability of users to link their Instagram posts to their Twitter accounts made Vine obsolete. The launch of Facebook Live certainly didn’t help Vine’s fortitude either.

Another factor, and perhaps the most prevalent one, was Twitter’s recent decision to trim their staff by 9 percent. According to NBC News, despite the fact that Twitter reported a profit on Thursday, it was still planning the cuts to its work force and Vine was the first announced casualty.

While critics claim that the death of Vine will harm minorities the most due to the integral part the app played in the Ferguson and other similar protests, others are saddened by the effect it will have on artists and musicians whose careers have been launched by the app.

Musician Shawn Mendes owes his musical career to Vine and many fear the shutdown will affect other artists. [Image by Drew Gurian/Invision/AP Images]

The landscape of social media is frequently changing (just ask Myspace) and while many are sad to see the Vine era come to an end, others see it as progress. One person who doesn’t, however, is Vine’s creator Rus Yusopov.

Rus Yusopov, Dom Hofmann, and Colin Kroll, the co-creators and founders of Vine, sold the app to Twitter for $30 million in 2012. In 2014, Kroll and Hofmann stepped down from their roles within Vine while Yusopov remained on as creative director — that is until October of last year when Twitter announced they were laying him off. Yusopov apparently still holds ill will about being removed from the app he helped create as he posted one simple tweet about the dissolution of Vine:

Will you be sad to see Vine go? Tell us what you think!

[Featured Image by Thinkstock]

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