Announced today on medium, Twitter is shutting down it's mobile video hub, VINE.
“We value you, your Vines, and are going to do this the right way. 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. You will be notified before we make any changes to the app or website.”
ALOT of culturally relevant mini-loops came out of VINE. Bobby Shmurda owed his rise to it's popularity on it's VINE.
I'm guessing it's getting hammered by snapchat and instastories. I predict Periscope to be the next to go as Twitter makes itself healthy enough to be sold to someone who'll know what to do with it.
They can start with it's abusive troll problem, which scuttled it's potential sale to Google, Salesforce and Disney. Everyone wants a platform that engages millions daily. No one wants to "buy" a platform that allows every sociopath to relentlessly harass users with no repercussions.
I personally think if Twitter does clean up it's trolls, its "active user" numbers will drop percipitously and therefore make the company less valuable to shareholders. It's a damned if you do, damned if you don't scenario in our quarterly report driven world.
Twitter's problem isn't VINE. It's their inability / refusal to fix their trolling problem that has seen celebrities abandon the platform over harassment like Leslie Jones and just yesterday, writer Chelsea Cain who quit because "men" took issue with Mockingbird being a feminist. Seriously.
