Twitter Shuts Down Vine After Three Years

Does anyone still remember Vine? You know, the app that lets you share six-second videos that play on loop, where popular catchphrases like ‘Damn, Daniel’ and ‘on fleek’ came to life. Well, we’ve got some sad news to share. Twitter has announced that it will be shutting down the video-sharing app in the coming months.

When Vine first came into the picture in 2013, the app skyrocketed to the top in Apple’s App Store within weeks. Its short and snappy format resonated with young people (especially since this generation is known to have short attention span). Vine had 100 million people watching videos each month and up to 1.5 billion video loops every day. It quickly paved a way to fame for a number of creators, some of whom have gone on to launch big careers and become social media influencers.

However, many industry rivals began to catch up with their own version of short videos and over time, Vine got left behind by popular platforms like Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook and YouTube. You may have seen a popular Vine circulating around, but it is very likely that you saw it being shared on Facebook rather than on Vine itself. That’s the problem.

Vine founder Rus Yusupov has also responded to the news on Twitter, possibly expressing regret for selling the company to Twitter.

Don’t sell your company!
— Rus (@rus) October 27, 2016

But don’t worry, Vine assured users in a blog post that nothing is happening to the apps, website or Vines, at least for now. “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,” the blog added.

Following the unfortunate announcement, Twitter now looks like a tribute to Vine, with users filling timelines with beloved Vine videos which took the social media by storm in recent years with the hashtag #RIPVine. We chose 10 of the most memorable ones that demonstrated the true Vine spirit:

1. This guy on stage with Sam Smith

2. This hair-raising moment

3. This little girl full of swag

4. This LeBron James fan

5. This army of rubber ducks

6. This dog and his new kicks

7. This Spelling Bee competition

8. This heartbroken little boy

9. This student who didn't study for his test

10. And last but not least, this strange unknown girl

Oh, well. RIP Vine. Thanks for the memories. Now, back to Snapchat.