- Founded: 2012
- Ceased Operations: 2017
What did Vine do?
Vine was a social media platform that allowed users to create, upload, and consume short-form video content. The videos on Vine were six seconds long and played in a loop format. Vine was initially envisioned as a microvlogging social media platform, but it became an entertainment media platform after launch. Vine quickly became popular, with over 200 million downloads in its first year. The app was particularly popular among young people, and it was credited with helping to launch the careers of several popular YouTubers and Vine stars.
Vine raised a total of $30 million in funding. RRE Ventures contributed $25 million, and BoxGroup contributed $5 million. Twitter acquired Vine for $30 million. The acquisition was seen as a way for Twitter to compete with other short-form video platforms, such as Instagram and Vine.
Who started Vine?
Founders Colin Kroll, Dom Hofmann, Rus Yusupov
Why did they go out of business?
Vine faced stiff competition from other social media platforms, particularly Instagram, which introduced its own video-sharing feature in 2013. This competition led to a decline in Vine’s user base and popularity over the next few years. Vine’s monetization model was based on advertising, but the app was not able to generate enough advertising revenue to cover its costs.
After the acquisition, Vine continued to operate as a separate entity. However, it was eventually shut down in 2017.