Thread by @Goodluckraph

How Vine - the 6-second video social platform became "a failed startup".

In this thread we will talk a bit about Vine and what made it to fail💪

A #thread: 👇👇

Burna | Diddy | #Tech

I'm lost, what is this thing...Vine?

Vine USED to be a video hosting social media website which allowed users to create and share 6-second videos.

Vine was just like TikTok...

What Vine did to YouTube can be likened to what Twitter did/is doing to blogs.

If Twitter is a micro-blogging platform, Vine can well, be said to be a "micro-youtubing platform 🙃.

So what killed such an awesome idea and company that was super-influential and even had first-mover advantage in the space.

In case you don't get the gist, here's some fun facts about Vine:

1. Vine was founded by Dom Hofmann, Rus Yusupov, and Colin Kroll in June 2012.

2. Time included Vine as one of its "50 Best Android Apps for 2013".

3. In April 2013, Vine was the most downloaded app from the Apple App Store in the United States.

4. Vine remains one of the most popular free app on the iTunes App Store.

5. In 2013, one of the most popular non-celebrities on Vine (because of his humorous and stop-motion clip, Ian Padgham quit his job as an in-house video guy for Twitter to be a full-time Viner.

Hmm! Who knows what's up with him now? 🤔

6. Vine was the big thing that Twitter had to get a debit of $30 million to buy it, even before the app launched.

So how come it still failed? Let's get down to the nitty-gritty, shall we!

For an abridged version, the reason is that:

- Management issues,

- It was an unprofitable business, and

- It "fell asleep" while its competitors forged on and overtook.

If you are here for the long talk, like I guess, here's why Vine got a fatal cut at the Jugular:

1a). Failure to "Build What the People Want":

Vine was a 6-second only video posting platform where persons engage.

However, they stuck with this for too long.

Image credits: @ycombinator

Contents were evolving and evolving fast, but they failed to catch the train.

6 seconds isn't enough to pass a well-developed content.

This frustrated the Content Creators.

Image credits: @lennysan

1b). No avenue for Content Creators to Monetize 💵 💵:

Another cry of users they didn't heed was a way to make Content Creators.

This made them drop the contents with Vine and then push it other platforms to be able to Monetize.

2. Vine wasn't making any money💵!

Vine had zero money and was running on vibes.

Of course, VC's money wasn't sustainable.

VC money cannot solve everything.

3. Fierce Competition:

Instagram became a fierce rival.

Same for other video sharing platforms too - Snapchat. They out-competed vine.

It became worse when top Content Creators on Vine started migrating to other platforms.

4. Management Problems:

After Twitter bought Vine, there was a problem mixing between them. This was one of the several managerial problems that shook Vine's existence.

In 2014 alone, two of Vine's Cofounders quit.

5. Complacency:

The team was not dynamic.

Vine stayed for up to a year without shipping any new feature.

They left it stuck at just the 6-seconds video loops which was obviously losing taste among its Content Creators

6. Lack of Vision:

The events that happened with Vine after Twitter acquired made it clear that vision was lost.

This was confirmed when Twitter launched its Twitter Video feature, overlooking Vine.

In short, everyone agrees that Vine died because of @Twitter.

Remember I mentioned that Vine is/was just like TikTok.

Around the time Vine was shut down in 2017, TikTok just launched.

It is now the most popular app with over 2 billion downloads.

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A RETWEET wouldn't be bad too, you know 😉.