Jack Dorsey - Getty - H 2016
Getty ImagesVine, the three-year-old app that rose to popularity for its six-second video clips, is being shuttered.
Twitter, which acquired Vine in 2012 before the app had even launched, announced Thursday morning that it would be discontinuing the app in the coming months.
Over the years, Vine became especially popular with a growing creative community and gave rise to a new class of online stars, Viners, that included Andrew Bachelor, Cameron Dallas, Nash Grier and others. Many of the most popular videos were comedic, featured musical performances or used heavy editing techniques.
Twitter has offered little information about the size and growth of the app. But in recent years, many of Vine’s top creators have abandoned the app — which did not offer an avenue for generating revenue from their large audiences — for more economically viable platforms, like YouTube and Instagram.
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Earlier this year, Twitter announced that it would let some users post longer videos (clips up to 140 seconds) on Vine. It also started to make moves to offer revenue-sharing opportunities for creators.
In a blog post on Medium, Twitter said that it would give users an opportunity to access and download their Vines before the service shuts down. It also said it would keep the website up online. “To all the creators out there — thank you for taking a chance on this app back in the day,” the company wrote.
One of Vine’s original founders, Rus Yusupov, tweeted in response to the news: “Don’t sell your company!”
Don’t sell your company!
— Rus (@rus) October 27, 2016
The Verge reported that layoffs hit Vine on Thursday morning. A Twitter spokeswoman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The news came just hours after Twitter announced during its third-quarter earnings report that it would be letting go 9 percent of its staff, or about 350 positions, as it looks to cut costs amid slowing growth.
