Thought Paper 1
In the last 50 years social media has grown and changed greatly (McFadden, 2020). Platforms have come and gone, but each one has left a footprint on the media landscape. Vine is no exception to this phenomenon. Vine was an app that allowed users to create and view six second videos. It quickly gained popularity when it started in 2012 and four months later Twitter acquired the app for 30 million dollars (Wong, 2022).
Vine’s lasting impact was the implementation and importance of video on social media platforms today. The app also serves as a cautionary tale to platforms that are hesitant to adapt to current trends and integrate video into their programs. The demise of Vine also reminds marketing and brand teams the importance of incorporating and prioritizing video content into their social media strategies.
Despite the failure of the app, many of the individuals who found success on Vine are still popular on other platforms today. Logan Paul, Jake Paul, and David Dobrik are just three example of individuals that moved on to be very successful on YouTube where they were able to post video content that was longer than Vine’s six second limit (Gelbart, 2019). Additionally, many Viners moved on to more traditional media spaces like the music and television industries. Some examples of these individuals include Shawn Mendes, Lele Pons, Andrew “King Bach” Bachelor, and Rudy Mancuso (Gelbart, 2019).
In the long run, the main reason behind Vine’s lack of success was its six second time limit on its videos. A year after Vine’s launch, Instagram began allowing fifteen second videos to be posted on their app (Wong, 2022). This competitive move drove much of Vine’s traffic elsewhere. Three years later, Vine finally responded to the demands of the market and allowed for longer videos on its platform (Wong, 2022). However, this update was too little too late and the app closed in 2019 — only seven years after its launch and the same year TikTok became increasingly popular. Additionally, Vine’s content creators did not feel financially supported by the app (Pereira, 2023).
We still see the impact of Vine today with short-form video content being prioritized on most platforms. For a some time, Instagram was even paying creators if they received a certain amount of views on their reels. Additionally, brands will often pay influencers and content creators more for creating and posting video content than they would for still images. The visual below explains some of the reasons why brands value short form video today:
I chose Vine to research and write my first Thought Paper on because video in digital media is a topic I want to learn more about. One of my goals this semester is to improve upon my video creating and editing skills. Learning the history of short-form video’s role in the media landscape will allow me to fully understand its importance in the current climate of digital media. Additionally, it might help me have better foresight into trends that are on the horizon.
References:
Gelbart, B. (2019, May 8). Then and now: 14 popular vine stars. Insider. https://www.insider.com/vine-stars-then-and-now-2019-5#david-dobrik-is-still-making-videos-7
Geyser, W. (2023, April 27). The ultimate guide to short-form video content. Influencer Marketing Hub. https://influencermarketinghub.com/short-form-video-content/
McFadden, C. (2020, July 2). The long and short chronological history of Social Media. The history of social media: from antiquity to TikTok. https://interestingengineering.com/lists/a-chronological-history-of-social-media
Pereira, D. (2023, March 3). What happened to Vine? is it still a thing?. Business Model Analyst. https://businessmodelanalyst.com/what-happened-to-vine/
Wong, W. (2022, January 17). A look back at vine — the six-second video app that made US scream, laugh and cry. NBCNews.com. https://www.nbcnews.com/pop-culture/pop-culture-news/look-back-vine-six-second-video-app-made-us-scream-laugh-cry-rcna10910