Originally founded in mid-2012, Twitter acquired the young startup for a reported $30 million, even though it had not launched. This proved to be a smart move, as after its debut in October that same year, Vine blew up, eventually garnering around 200 million monthly viewers and users.
The short-form videos proved to be a perfect breeding ground for brief comedy sketches, pranks, and win/fails, leading to a few legitimate career prospects for some of its most creative and popular users. In recent months though, some content creators have moved on to other platforms for various reasons and it seems Twitter was not willing or able to turn the ship around.
“To all the creators out there — thank you for taking a chance on this app back in the day. To the many team members over the years who made this what it was — thank you for your contributions. And of course, thank you to all of those who came to watch and laugh every day,” Twitter said in its announcement post.
This comes just a few hours after Twitter announced its quarterly financial report and things are not going well. With nine percent of its workforce set to be let go, perhaps there will be some crossover with Vine employees.
Moving forward, it is not clear what Twitter plans to do with existing content or offer content creators who will now be looking elsewhere for their recording platform. For now, all existing content will remain, including the Vine website, with Twitter promising to update everyone in the near future.
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