Downfall of Vine brings TikTok’s social media success

“Do it for the Vine” was a term used for people who wanted to do crazy videos on the social media platform Vine. Vine was the first viral social media platform that was solely based on short-form video, and it became the stepping stone for now-famous TikTok. Vine started on January 24, 2013, and discounted on January 17, 2017. Vine became extremely successful when Twitter acquired the company, but in later history, the acquisition would become its downfall. The significance of Vine was it was able to get people hooked on short videos.

I chose Vine as my social media platform because it brought the success of many Youtubers, content creators, and singers. David Dobrik, who ranked fifth as the most viewed Youtube creator in 2019, started his career on Vine. People do not realize that Dobrik had 2.4 billion views in 2019, and he became a famous content creator due to Vine. The most liked Youtube music video in 2019 was that of Shawn Mendes. Mendes started his singing career on Vine and has now won various awards. Popular Youtuber Logan Paul and his brother started their career on Vine.

People are known to have shorter attention than that of a goldfish being eight seconds. The Vine platform was known about creating six-second videos that constantly loop. The user interface of Vine was simple, create a short video, and share it on Facebook or Twitter. The short video length of Vines was able to keep people hooked and entertained. Vine videos were able to integrate perfectly in Twitter, for once the video was tweeted, people could go to Vine and view other videos.

In 2016 Twitter announced that users were no longer going to be able to upload videos on Vine, which in the end killed the social media platform. Vine co-founder Dom Hofmann announced that Vine would have a successor, but that did not come until 2020 for users. The wait from 2016–2020 for the successor of Vine brought in TikTok. TikTok took the chance to succeed in the area where Vine once stood, and now it is the most downloaded app.

In 2019 Hofman was able to create Byte, which was the successor of Vine. Byte does not stand out from other social media platforms because TikTok took the crown from Vine. TikTok is able to succeed now where Vine once was, and Byte will not be able to reclaim the title being the best short-form video app. Even though Vine is longer in today’s society, millenniums grew up with Vine and have since transitioned to TikTok. If you ever ask a Generation Z person if they created more Vines or TikTok videos the chances are they create TikTok videos. With the start of the new decade, you have to wonder what will happen with TikTok in the next ten years after Vine won the 2010s being the best short-form video platform.