Vine withers as Twitter shuts down video-looping app

Dive Brief:

Twitter's Vine, the six-second video looping service, will be shutting down its mobile app for filming and uploading video content, the division announced in a blog post today.
The web site will stay up so that people can continue to watch Vines that have already been made.
The Vine news joins Twitter’s announcement earlier today that it is cutting 9% of its workforce as the company looks to fortify itself through greater focus and efficiency.

Dive Insight:

When Vine first launched in 2013, the video service was unique because it put significant video-creation tools in the hands of smartphone-wielding consumers while making it easy to upload and share the content online. Built from the ground up for mobile, the platform's initial success revealed a growing demand for short, entertaining videos that could be consumed on-the-go — something brands were not really paying much attention to previously.

While the service is still regularly used by brands across sports, entertainment, fast food and network TV to promote content, Vine has faced several challenges, including declining consumer interest and the fact that content is not easily discoverable on the platform itself.

In the several years since its launch, there has been an explosion in the demand for mobile video content. Brands and marketers have significantly ramped up their content creation strategies and numerous other mobile-first platforms now have built-in video offerings. In particular, quickly-growing Snapchat offers several different ways for users to engage via videos, including 10-second Snap videos that can be personalized with a caption, stickers and video chat.

This year, live streaming video has taken off, suggesting that the opportunity for mobile video is much bigger than six-second or ten-second snippets. Twitter has said it wants to double down on live streaming, including on Periscope, and may be discontinuing Vine with this in mind. Twitter is in a race with Facebook Live and YouTube Live to take a leadership role in a space that has significant advertising opportunities.