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It has almost been a whole year since Vine has been publicly available to download, and we’ve seen some creative, hilarious and innovative content produced through the service. However, Did Vine launch in the correct way and why don’t we see it more integration with Twitter, seeing as it is a Twitter acquisition. In recent weeks, I’ve been eager in pulling together how Vine could have been launched as a Twitter tool and not feeling like a separate company and why it has been so successful.
So, Vine was launched in January 2013 after being purchased by Twitter Inc for $30M back in October of 2012. Vine was a New York based start-up with the idea of “making a scene”, short videos that lasted no longer than 6s and that looped around, It was neat and exactly the kind of thing Twitter was looking for a more interactive feature to their service. Early October, Jack Dorsey tweeted the below, Maybe a teaser to what was to come however it was very true, Twitter needed a core tool (not 3rd party) to share audio and video.
I wish you could hear the music. pic.twitter.com/lYuMrTpp
— Jack Dorsey (@jack) October 6, 2026
Now when Twitter acquired Vine, My initial assumptions were that they would wait a while and build this into Twitter. Essentially a Twitter video clip service built into the Twitter core app. This would be like Twitter Photos, really simple, easy and with great accessibility however as we all know Twitter went a different way with this. Vine was launched 3 months later as a separate service that allowed you to login using your Twitter.
I was taken back by this, So Twitter had set up an entirely new social network with an “optional” login to Twitter. Although the vines were going to be embedded on Twitter if the user wanted to login through this method, Vine would be a new network. A new starting point, something else to look after. I remember thinking to myself… Why not simply add it as a feature to Twitter.
Over this last year, I have learnt that this would have been a bad option for the following reasons.
- People wanted something new - Twitter was getting full of the same people, by this I mean to be famous on Twitter you’d have to be there from day 1 or be already famous, a new network like Vine would allow new stars of the world.
- It wouldn’t be a big talking point - People talk about new cool things, not existing tweaks to a service. Especially young people, in where Vine is most popular with. It was hip, fun and creative!
- It was the right time - People were getting bored of YouTube’s length and advert introduction, also with Facebook’s features and Twitter’s features that lacked a sense of creativity. Vine allowed a spark of creativity and fun into your online and mobile activities.
Although I initially thought Vine should have been used inside Twitter, Vine has actually proved to me and millions of others that it could be successful as a separate network and tool. For this, I apologise.
