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Six-second video service to be shut down ‘in the coming months’ as Twitter reports slowing revenue growth.
Vine, the mobile app owned by Twitter that lets people edit and share six-second home video clips, is closing.
The company broke the news in a blog post on Thursday. Users will be able access and download their videos, or Vines as they are called, and notifications will be sent out before any changes are made to the app or Website.
"We’ll be keeping the Website online because we think it’s important to still be able to watch all the incredible Vines that have been made," Vine said, adding that it "will work hard" to ensure the service is shut down "the right way."
Vine was acquired by Twitter in October 2012, months before the app came out. Vine officially launched in January 2013, and became the fastest-growing mobile app that year, reaching 23.7 million users by September.
However, since Vine’s launch a number of alternative services have come to the fore, such as Snapchat and Periscope, while established players like Instagram and its parent Facebook have ramped up their video-sharing features.
According to a study earlier this year by marketing technology specialist Markerly, 52% of Vine’s most popular users – those with 15,000 followers or more – had stopped using the app as of January.
The announcement was made the same day that Twitter announced it will cut 9% of its staff worldwide – about 350 jobs – after reporting a significant slowdown in quarterly revenue growth.
Revenue in the three months to 30 September came in at $615.93 million (€564.17 million), up 8% on last year. The annual growth rate in the previous quarter was 20%; in the quarter before that, it stood at 36%.
Twitter’s user base increased to 317 million, up just 3% on a year ago and 1% sequentially.
