Twitter announced on Thursday that they would dismantle and shut down the video-sharing mobile app Vine.
Twitter’s decision to discontinue Vine comes as the company announced they will cut 9 percent of their workforce in order to keep costs down.
In a statement published by Twitter and Vine, the social media company said that the Vine app would stay live after the mobile app is discontinued in order to give users the opportunity to download and save any old videos.
“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 explained in a statement. “You will be notified before we make any changes to the app or website.”
Twitter released Vine two years ago as a way for users to share small video clips that were six second or less. By August 2014, the app was used at least once a month by nearly 4 percent of all Android mobile users. However, that number has quickly dropped. Current estimates suggest less than one percent of users visit the Vine app once per month.
Vine has helped launched the careers of regular men and women and turned them into “Vine Stars” including Nash Grier and King Bach (Andrew Bachelor). Since then, both Vine Stars have had successful movie and book deals. In fact, King Bach was able to land a recurring role on Showtime’s House of Lies and MTV’s comedy series Wild N’ Out.
It is important to point out that Vine was once in direct competition with Instagram. At the peak of Vine’s success, Instagram released a 10-second video sharing feature, which later caused usage of the Vine app to decrease by 70 percent.
Twitter also announced on Thursday that they will cut 9 percent of their workforce worldwide and focus on increasing growth in order to increase revenue. The cost cutting is good news for a company that suffered a loss of over $100 million for a third quarter.
So what is next for Vine? As the company announced in a statement, they are working on a solution. “We’ll be working closely with creators to make sure your questions are answered and will work hard to do this the right way.”
Meanwhile, the founder of the Vine app went on Twitter revealing that he regretted selling Vine, saying, “Don’t sell your company!”
Don’t sell your company!
— Rus (@rus) October 27, 2016