Vine, the social platform best known for six-second NBA highlight reels and crushing UFC finishes, is shutting down its operation in the upcoming months. Vine announced Thursday it would soon be discontinuing its mobile app but maintaining the website.
The news came in conjunction with Twitter laying off nine percent of its workforce (350 employees) despite surprising investors on its recent Q3 earnings call Thursday. The decade-old social platform reported modest growth of eight percent in revenue to $616 million.
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Still, the impending loss of Vine had Twitter in an #RIPVine state of mind all day, as Deadspin editor Tim Burke, C.J. Fogler of The Cauldron, ESPN sports business reporter Darren Rovell and others shared their favorite clips. Teams such as the Carolina Panthers had a countdown of its top five Vines while Clemson football shared its most memorable ones from the 2015-16 season.
Number ONE on our list…#DabOnThemCoach!!! https://t.co/C5PbHuLyoq
— Carolina Panthers (@Panthers) October 27, 2016
Winner: Best Sports Vine — 4-year-old Eston James, The Bat Flip Kid” https://t.co/8lWRveAwx2 #RIPVines
— Darren Rovell (@darrenrovell) October 27, 2016
Beyond the uniqueness of its six-second looping feature, Vine truly challenged those in the industry and fans alike to be efficient and creative in their storytelling.
“How do you tell a story in such a short period of time? The people who were really good at it, you find a way — it draws out skills a lot of smart people hadn’t had ways of exploiting before,” Burke said.
#RIPVine https://t.co/SAiK3gTf85
— Timothy Burke (@bubbaprog) October 27, 2016
Added Rob Perez, writer/producer at FoxSports.com: “There are a ton of platforms out there where you can upload and share videos to, but, what made Vine different from the rest was that it would instantly embed straight to Twitter with one click. Other platforms can do this too, don’t get me wrong, but Vine was the originator and perfected the simplicity of sharing.”
Perez added that he is an avid Vine user — he has 275 million Vine loops — because of the ability to quickly capture content and upload directly to Twitter. The NBA’s openness toward media and fans disseminating content along with the six-second highlight-reel function made it arguably the best sport and league to capture on Vine.
“The program made it so easy to edit, cut, paste, filter, you name it — Vine had it,” he added.
LANCE A MAKE EM DANCE!!! https://t.co/NiYV81pggh
— Rob Perez (@World_Wide_Wob) October 27, 2016
Perez said that the Overtime app could be a potential replacement for Vine but with even more advanced video editing features such as slow motion, rewind, still shot and other options.
In memory of the social platform, below are some more favorite Vines from the sports world.
We begin with two-time NBA MVP Stephen Curry putting the Los Angeles Clippers in the spin cycle.
NBA’s Lance Stephenson, well, being Lance Stephenson.
Young kid losing his mind at a Miami Marlins game in 2014.
Washington Redskins quarterback Kirk Cousins last season after the largest comeback in franchise history.
When you’ve won five titles over a 15-year stretch, you get to have a little fun on the bench.