An Obituary for Vine

If you had told me that Vine was going to be discontinued, I would not have been very surprised. Many social media blogs had already predicted its imminent death. Yet, when it was made official that such an amazing source of distraction is going to be no more, it was slightly heartbreaking.

So, as we bid goodbye to this app, let us reflect on what Vine has meant to social media audiences and brands.

When Vine was introduced, it was all the rage on social media, with there being 1.5 billion active loops per day, after just two years. In a marketplace where brands compete for audience’s attention, a six second window both challenging and promising.

Take a look at the industry-wise split of brand Tweets that mention Vine:

(This includes all Tweets put out by brands from the 24th of January 2013)

Any tribute to this awesome platform will be incomplete without a throwback to some of the most engaging Vines on Twitter:

Carolina Panthers

ICYMI: The greatest vine of all time. https://t.co/cOq7Jof8iy

— Carolina Panthers (@Panthers) December 7, 2015

The vine showed the owner of Carolina Panthers sharing a light moment with the team. The Tweet received over 12,000 Likes and 9,900 Retweets.

Innocent Drinks

There will never be a better Vine than this. Ever. https://t.co/LinjZEUjp8

— innocent drinks (@innocent) April 1, 2015

Because, Maple the dog is a Vine celebrity as much as Shawn Mendes is.

A steady decline in Vine usage was reported that was further accelerated by the popularity that Snapchat and Boomerang gained. In the last 365 days, brands (except Media) published close to 2,500 Tweets that mention Vine. This is down by almost 20% from the previous year. Here’s the frequency of brand tweets that mention Vine per month:

Don’t be too quick to say that Vine is going away with a bang, seeing the threefold increase in volume in October. Of the 333 Tweets that mention Vine in October, 232 were published yesterday.

Brands saw this as an opportunity to chime in, and relate to followers who are upset about the impending fate of Vine. Like Cleveland Cavaliers here:

Miss you already, @vine. #RIPVine#LEBRONJAMES https://t.co/jrIK5mG2Ig

— Cleveland Cavaliers (@cavs) October 27, 2016

The brand did what most of social media did following the announcement – look at a terrific Vine video from the past.

Some brands, like Whataburger, took a slightly different route:

Vine is gone but Whataburger is still here so it’s really not that bad in the grand scheme

— Whataburger® (@Whataburger) October 28, 2016

Whataburger has a penchant for witty, snarky Tweets. While some Twitter users felt that this quip was ‘too soon’, it made a lot of people laugh.

The only thing that makes me feel slightly better is that in social media, as one thing passes on, something even better will come up.