Before June 2012, video’s had the ability to be endless and last forever. With unlimited time, there was an unlimited amount of unnecessary information. When Vine was created in New York by Dom Hofmann, Rus Yusupov, and Colin Kroll, instead of an everlasting film, Vine only allowed users six seconds of film time, which meant every image had to be relevant. The app itself allowed users to create short looping videos and share them with fellow viewers; almost like a restricted YouTube. Acquired by Twitter, in October of 2012 for $30 million, users are able to sign up using their Titter account to the free app, as well as share their creations on various social networking platforms.
Wired was able to sit down with Vine creators and get inside information about why loyal users are only allowed six seconds of film time and the time loop. According to Hofmann, “It began with unlimited time. But when we saw our friends trying to share their videos over text message, we realized that it needed a social component—and that meant we needed to make it quick to share and view.”
Like YouTube, Vine provided countless videos that can be shared all over the world; though the world already had YouTube. Vine needed to be unique and have several defining features in order to make it stand out. “As soon as we started limiting the length, we noticed that the videos started to feel anticlimactic. So we put in a tweak to make them loop. As soon as we got that working, we could tell it was a defining feature—really, one of our two defining features, the other being the time limit.”
With 40 million registered users, Vine is a driving force with features unlike any other form of social media. Vine is available in the app store for both android and iOS users at the wonderful cost of nothing.
