Yes, it’s true the beloved 6 second video platform may be “shut down in the coming months.” The news broke out  on Vine’s Medium page last month in a post entitled “Important News About Vine.” In the post, Vine thanks all their creators and reassures them that there Vines will not be deleted with the platform. They say the application will be deleted off the App Store and Google Play Store, but Vine’s website will stay up where you can watch Vines but cannot post them. The company  gives no reason for the deletion of the platform, however, it is likely due to its active talks with bidders to sell the application according to reports from TechCrunch. This brief Medium post raises a lot of questions about the reason behind the potential shutting down of Vine, so for now all we can do is guess what the bases for the shutdown may be.

 Twitter, the owner of Vine, laid off an estimated 350 of their Vine employees just before the shutdown because,”The restructuring allows us to continue to fully fund our highest priorities, while eliminating investment in non-core areas and driving greater efficiency.” Twitter will shut down or sell Vine along while firing the employees running it to move forward and perpetuate growth for the company. Because many of the creators that started on Vine have moved to other video platforms like Instagram, Snapchat, or YouTube the Vine app has not added any new features in months. It came as no surprise that the company would focus more on their core platform- Twitter as well as Periscope, Twitters live streaming platform.

 Twitter selling Vine seemed better for everyone, however, the internet erupted with disapproval after Vine’s Medium post and it’s likely that Twitter is looking for the right company to sell Vine to to keep Twitter and Vine’s partnership without spending it’s own resources on the app. The potential survival through selling was reported by TechCrunch, their leads point to Twitter’s interest in selling the company but have not been confirmed. TechCrunch reported that after the medium post Vine received many bids from companies wanting to carry on with Vine. It’s my hope that Twitter will focus on other aspects of their company and sell Vine to a company that will continue to integrate Twitter and Vine. The rumors of Twitter selling Vine have not yet been confirmed and Twitter may still shut down the app so keep posted to OaktonOutlook.com for more updates in the future.