Every time I see stories about TikTok’s success I keep thinking of Vine’s failure and whether or not it would be in the same position by now if it survived?
Perhaps it was too early to be a competitor, but I always see TikTok as the real Vine replacement. Short silly videos you can scroll through. They could have done so well with Vine.
I can only remember how popular Vine was at its height when I was in high school; there are so many jokes I have with friends that can only be described by a now long lost Vine. I wonder how different the platform would be now had it lived on.
But I do wonder if this is too little, too late? I also appreciate TikTok's longer videos; 7 seconds turned out to be quite limiting in retrospect.
The amount of content, the type of it, and the number of people out there willing to make goofy content - I mean young and old alike ... is amazing.
The number of people with cellphones and decent cameras recording 'everything' means we now have all sorts of vidoes of 'guy fishing and whale breaches' or literal lighting strikes etc..
And the normalization of content creation, of likes, of views, the possibility of making money from it etc..
Basically the tools, cultural norms, media and social systems - all reached a critical mass some time after Vine.
If Vine were to have held on, evolved along the lines you indicated, they might have beak TikTok to it.
Oh - and one last point: TikTok started with cute dancing girls among teens. That content category is a great place to start, break through, and get a critical mass going before breaking into parrots swearing, cute babies, and funny challenges.
Interesting idea. But, wouldn't that be competing with TikTok? And, Vine hasn't been a thing in what, 6 years? That's not so much "bringing back" as developing something new.
Vine should have been what TikTok is today, it was so close to being a product that I wanted to see and use. TikTok without the close relationship with the People's Republic of China would be so much fun to use.
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