There was. It was called Vine. Twitter bought it before it launched, ran it into the ground (despite huge cultural influence), and recently decided to revive it under Musk.
Vine was very likely the inspiration behind TikTok, and TikTok is definitely filling the void that it left.
Which Twitter bought and promptly shit down. I never understood it; Vine was hugely popular (I was in college at the time, such things tend to spread pretty rapidly on a college campus), even getting celebrity attention. I really questioned the idea that Twitter couldn’t make the product work when we see TikTok doing just that. I guess Vine was, literally, ahead of its time.
Vine's an example of the beginning of great idea that wasn't taken to its full potential. There are significant key differences between vine and tiktok. There are three that come to mind.
Tiktok expanded allowed uploaded video duration up to 3 minutes.
The For You Page algorithm (which drives the content you see in the feed) is scarily impressive in how it can match the viewer with content they would most want to see.
Lastly, and probably most importantly (in my opinion) Tiktok fosters a home for a vast number of entertaining and informative content creators that give them an edge. Vine mostly went for entertainment in quick six second bursts.
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.
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.
It's obviously the inspiration for TikTok. It's insane that Twitter couldn't turn Vine into a success. Its users mourned for it years after it was shut down. I've almost never seen a more beloved app.
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