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Twitter announces job cuts and axes Vine

By | Published on Friday 28 October 2016

Vine

Twitter’s revenues and active userbase were both up last quarter, though with recent efforts to find a buyer for the social media firm unsuccessful and revenue growth overall slowing down – but with executives there still talking about going into profit sometime next year – a large axe fell at the company yesterday.

About 350 jobs – which is 9% of the firm’s overall workforce – will go, while senior management are talking about putting all the focus on key products. Which means goodbye to the once-buzzy short-short-short-form video app Vine.

Twitter acquired the company behind the six-second-videos-on-a-loop app just months after it was founded in 2012, with the service officially launching in January 2013. Despite enjoying some success, and the format being adopted by some online creators, the service quickly faced competition when Facebook added video to its Instagram app.

Confirming that the Vine app would be retired “in the coming months”, Twitter told users of the service yesterday: “We value you, your Vines, and are going to do this the right way. You’ll be able to access and download your Vines. We’ll be keeping the website online because we think it’s important to still be able to watch all the incredible Vines that have been made. You will be notified before we make any changes to the app or website”.



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