Twitter could be planning to bring back its Vine video-sharing app.
New owner Elon Musk took to Twitter to ask whether users would be interested in a rival of the once-popular video-sharing platform, and has reportedly asked engineers to work on an updated version of the app to launch before the end of the year. It’s all part of a plan to change the way Twitter is run and unlock new revenue streams now that it’s owned by the Tesla CEO.
In a tweet, Musk asked users whether they’d like to see Vine return. 69.5% said yes.
The application, which works in a similar manner to TikTok, was acquired by Twitter back in 2012 and had mainstream success. However, the app was slowly abandoned by users and Twitter, with no new features launching and users flocking to other platforms, such as Instagram.
Twitter eventually shuttered the app in 2016.
The premise of the platform, unlike TikTok, was to share short six-second looping videos.
Should a rebooted version of the app launch, it could go head-to-head with TikTok, which has seen explosive growth in recent years but faces challenges from regulators as it’s owned partly by the Chinese government. Under Donald Trump’s presidency, there were plans for TikTok to be banned entirely, but since then, the US version of the app has been offloaded to US servers.
It’s been a big week for Musk and Twitter. He completed the takeover of the platform on Friday, costing $44 billion, and the CEO has since fired a number of executives as he looks to streamline the platform.
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