South African billionaire Elon Musk is known for his desire to swallow up companies and rebrand them with his own trendy vision. The Tesla CEO previously used his familial wealth to purchase stakes in such businesses as PayPal, SpaceX and of course, X (formerly Twitter). Now, according to official statements made by the Trump administration cabinet pick, the emerald mine profiteer is considering buying the rights to Vine, a defunct app which predates TikTok. This would be a major development in the world of social media, since the latter is still potentially facing a long-term ban within the United States, unless the app’s parent company ByteDance can agree to divest to American financial interests.
When prompted by a fellow X user about bringing Vine back into the fray to fill in the power vacuum left by TikTok, Musk simply responded, “We’re looking into it.” So, now seems like as good a time as any to examine what Vine is (or was), how Elon could bring it back to compete with modern short-form video socials, and what that could mean for the general consumer.
What Is Vine, And Why Was It Discontinued?
If you were old enough to be in possession of a smartphone back in the early to mid 2010s, you likely recall Vine as the original short-form video sharing app. The service, which essentially functioned like a proto-TikTok, allowed users to create short clips up to six seconds in length, through a restrictive process which made exclusive use of the in-app camera. Over the course of a few short years, the app became a home to numerous viral videos, some of which propelled users to major internet fame. Notable figures such as Danny Gonzalez, Kurtis Conner and even Jake and Logan Paul got their start through Vine. Eventually, these names were able to transition into careers making long-form YouTube content, television material and even professional boxing.
Shortly after its 2012 release to the public, Vine was acquired by Twitter for $30 million, and integrated into its video sharing software. In effect, this technically means that Elon Musk already owns Vine, since he took ownership of Twitter and all its holdings back in 2022. Vine was initially acquired due to its intuitive video coding, which allowed for seamless looped playback – something Twitter struggled with significantly at the time. The user base of millions of teens was simply an added benefit. Unfortunately, then-Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey found that it was extremely difficult to monetize Vine videos, and ultimately agreed to terminate the standalone app after porting most of its key features into Twitter. On January 17, 2017 (nearly eight years to the day that the initial U.S. TikTok ban went into place) Vine was officially discontinued.
Could Elon Musk Really Bring Vine Back?
Elon Musk has publicly toyed with the idea of bringing Vine since his purchase of Twitter was finalized. In October 2022, an Axios report suggested that the newly-minted owner had asked Twitter’s key engineers to begin building the framework for a rebooted Vine app. He has also asked his followers how they would feel about the resurrection of the long-dead service, to which most resounded with positive feedback. Now, as the possibility of an impending permanent TikTok ban draws nearer, theres’ more incentive than ever for the social media mogul and his tech billionaire peers to corner the market on short-form video content.
Of course, the real question we should be asking is, do we actually want Elon Musk’s Vine reboot if he makes it? Numerous reports and independent investigations have concluded that far right hate speech and full-on Nazi sentiments have flourished on X under Musk’s watch. Likewise, droves of advertisers have fled from X in the years since the father of 12 began his reign, citing issues with the platform’s poor regulation. Now that Musk has taken to cozying up with the Trump administration, and even performing what some believe was a Nazi sieg heil gesture during Trump’s inauguration, many have argued that he shouldn’t have a monopoly on social media spaces.
The Future Of Vine
At this point in time, there’s no concrete evidence to suggest that Vine will definitively return. Trump’s decision to punt the TikTok ban down the line opens up a possibility for the Chinese app to continue serving its American consumer base of over 170 million users, rendering a Vine reboot mostly unnecessary. Musk has also publicly toyed with the idea of purchasing TikTok itself, though ByteDance reps have referred to reports that they would choose him as a buyer “pure fiction,” indicating a general unwillingness to hand over the reigns. For now, the future of Vine remains uncertain, though Musk is arguably the only person who could recreate the app, given that he owns the title, rights and code to the original thing.
