Instagram steals Vines
The beginning of the end was nine years ago. Vine brought short-form video content to smartphones in January 2013, allowing users to create looping 6.5 second videos with ease and share them with their friends. Vine’s novelty made the app a staple in Millennial culture: Pre-existing platforms like Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram didn’t have an easy way to create and post video content just yet.
A mere six months later though, Instagram did the unthinkable—it stole Vines from Vine. Instagram rolled out its own video player in June 2013, but with some notable differences, like a 15-second max recording time as opposed to Vine’s 6.5 seconds, and an unfortunate lack of looping. Vine eventually announced its shutdown in October 2016, but not before it had been massacred by a rival.
