Update Oct. 31, 12:33pm PDT: According to Axios, multiple unnamed sources tell the publication Musk has asked Twitter engineers to bring back Vine, a reboot that could debut by the end of the year.
Freshly-minted Twitter CEO Elon Musk posted a poll on Sunday evening asking if his company should bring back the once-popular short-form video hosting service Vine.
Bring back Vine?
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 31, 2022
Twitter launched Vine back in 2013 after the company acquired New York-based Vine Labs in 2012.
The platform arguably pioneered short-form video content on the web, which the likes of TikTok and Instagram Reels are currently thriving on. However, Twitter ultimately discontinued the Vine mobile app in 2016.
Musk also engaged with YouTube sensation Jimmy “MrBeast” Donaldson on the subject. Donaldson replied to the celebrity billionaire’s poll, saying it would be “hilarious” if Twitter brought Vine back and was actually able to compete with TikTok, the current top dog in the short-form video space.
Musk, in return, asked MrBeast how he and his team could make Vine better than TikTok.
What could we do to make it better than TikTok?
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 31, 2022
After months on the fence, Musk completed his $44 billion USD acquisition of Twitter on Thursday. The celebrity billionaire has taken over as CEO — or “Chief Twit,” as he prefers to call himself — from Parag Agrawal, whom he fired (along with several other executives) after taking control of the company.
Bringing Vine back was also a popular recommendation in responses to a call for suggestions on potential improvements to Twitter from Jason Calacanis (@Jason), a longtime associate of Musk from the PayPal days who is now helping the entrepreneur tame the unruly beast of a social network that he has purchased.
Bring back Vine. The world needs a non-Meta non-TikTok short form video app.
— Slashdot (@slashdot) October 31, 2022
Musk has lots of plans for Twitter, not the least of which is getting rid of (at least) 25% of the company’s workforce. He has already terminated Twitter’s entire board, becoming the company’s sole director.
Musk also appeared to agree with another user’s opinion that video shouldn’t be a separate app and should instead be integrated into Twitter.
💯
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 31, 2022
