Twitter Paid $30 Million For Vine, Now It’s Shutting It Down

Remember MySpace? Remember iTunes Ping, Friendster and Orkut? Twitter's once very popular short video app Vine is the latest social service diving into the deadpool in another reminder of the ephemeral nature of the web. Twitter also announced major staff cuts.

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Twitter has announced plans to discontinue their video messaging service Vine. "In the coming months we'll be discontinuing the [Vine] mobile app," the company said in a blog post on Thursday. While the company did not disclose a reason for ending the service, it was also announced today that they were cutting 9% of its workforce in the face of slow growth from the social networking service.

Twitter acquired Vine in 2012 for a reported $30 million just a few months before the service's successful debut. Initially, Vine seemed like a good fit for Twitter, allowing users to post looped 4 second videos and offered a way for Twitter to compete with rival Facebook, who had acquired the similar short form video service Instagram in April of that year. However, since then, the company has seemed to struggle with its direction and a way to continue their growth goals. Twitter said that existing Vines will remain online and that users will be notified before any changes are made to the app and website.via CelebrityAccess