Twitter is working to bring back Vine, according to sources speaking to Axios. Vine was a video looping platform owned by Twitter, but ended up being shut down between October 2016 and January 2017. The information from sources comes less than 24 hours after Twitter CEO Elon Musk published a poll asking if users wanted Vine back. Should the service re-launch, it could take on ByteDance’s TikTok.
Bring back Vine?
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 31, 2022
As you may expect after years of dormancy, the Vine code requires a “lot of work” to get back up and running – this is according to one of the sources speaking to Axios. Should the service launch around the new year, Elon’s $44 billion buyout of Twitter will essentially leave him with two social media platforms instead of one – this will undoubtedly irk certain sections of society, who have already voiced their opposition to him taking over Twitter.
Relaunching Vine is not Elon’s first big idea. He has also told employees to implement a pay-for-verification system, according to reports. Under this system, Twitter users that want a verification tick will have to pay $19.99 per month for a Twitter Blue subscription.
It will be interesting going forward to see what other ideas Elon comes up with to make Twitter better. He will also want to find new ways to monetize the service, so it makes it worth his time buying it in the first place.
Source: Axios