A Former Vine Star Gives His Advice on a Musk Reboot

When Twitter decided to shut down the six-second video app Vine five years ago, the online eulogies poured in. But Vine’s relevance had already slipped before Twitter pulled the plug. At the beginning of 2017—the year it was shut down—the app fell out of the top 100 free apps on Apple’s App Store. Bigger rivals like Instagram were adding video tools, while YouTube attracted Vine stars with cash from video ads. 

Now Twitter’s new owner Elon Musk seems keen to revive the app. On Sunday, Musk tweeted a poll asking whether he should bring back Vine. About 69% of the 4.9 million respondents voted yes. On Monday, Axios reported that Musk instructed engineers to work on a Vine reboot for this year. Late Tuesday, engineers got a version of Vine playing, according to a source familiar with the project.