Popular social media app Vine is set to be shut down by Twitter four years after it was purchased. The development was made official via a blog post.
Twitter confirmed on Thursday that it would be laying off nearly a tenth of its global workforce, that is over 300 employees.
A brief note published on Medium revealed that one of the departments hit hardest by the layoffs is the Vine team. The entire division is to be axed.
Twitter said that in the coming months, it will be discontinuing the Vine mobile app and promised to handle the closing “the right way” by providing users with the ability to access and download their Vines.
The Vine website however would be kept online by Twitter, as it feels it is importantto still be able to watch all of the videos that have been made.
Vine made a name for itself primarily as a destination for 6-second video loops. Videos concerning sports, music, and especially comedy were uploaded – let’s not forget the twerk videos also.
The GIF-like format has been fairly popular since its launch in 2013.
No reason was given for its sudden demise, but speculations suggest the site failed to produce the expected revenue which Twitter hoped it would eventually generate.