The End of Vine, The Viner Invasion, and YouTube: a Significant Time in Social Media History
As we all know, Vine was a very popular social media app back in the day. When the app was first created in 2013, it was a platform where people created six second loop videos and posted them to their account. Although Twitter cancelled Vine in the beginning of 2017, this app helped develop famous memes, slang terms that only millennials may understand, and introduced us into the world of influencers.
These creators on Vine were developing content left and right to help build their personal brand and to also gain a fanbase. When these influencers found out that Vine was going to no longer exist, they had to determine where they were going to transition their personal brand to a new platform, take their current fanbase with them, and if they wanted to continue to create content.
Some of these influencers became famous for their music, like Shawn Mendes. While he was performing covers on his YouTube Channel, he noticed that no one was putting them up on Vine according to Jem Aswad, a writer for billboard.com. Once he started creating these six second loops, he started gaining his following and ultimately became a pop star thanks to Vine. Other influencers became comedians, like Andrew Bachelor, also known as King Bach on Vine. He used the platform to help him land acting roles and also build his own fanbase.
However, the majority of these influencers went to YouTube, another video sharing platform. Some of the most well known YouTube stars transitioned here, such as David Dobrik, Liza Koshy, Nash Grier, Lele Pons, and The Paul Brothers, according to Kelsey Klemme, a writer for eonline.com. Some other YouTubers that I follow started their career on Vine, such as Gabriel Conte, Marcus Johns, Cody Johns, and so many others.
Because of this transition from one platform to another, their fanbase they had from Vine also transferred over as well by subscribing to their YouTube channels. This created a significant point in social media history called the Viner Invasion. Mason Stands, a contributor to Forbes, stated that most of these Vine creators “were lambased by the YouTube community not only for their videos questionable comedic value, but their behavior as YouTube creators.” One YouTuber named Matthew Patrick, or else known as MatPat, even created a video about the Viner Invasion of Logan and Jake Paul, where he goes more into how they have created this new generation of YouTubers and their questionable behavior.
Although these Viners received criticism from other platforms, these individuals did end up making a comeback on YouTube. The majority of them, including Logan and Jake Paul, “became better behaved and worked on improving their content.” In the process of their content change, Mason Stands does bring up an important concept of what these Viners brought to YouTube, which was how “Viners brought this more entrepreneurial spirit into YouTube, and it didn’t come at a better time.” Even MatPat mentions in his video that this new generation of YouTubers were figuring out ways to have their personal brand on YouTube help them make money. When looking at the way that YouTube currently is, the majority of these influencers have turned their channels into their main source of income by having sponsorships, merchandise, alternative media forms like podcasts, and more.
So, while Vine was an app with a short lifespan, it did create several significant impacts in social media history. First, they helped develop the beginning of social media influencers and also the careers of other famous stars. Second, the ending of this app helped the YouTube platform with more people going to their site to keep up with their Viners. Finally, the app taught these Viners how to have a more entrepreneurial mindset, which helped YouTubers to make being an influencer their full-time career.
