Vine, in case you missed it, is a standalone iOS
app from Twitter that lets users create short, 6-second videos that run on a
loop.
Users record
by holding their thumb against the screen, and stop by releasing. The short
clips can then be threaded together and shared on Vine itself, Twitter or even
Facebook.
Here’s how a
silly video-sharing app (which has been done before, by the way) makes Twitter
a stronger social network.
CONTENT GENERATION
Since Twitter
launched, it’s never had a non-text platform for media creation. Sure, you can
take photos within the app, and Twitter tapped Aviary to add Instagram-like
filters to that process, but this is Twitter’s first standalone product that
lets users share in some way other than a tweet.
Twitter is a
network based around media. Despite its brevity by nature, a lot of
content passes through Twitter’s network, including, but not limited to, pictures,
videos, websites, etc. The vast majority of that content is not Twitter’s,
though it’s that same content that places such a high value on Twitter’s ad
revenue stream through Promoted Tweets, trends, etc.
Rather than
let Facebook’s Instagram push all the juicy content through
Twitter’s real-time network, the company has decided to build its own, new
Instagram. Vine is Instagram for video.
This has been
done before by companies like Socialcam and Viddy, but the numerous companies who’ve dipped their toes
in the cinematic pool have found the water a bit chilly. Twitter, a trusted and
massive brand, is sure to pick up more of an instant user base, thus making
Vine more attractive to even more new users. No one likes an empty room, and
every video-sharing app until now has been just that.
CREATION VS.
CONSUMPTION
Twitter’s ads
are valuable because of the number of eyes on its network at any given time.
Eyes come for the content. Sometimes that ends up being tweets (usually about
real-time, live events). Sometimes it’s pictures from Instagram or videos from
YouTube. And then, of course, there are the links to wonderful articles
(sometimes about technology).
When Instagram
turned off Twitter Cards integration, essentially
eliminating Twitter’s ability to embed Instagram photos directly into the
stream, a huge chunk of Twitter’s visual appeal went out the window. Sure,
Twitter has its Photos feature, with Instagram-esque filters powered by Aviary,
but does that compete with Instagram’s level of engagement? No.
By adding Vine
content to Twitter directly, I’ve actually found that Twitter’s a slightly
nicer place to be. Yes, it’s been just one day and most of the Vines are pretty bad, but
it’s something I’ve never seen before on Twitter. It’s a video — a cute,
quick-cutting, clearly amateur video of my friend, or my friend’s dog, or my
friend’s hand. I can’t explain why I’m drawn to it, just like I can’t explain
why I spend an astounding amount of time looking at pictures of food on
Instagram. All I know is that my eyes like it.
What I don’t
like, however, is browsing through Vines in the Vine app. It’s loud!
(Users have the ability to include sound or mute sound in their Vines.) It’s
also old. Vine uses an almost identical UI/UX to Instagram, complete with the
stream, likes, and comments, and I already have one of those. In fact, I’m
already on plenty of social networks and am somewhat offended each time a
company asks me to join a new one.
But this
actually works in Twitter’s favor. People only need to use Vine for sharing,
not necessarily for browsing. They have Twitter for that. Want to share a video
instead of Instagram a photo? Just hit up the Vine app and share via Twitter.
You don’t have to go back to Vine until you want to share something else (or
you want to check your likes, you narcissistic bastard!).
And perhaps
more importantly to Twitter’s revenue stream, Vine works like Instagram in that
it actually coaxes a bit more information out of its users than Twitter. People
are much more likely to share their location alongside a photo (like on
Instagram) or a video (like on Vine) than they are with a simple text tweet. In
essence, Vine makes people more comfortable sharing location, which is just
another (very powerful) metric Twitter can use to target ads.
PHOTOS ARE SO OVER
There is no
such thing as a social network without photos, and if there is, it shouldn’t
exist. The human fascination with photos is a powerful thing. Even a non-revenue-generating Instagram
is worth $1 billion.
But Twitter
was late for this very important date with photo destiny. After failing to
acquire Instagram for $500 million, the company turned to Photobucket for
serving up pictures and video. But the content was never owned by Twitter.
Meanwhile, Facebook upped the ante and bought Instagram, thus owning this generation’s library of
photography.
So Twitter was
like, “Let’s just build our own Instagram!” They launched Photos, which let
users take and share photos from right within the app. They even let Aviary
power filters for Photos, so it felt a little more like Instagram. To this day,
I’ve never used an Aviary filter in Twitter. The short version of the story is
that Twitter was way late to the photo-sharing game, and quite possibly
missed the boat.
So instead of
spend a lot of time and energy and money on either building or buying yet
another photo-sharing venture, Twitter up and decided to skip that fight
entirely. It’s been thought for a while now that the human fascination with photo-sharing would eventually make
the logical step to video. It was all a matter of when.
Instead of
fighting a battle they’re already losing, Twitter is starting a brand-new war
over video, and they’ve already set up camp near the battleground and polished
their weapons. Are you ready for a fight, Facebook?
MORE UGC = MORE
EYES = MORE $
Vine isn’t
expected to replace Instagram’s presence on Twitter, nor is it meant to replace
YouTube or Flickr or anything else. That’s why it’s a relatively new form of
media — a self-made video rather than another filtered photo.
As it stands,
it doesn’t generate any revenue either.
Rather,
Twitter is giving its users yet another way to push cool stuff through the
network. Any user-generated content, including Vine videos, Instagram pics,
etc. is very valuable in terms of advertising. If a social network has a high
volume of user-generated content, it’s generally believed by advertisers that
said social network has an engaged, attentive audience. In turn, any ads on said
social network increase in value as more UGC is shared.
It’s beautiful
Silicon Valley math at its finest.
Twitter
already has tons of UGC flowing through its network, which is why it’s supposed
to bring in over $1 billion in revenue over the next year. The only
problem is that almost none of that UGC is Twitter’s, as I mentioned before.
Vine simply acts as an aid to Twitter’s greatest weakness: being a true social
network as opposed to being everyone’s favorite platform. [TechCrunch]
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