You've got 6 seconds

Tweet a 6 seconds video, and that's it. As simple as that! :D
Vine is a mobile video sharing app created in June 2012. In a short span of 3 months, it was acquired by Twitter. In 2013, it was ranked the 4th most downloaded app and had an estimate of 6 million US users.
Waaaaa! :D

So, vine? 

Or Vine??

Its co-founder, Colin Kroll explained in 6 seconds that "The future of Vine is everyone being able to create short looping videos from their mobile phone in the language that they speak and discover great content." 

As some have questioned if 6 seconds were too short to capture anything, Kroll pointed out that "It (Vine) enables a level of creativity that was untapped before Vine." And I thought that this is really true. The idea of keeping things simple, capturing moments and on-the-go. That's what attracts users. As of now, no other video sharing platform is as straightforward and user-friendly as this! Moreover, it is an app based in a device most of us have now - our smart phones. 
Before moving on, here's a compilation of some hilarious and popular Vine videos of 2013! :) 

 

Putting Vine in a continuum with other social media apps, it is probably somewhere in between Instagram and Twitter. Users can take a video, share it and post it. Excluding all the photos and plain texts. It is powerful not because of any revenue it makes, but because it make Twitter a better social network.
Social networking, by definition, refers to individuals connecting with one another across social media sites/applications, and getting to know individuals whom they have a common liking with, similar interests and perhaps compatible personalities.

Via Facebook, which has so many users, advertisements and user-generated content, it is tough and distracting to find another individual of similar interest. It is too huge and too broad that we probably don't feel comfortable adding friends randomly. Besides, many of us probably do not disclose any personal information to the public. So there's really not much left for social networking other than with the people we know.

Then there's Instagram, which started off primarily as a photo-sharing app, and recently with a 10 seconds video function. Over time, it has become a platform where individuals seem to be overly conscious and caught up with themselves for any social networking to take place. Narcissism is more evident and is slowly becoming a norm in such media creation. Of course, I will not forget to acknowledge amazing users like @drewkelly who posts photos and videos of his life as an English teacher in North Korea and journey to new places. While his photos and videos often capture the raw moments of people and their lives, he complements them with his captions as they are insightful and thought provoking! :D

And yeah, not forgetting Vine's parent company, Twitter! Ads on Twitter are valuable due to the crazy number of users scrolling through their news feed each time. Ohyeah that's why they are expensive - $200 000 per day to run a Promote Trend.

For users, simply post a photo on FB or Instagram and you can them all on your Twitter feed! Share a URL you read online or a Youtube video you found really funny, all on Twitter! CONVENIENT OR WHAT?

As a result of Twitter's popularity, introducing Vine to its user was easy peasy. Thanks to it being clean cut, pretty cute, coooool and new, users have no reason to not give Vine a try! Over time, it becomes a video sharing app which is more personal than Facebook and has less emphasis on 'the self' than Instagram. Unless you are gonna take a 6 seconds video of yourself smiling at the camera. Hmmm...

Therefore, Vine feels like a balance. What do you think? :)

Quoting from Ellen DeGeneres, “My point is, life is about balance. The good and the bad. The highs and the lows. The pina and the colada.” 

~


References
http://uk.reuters.com/article/2013/12/31/us-apps-top-idUKBRE9BU0K820131231
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-25876928
GIF: http://gif-emporium.tumblr.com/post/9114184623
http://techcrunch.com/2013/01/24/vine-just-made-twitter-a-stronger-social-network/
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-57568628-93/twitter-bumps-the-price-of-promoted-trends-to-$200k/