Elon Musk trying to bring back Vine as Twitter employees ordered to revive old code

Vine, the popular short-form video app, was shut down by Twitter in 2016

(NTB/AFP via Getty Images)

Elon Musk will potentially revive Vine, the short-form video app that was bought and then shut down by Twitter.

Twitter engineers are working on a reboot of the app, which could be released by the end of the year, Axios reports.

Some Twitter employees have already been assigned to look at Vine’s old code base, which hasn’t been changed or updated since it closed in 2016. “It needs a lot of work”, one employee reportedly said.

Vine, which published short, six-second long videos, was shut down by Twitter in 2016 because it did not have enough users and did not make enough money. Platforms like Instagram and Snapchat introduced longer video clips, and some big creators began negotiating for payment for posting, while also sharing videos less frequently.

Twitter explored selling the app, but never found a buyer. It also mulled introducing it into the main Twitter app, but did not.

Vine’s format – short-form video – has generally been replaced by TikTok; while TikTok shows users videos based on an algorithm, however, Vine was based on users’ friends list.

Elon Musk had tweeted a poll asking whether the company should bring back Vine. “If you did that and actually competed with tik tok [sic] that’d be hilarious”, YouTuber Mr Beast replied, with Mr Musk asking what Twitter could do to make Vine better than TikTok.

“ No one is original anymore, whatever you do will be on every other platform the next month unless it has a deep moat”, the YouTuber replied.

“YouTube has shorts, insta has reels, Reddit, Snapchat, Facebook, etc. all copied TT. Whatever u do make it hard to copy or it’s a waste of time imo”.

Mr Musk is reportedly considering making users charge up to $20 per month for verification, while also planning layoffs in an attempt to increase Twitter’s profitability. High profile, banned, users, such as Donald Trump, could also reappear on the platform.

Vine’s creator, Dom Hofmann, tweeted in response to the news his app could be brought back: “if ur gonna revive beloved software look no further than the gold standard”, he said, sharing a photo of the vidoe game Runescape.