Key Takeaways:
- Elon Musk said defunct short video service Vine will be coming back, this time, in an artificial intelligence format.
- The app was very popular in the 2010s, but struggled commercially.
- Analysts say Vine could evolve into a platform for crypto-native social capital if it adds real-time trend tagging and similar features, but regaining users won’t be easy.
Elon Musk announced on Thursday that the popular short video service Vine will be coming back, this time in an artificial intelligence (AI) format.
“We’re bringing back Vine, but in AI form,” Musk posted on his X platform, formerly Twitter. The Tesla and SpaceX CEO did not provide details about his plans for the once viral app, which was discontinued in 2017.
However, Vine has already returned in cryptocurrency form, with several tokens named after the app rising sharply following Musk’s latest post.
Vine Coin, the most noteworthy of the bunch, climbed more than 120% after the news, hitting a price of $0.0794. The token was launched on the Solana blockchain in January, days after nostalgic Vine users petitioned Musk for its return.
At the time of writing, Vine Coin has pared some of those gains to trade at $0.0538, with an average trading volume of $309 million on the day. The token has slumped 85% from its all-time high of $0.40 reached on January 26.
“If the Vine relaunch incorporates real-time trend tagging and token-gated content systems, it could evolve into a platform for crypto-native social capital,” Shawn Young, chief analyst at MEXC crypto exchange, told Cryptonews.
“Gamified engagements via possible token incentives and integration with other platforms in the Musk ecosystem, such as X or even Dogecoin, could position Vine as a next-generation SocialFi platform,” he added.
What Is Vine?
Vine was founded in 2012 as a social media app for video sharing by Rus Yusupov, Dom Hoffman, and Colin Kroll. Users could share 6-second looping video clips. It was a hit, reaching 200 million active users at its peak in December 2015.
Soon after its launch, the Jack Dorsey-led Twitter acquired Vine from its founders, reportedly for $30 million. Videos published on Vine’s social network could also be shared on rival platforms such as Facebook and Twitter.
In many ways, Vine played a key role in shaping the internet culture of the modern era. It gave a voice to individuals who have become prominent opinion leaders on social media today, like Logan Paul and David Dobrik. As MEXC’s Young puts it:
“Vine essentially codified the baseline architecture of virality via looping videos, catchy edits, and memes, all of which shaped early internet humor…”
But creators didn’t make money from their videos. Meanwhile, competing platforms like YouTube attracted creators with promises of payment from advertising revenue sharing programs, brand deals, and sponsorships.
Eventually, Twitter shut Vine down in January 2017 as competition from Snapchat, YouTube, and Instagram intensified. In China, TikTok had also launched as Douyin around the same time.
Users could still view videos from the Vine archive for another two years until 2019, when Twitter discontinued the service. In October 2022, Musk paid $44 billion to purchase Twitter, which he later rebranded to “X”.
Why is Musk Reviving Vine?
Musk has previously spoken about turning X into an “everything app,” similar to China’s WeChat. He wants to go beyond social media, adding financial payments, smart home controls, and even ride-hailing to the site.
X is currently enjoying success with its socially embedded generative AI chatbot, Grok. The first time that the billionaire talked about Vine was in April 2024, when he started a poll on X asking people if they wanted the app revived.
A majority of the users — 70% — voted in favor of its return.
On July 24 this year, Musk confirmed that Vine is, indeed, coming back, in the form of artificial intelligence. It’s unclear whether the app will be part of X or standalone.
While Musk’s decision seems to cater to public demand, some experts see the relaunch of Vine as a strategic move, particularly amid growing uncertainty over TikTok’s future in the United States.
“I think there’s definitely potential, especially with TikTok’s future being uncertain,” Nikki Martinez, short-form video content lead at social media agency Hype, told Cryptonews. She warned that attracting users will be tough.
“Even if Vine comes back and it’s built into X, it’s going to take time for creators and audiences to fully shift,” she said, adding:
“TikTok already has such a strong culture and algorithm, and X has already tried to push short-form with a dedicated video tab, but I’m not sure it’s really caught on with creators yet. So, unless the new Vine brings something totally different or shows real reach and monetization upfront, I think adoption will be slow.”
The U.S. government wants to ban TikTok over security concerns. Officials have long feared that the popular video-sharing app, which is owned by Chinese company ByteDance, could be used as a vehicle for espionage.
TikTok denies the charges. In June, President Trump signed an executive order to keep TikTok running in the U.S. for another 90 days, giving Trump more time to reach a deal that brings the app under American ownership.
“If ‘AI-powered Vine’ helps creators enhance their voice, cool. But if it’s just auto-generated stuff, I don’t think it’ll land. People and brands want authenticity and real connections,” said Martinez.
Crypto Connection
But could Musk’s revamped Vine win over the cryptocurrency and Web3 communities to become the preferred platform for crypto discourse, news, and meme culture?
Illia Otychenko, lead analyst at crypto exchange CEX.io, said the new Vine will expand content opportunities for creators and could become the next hub for the crypto community, just like Twitter.
“Vine’s original six-second format mirrors the time it takes to absorb a tweet, typically up to the standard 280-character limit,” Otychenko told Cryptonews via Telegram.
“This gives the new Vine the potential to become the ‘video version of a tweet,’ enabling fast, engaging content tailored to crypto discourse,” he said.
He noted the sharp increase in the price of Vine Coin following Musk’s tweet, saying it “shows there’s already excitement around the potential return of Vine.”
“It also opens the door to crypto-native experiments, from tokenized short-form content to meme coins tied to individual videos, creators, or viral moments. For instance, projects like Zora already let users turn posts into tradable coins, and Vine could take that even further with a video format.”
Young, the MEXC chief analyst, concurred, saying the return of Vine, accompanied by generative AI tools like voice cloning and automated meme remixing, will bring hyper-personalized meme culture mainstream.
“For the crypto sector, where memes and social trends could move markets and shift narratives, this could be another inflection point,” Young explained.
“With AI-generated memes tied to real-time blockchain data and market trends, Vine could become a hub not just for entertainment but also sentiment indexing and trend forecasting in Web3,” he added.
The post Elon Musk Is Relaunching Vine in ‘AI Form’: What You Need to Know appeared first on Cryptonews.
