Is TikTok the new Vine?

22 Oct, 2022

TikTok has released up to 17 features in 2022, making it the most dynamic social media platform. It’s a topic with 68 million monthly searches, and community experts like Greg Isenberg say it’s the best platform to start a business in 2022.

But with a closer look, it has similar issues that made Vine fail, so is history repeating itself? 🤔

Let’s dive in.

When Dom Hofman launched Vine alongside Rus Yusupov and Colin Kroll, they thought it’d help people capture casual moments in 6 seconds to share with friends.

But the idea quickly championed creativity and experimentation, making Twitter acquire the platform for $30 million in October 2012.

However, Vine doesn’t exist today, and it’s mainly because of these 3 reasons:

1. Disgruntled creators

The founders were against monetizing the platform, which made it challenging to pay creators. In 2015, high-profile users like Logan Paul and King Bach met with Twitter to discuss a more significant revenue share.

But Twitter didn't have an effective monetization model for Vine's short clips. They later tried longer videos but the top creators were already leaving and their audience moved with them.

2. High-level competition

Vine had two main competitors: Snapchat and Instagram.

Snapchat allowed users to send 10-second videos to friends and Instagram introduced 15-second videos in June 2013. But they didn't stop there.

Instagram courted celebrities with longer videos and increased the limit to 60 seconds. While Facebook wasn’t a direct competitor, it acquired Instagram on the 9th of April 2012, then blocked Vine’s access to its platform in 2013.

3. Issues at the parent company

Ankur Thakkar — the head of Vine’s editorial from 2014 to May 2016 — said this:

“A couple of things plagued Vine, and it all stems from the same thing: a lack of unity and leadership on a vision”.

In October 2015, Twitter laid off 300+ employees to become profitable and Vine didn’t ship anything significant for a year.

Now, here’s where the similarities exist:

High-profile users have complained about TikTok’s Creator Fund, which pays 2-4 cents for every 1000 views. In comparison, YouTube pays content creators 55% of the revenue while taking 45%.

If TikTok increases how much creators get paid, it'd be almost the same as what TikTok generates from ads, which would be a massive chunk out of (TikTok's parent company) ByteDance's profits.

Some countries have permanently blocked the platform for national security while others have implemented restrictions. Recent controversy indicates that ByteDance planned to use TikTok to trace American citizens. And although ByteDance has its headquarters in Beijing, TikTok isn't available in China.

Instagram announced in February 2021 that its algorithm wouldn’t recommend recycled videos from other platforms. YouTube has Shorts, which allows creators to link their long-form videos to short "TikTok-like" videos.

But Vine didn't have TikTok's features?

Yes, you're right. This isn't to say the people's Google is the same as Vine.

For example, searching on Vine was as difficult as seeing your friends' posts on Instagram. And when you compare that to TikTok, the difference is day and night.

One thing TikTok has over most platforms at the moment is the 'For You' page — it's hyper-personalised, never-ending, and as a result, addictive.

So much so that even Twitter now suggests videos in the explore tab and has introduced an expanded video view so you can scroll for more videos.

The problem?

It's not personalised. You can go from watching Hasbulla laughing to a skilled farmer filling a truck with tomatoes. One minute you're watching a video about the devastating state of the New York City subway, next you have a video of Meghan 'with the good knees' doing the most.

These videos have nothing in common, so there's only one word for the current state of Twitter's immersive video experience — chaotic. But we'll see how far (and well) they go with it.

On the other hand, YouTube's personalisation has made me spend hours watching Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils because.

Here's another thing Vine didn't have.

Generating profits for B2C and/or DTC brands.

Triple Whale's state of DTC advertising in 2022 report shows more advertisers are throwing money at TikTok and this is because they offer ads at cheaper rates.

Of course, this won't continue being the case in 1-2 years as the platform matures. But for me, the biggest impact of TikTok ads has been the commercialisation of user-generated content (UGC).

For anyone who's been under a rock for the past year, UGC means:

But in big 2022, that's not the case anymore. It now means engineered content with well-structured narratives and video cuts. You'd think this was influencer marketing but we apparently have a way with words.

Here's where I'm at

So while TikTok is being paraded as the new Google, it'll be interesting to see how they navigate all the issues and controversies plaguing the platform (and parent company) at the moment.

#marketing