

Ask HN: What is the story behind Vine - alimoeeny

Really curious to know, how Vine is getting so much attention, the app does look unpolished, they don't seem to have lots of active users, and event not a web site (just a few pages) or android app yet, I understand the idea is cool, but if I wanted to replicate their success I need to know their secret sause.
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gyardley
Vine is getting attention in part because it was acquired by Twitter, and is
Twitter's move in the video space.

However, Vine _got_ acquired by Twitter because it took something that was
rather complicated - editing short video - and made it really easy through the
use of constraints and simplification. (They were also well connected enough
to get an early version in front of Jack Dorsey, and he got excited enough
about it to persuade Twitter to buy them immediately.)

If you want to replicate their success, you could start by finding something
that people would like to do but is currently too hard, and then by stripping
enough things away from it to make it really simple and intuitive. Sounds
easier than it is, though.

~~~
will_brown
>They were also well connected enough to get an early version in front of Jack
Dorsey

I wrote a post about this phenomenon here:
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5049409>. I call it the "magical
introduction" in my post, I quote:

"....all the media exposure and growth opportunities that naturally follow all
as a result of a magical 'introduction.'"

Sadly, "magical introductions" often get in the way of the best products
rising to the top, or even having a fair shot to begin in a lot of cases. Vine
is a perfect example where a product was acquired by Twitter before even
launching, but as a result when Vine launches it is instantly dubbed the
"Instagram of Video" in every news outlet. See the Google News search result
for Instagram of Video.

[https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&gl=us&tbm=nws...](https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&gl=us&tbm=nws&q=instagram+of+video&oq=instagram+of+video&gs_l=news-
cc.3..43j43i400.1854.5523.0.5750.18.7.0.11.11.0.142.752.2j5.7.0...0.0...1ac.1.sBGgFOHeo8o)

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unreal37
Vine has exploded in my Facebook and Twitter feeds over the past 4 days. Seems
everyone is "trying it". Whether or not that will translate into real
traction, it's hard to say.

But I don't think "they don't seem to have lots of active users" is true.

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onlyup
6 second vidoes? Big meh from me but it will be interesting to see how it
plays out.

~~~
arn
6 seconds is definitely a feature, imo.

Think of them as Harry-Potter-esque animated photos, not videos.

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stevo_perisic
Placing porn at the very top! :)

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smalter
Vine was created by Twitter.

That should answer all of your questions.

~~~
alimoeeny
created or acquired ?

