Is there house for an additional short-form video app?

Lengthy earlier than we had TikTok, Reels, or Shorts, we had Vine. An app arguably nicely earlier than its time, the unique short-form platform for 6-second video clips was an enormous second for millennial tradition. Compilations of archived content material nonetheless rack up hundreds of thousands of views on YouTube, indicating its longevity, maybe accentuated by its brevity.

In 2012, Jack Dorsey’s Twitter purchased Vine, then little greater than a promising concept. The app took off in 2013, quickly climbing up the app retailer ranks. Nonetheless, three quick years later, the app was shuttered in levels, in the end closing down in 2017. Consequently, its legacy sits nostalgically in a second in time: short-form video lengthy earlier than it turned the staple of platforms that it’s immediately, characterised by chaotic early social video antics and 2010s haircuts.

Nostalgia no extra, although. Dorsey’s non-profit “and Different Stuff” has introduced the app’s revival (back-catalogue included), beneath the brand new identify diVine.

A daring option to (re)enter a saturated market

Customers are drowning in social video, spending a mean of seven.3 hours per week on it (11.7 for 20-24-year-olds), in accordance with MIDiA’s shopper survey. Social video is on just about each social app in the marketplace, with TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram – three of the most important platforms by weekly lively use penetration – placing it front-and-centre. So how does diVine compete? And why now?

On the coronary heart of the diVine revival is the AI dilemma. Person-generated content material introduced social video to the fore, however platforms at the moment are flooded with AI-generated ‘slop’, the manufacturing of which outpaces the human-made stuff exponentially. OpenAI’s Sora platform leans into the AI flood, permitting customers to have interaction on the again of their AI creations. In the meantime, Instagram asks customers to flag AI-generated content material (though to restricted efficacy). TikTok and Snap have lengthy provided AI-esque filters, blurring the strains altogether.

diVine is providing the “licensed natural” different: a platform the place AI content material is flagged and brought down. All genuine human content material, on a regular basis.

The hope is that this, mixed with the nostalgia issue, will make diVine a compelling different (or no less than addition to) the opposite social video platforms. Nonetheless, this isn’t the primary time Dorsey has tried to compete within the saturated social market. The launch of Bluesky, meant to seize customers dissatisfied with Elon Musk’s dealing with of X, initially appeared promising with excessive person progress. Nonetheless, long-term it appears to have been hit closely by the social fragmentation impact, with solely 3% weekly lively person penetration as of Q3 2025.

Furthermore, it appears that evidently whereas creators could complain, customers don’t thoughts AI that a lot, with the prevailing sentiment in the direction of AI being apathy. In spite of everything, social media is now principally about leisure anyway, with that being the most important cause customers flip to platforms*.

The true USP

AI has an issue: it always wants new information for fashions to replace and enhance. As UGC platforms flood with AI content material, making them dangerous to coach from, and extra skilled platforms shut their gates to guard their IP, new information wants to come back from someplace. Artificial information isn’t actually ‘there’ but. The actually helpful factor a couple of platform stuffed with all-human-made content material, sourced by hundreds of thousands of customers on daily basis, is a clear dataset.

Within the phrases of Evan Henshaw-Plath (AKA Rabble), who’s heading up the undertaking, diVine is his “try to battle again in opposition to the enshittification [of social]” (through Enterprise Insider). However this wouldn’t rule out benefitting AI on the flip aspect, particularly on condition that “and Different Stuff” reportedly has an AI division. At current, diVine is a non-profit, however there’s cash on the desk there to be made, which makes it extra doubtless than not somebody will begin making it eventually. If nothing else, AI firms have proven few qualms about scraping content material to make use of for coaching, with or with out permission.

As a ‘zillennial’, I used to be simply sufficiently old to find out about Vine, however not sufficiently old to be on it. To be clear, I’m totally within the camp of nostalgically wanting that second likelihood for our piece of tradition that, on the time, felt prefer it was prematurely culled for monetary acquire.

However the larger the hype, the much less doubtless good outcomes grow to be. From Woodstock ’99 to Fyre Competition, banking an excessive amount of on advertising clout and imprecise nostalgia is as more likely to backfire as anything. With luck, diVine will tackle new life, and grow to be its personal area of interest factor (sort of like Bluesky). Nonetheless, it’s coming into a totally saturated social market with a novelty USP that mainstream customers doubtless gained’t discover rather more compelling than every other app obtainable to them. Preliminary use will doubtless surge as customers obtain it for the hype, nevertheless it’s the long-term return ‘stickiness’ of the platform after {the catalogue} has been exhausted and the brand new content material tradition establishes itself that issues.

*To be taught extra about how and why customers select completely different social platforms, maintain a lookout for our subsequent report, Cross-platform success: Utilizing social platforms to construct viewers and fandom.