Almost two months ago, Facebook attempted to rampage all over Twitter’s up-and-coming video app Vine by intruding on its niche market, and introducing a
Almost two months ago, Facebook attempted to rampage all over Twitter’s up-and-coming video app Vine by intruding on its niche market, and introducing a video feature on Instagram.
As of June 20, the release date of Vid-stagram, Instagram had 120 million active users. However, Facebook has been kept on its toes by Vine, which had become the top video-sharing app on the market less than two months after its release, the number one most downloaded free app in April, and even passed Instagram in total Twitter shares at the beginning of June, after Twitter released an Android version of Vine.
Instagram annihilated its pesky enemy
Facebook sat back and cheered at the beginning of July, as it did appear that once and for all, Instagram had annihilated its pesky enemy. According to Topsy, despite 2.5 million Vine links being shared on Twitter on June 19, the following day only 1.5 million were shared. Then on June 26, fewer than 900,000 Vine links were shared, which is a 70 percent drop from its figures before the release of Vid-stagram.
But it still hard to tell whether Instagram has really come out on top, considering Topsy wrote in a blog post that its free service only generates trend charts based on a sample of the most influential people and tweets. So, basically, it could all be absolute rubbish, because it may be that the most influential people on Twitter just wanted to try the new service and forgot about Vine for a couple of days.
Add to that the statistics of Vine being the number one most downloaded non-game app on iTunes in June, and that it rated sixth in overall gains made in the same month, and perhaps Vid-stagram was just a five-minute wonder.
It is difficult to compare the two apps, as of course, user numbers cannot be placed side-by-side. Vine is a baby next to Instagram. However, the same figures generated by Topsy also suggested that the flicker of activity surrounding Vid-stagram was only temporary, and calmed down a week or so after the release date of the feature.
The same story: Twitter vs. Facebook
As far as competition between the two is concerned, it simply boils down to the same old story: Twitter vs. Facebook, just disguised in a slightly different way. Similar to how Twitter will always be the front-runner with hashtags and Facebook will never be beaten with its “like” button, Instagram will always have photos as its main feature and Vine’s lead will be video.
This article suggests that the way to track the battle will be by keeping an eye on what app large brands are using. A study by New York University’s L2 indicates that 35 per cent of these brands use Vine regularly, and 26 per cent of brands are active on Vid-stagram.
Somehow though, I don’t think Vine will be fading out anytime soon. Vid-stagram allows for longer, 15-second clips, but Vine still sticks to the six-second rule. There’s something very addictive about trying to deliver a message, finish a story, or convey an idea in under six seconds.
Consider that Vinescope (Best of Vine) has reached over 9,500,000 likes on Facebook, and with its latest announcement that there are many exciting new features to come on the app, the Vine video-craze is almost certainly here to stay.
What do you think? Is there an app that will win the Instagram vs. Vine debate? Have your say in the comments section below, on Facebook or on Twitter.
