Twitter, which has a global audience of more than 300 million people, is killing off its video sharing app Vine, as the social media giant faces a drop in both stock prices and users.
In a statement released by Vine, the company said that nothing would be happening to the app, website or users just yet, saying that they would notify everyone before any changes were made.
"We value you, your Vines, and are going to do this the right way. You'll be able to access and download your Vines," the statement said.
"We'll be keeping the website online because we think it's important to still be able to watch all the incredible Vines that have been made."
Stilgherrian, a freelance journalist and commentator who covers the politics of the internet, said while Vine was popular when it first launched in 2013, the high did not last long for the video platform.
"With its six second videos about 100 million people were using it a month, but recently that has dropped down, according to reports, to about 10 million," he said.
Some have speculated that the ending of Vine could be a sign of deeper problems for Twitter, and Stilgherrian said the company had been having problems.
"Over the last year their stock price has dropped something like 25 per cent, when many of the tech companies have continued their gentle rise," he said.
"Twitter has really disappointed some of its earlier investors because of that. It just hasn't seen the same rise in userships, say as Facebook.
"I think that's down to Twitter being a little more niche. Not everyone in the world needs to be connected second by second [to] what's happening.
"For us in the media sure, we love Twitter. People in marketing and advertising love Twitter as well."
Tributes flow online for short-lived platform
Part of what made Vine unique was that it would only allow users to upload six seconds of video, forcing them to be at times creative with their content.
But Stilgherrian said he never really understood the six second idea and found it to be "a bit of a gimmick".
"But I think it was fun, you could very quickly make those six second videos," he said.
But Vine did create its own popstars, with people like Canadian singer-songwriter Shawn Mendes, who was signed after his posts to the platform went viral.
While some Vines are of people singing and dancing, there are also embarrassing moments caught on phones, animals doing cute and whacky things, and even something as simple as a video of honking duck toys — which has around 190 million views.
Even the White House has a Vine account, which has featured both the President and the First Lady.
Tributes have been flowing online for the short lived 21st century creation.
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