Do you remember the app Vine? Many do, but unfortunately the massive application shut down after Twitter purchased the company. After Vine was completely removed from the app store, many of the larger influencers of the platform relocated to other social media powerhouses, including Youtube, Instagram, Snapchat, and Tik Tok. These influencers were the driving force in the massive success of Vine.

Now, less than two years after his first creation, the co-creator of Vine, Dom Hofmann, is developing a new version of his previous, beloved video-looping app developed back in 2013. His new invention is called Byte, and it will be available to the public by the Spring of 2019. Freshman David Adams states that “now old Vine users have already moved over to places like YouTube. Byte will fail to find success because other platforms are far too large to re-enter the market.” Hofmann’s Vine 2, Byte, is the successor to Vine and in turn, it follows the same algorithm as well. The entire premise for the new app is to allow users to create short, looping videos for entertainment purposes.

Some may ask why Hofmann would replicate an app that had previously been put out after being bought. First of all, Twitter bought Vine for only $30 million back in 2012, a miniscule amount for such a popular app. In fact, junior Nihal Sathi stated, “I am pretty sure everyone I knew used Vine at some point. It was extremely popular at school.” Since Vine had such immense popularity, it continued to run for four years after it was purchased, but was eventually shut down because it failed to produce enough revenue.

Now, there are plenty of ways to generate cash with an app, and an app of similar magnitude to Vine would be of far more value today, where social media platforms rule modern cellular use. Senior Gage Howard thinks, “Byte could fill a needed spot in the market now that Vine is gone. Old Vine users could also find sentimental value in Byte.” However, some people think that since Byte is so similar to Vine, the app will be a failure in the current market. Sophomore Charlotte Wilken believes that “Vine, and a new app like it, would just be old news. It died with the times.” Nobody truly has the answer to whether Byte will be a hit or not, but given that it is so similar to Vine it has the potential to fill a gap in the social media market.