Benedict Townsend

Narrative and creative by producer Kevya Cardoso, score and sound design by Patrick Lee, and mix by Chris James. Sophie Snelling is the executive producer, Al Riddell is head of factual podcasts, and Vicky Etchells is director of podcasts at Global. This is a Global Player Original Podcast.

Narrative and creative by producer Kevya Cardoso, score and sound design by Patrick Lee, and mix by Chris James. Sophie Snelling is the executive producer, Al Riddell is head of factual podcasts, and Vicky Etchells is director of podcasts at Global. This is a Global Player Original Podcast.

This is a Global Player original podcast. Last time on Vine, six seconds that changed the world. It's code red. To protect morale, the digital board displaying daily user stats that's up in Vine HQ had quietly been taken down. Vine is spiraling.

This is a Global Player original podcast. Last time on Vine, six seconds that changed the world. It's code red. To protect morale, the digital board displaying daily user stats that's up in Vine HQ had quietly been taken down. Vine is spiraling.

Of course, none of this is helped by Instagram's rival push into video, all three of the app's founders leaving in quick succession, growing discontent from Vine's top creators, a general disregard of the app by its own parent company, Twitter, who has, by the way, just undergone a brutal series of layoffs. But aside from all that, yeah, things are going great. Why do you ask?

Of course, none of this is helped by Instagram's rival push into video, all three of the app's founders leaving in quick succession, growing discontent from Vine's top creators, a general disregard of the app by its own parent company, Twitter, who has, by the way, just undergone a brutal series of layoffs. But aside from all that, yeah, things are going great. Why do you ask?

Let's discuss this dilemma, right? Because the 1600 Viners are now completely dominating the platform. And is that necessarily a problem? Because they're attracting huge numbers of viewers, huge numbers of loops, as they said on Vine. And on the surface, at least, you would go, OK, well, happy Vine users equals happy Vine, right? But not really, right?

Let's discuss this dilemma, right? Because the 1600 Viners are now completely dominating the platform. And is that necessarily a problem? Because they're attracting huge numbers of viewers, huge numbers of loops, as they said on Vine. And on the surface, at least, you would go, OK, well, happy Vine users equals happy Vine, right? But not really, right?

They were kind of load bearing, weren't they? It was like, we don't like this incredibly popular section of the app. It's like when a doctor's like, we have to leave the bullet in or it will do more damage.

They were kind of load bearing, weren't they? It was like, we don't like this incredibly popular section of the app. It's like when a doctor's like, we have to leave the bullet in or it will do more damage.

How can you fix the platform if removing this group will kill the platform?

How can you fix the platform if removing this group will kill the platform?

They have all the views, but mainly because they've got these revine-for-revine systems... You've got great strategy. You know, these are very successful people in their own right. I don't want to put them down too much, but they have strategized their way to the top.

They have all the views, but mainly because they've got these revine-for-revine systems... You've got great strategy. You know, these are very successful people in their own right. I don't want to put them down too much, but they have strategized their way to the top.

Karen instantly recognized something that had been long overlooked at Vine HQ. Just because content from top creators was characteristically immature, that didn't mean they shouldn't be taken seriously.

Karen instantly recognized something that had been long overlooked at Vine HQ. Just because content from top creators was characteristically immature, that didn't mean they shouldn't be taken seriously.

While viners were taking their work very seriously, the app itself seemed, by contrast, to be basically just a bit of a mess.

While viners were taking their work very seriously, the app itself seemed, by contrast, to be basically just a bit of a mess.

So Karen set to work trying to change things, unfortunately carrying the weighty baggage of years of neglect and dissatisfaction.

So Karen set to work trying to change things, unfortunately carrying the weighty baggage of years of neglect and dissatisfaction.