Benedict Townsend

So what kind of stuff was she doing in the Vine days to sort of help you out?

So what kind of stuff was she doing in the Vine days to sort of help you out?

Of course, the major sticking point was still monetization. Karen couldn't pay creators directly through Vine, but she found ways around it.

Of course, the major sticking point was still monetization. Karen couldn't pay creators directly through Vine, but she found ways around it.

Brendan McNerney is another former Viner who's a big fan of Karen. He describes her as, quote, the fairy godmother of Vine and says that her arrival signaled a clear moment of change in the app's relationship with its creators.

Brendan McNerney is another former Viner who's a big fan of Karen. He describes her as, quote, the fairy godmother of Vine and says that her arrival signaled a clear moment of change in the app's relationship with its creators.

It's so refreshing to hear someone be positive at this point in the story. I feel like we've had so much doom and gloom, especially from creators. I'm getting whiplash here hearing someone say, a Vine employee has made me happy. It feels like this strategy from Karen seems to be going well, at least from the creator's point of view, right? Perhaps this could be a bit of an upswing for Vine?

It's so refreshing to hear someone be positive at this point in the story. I feel like we've had so much doom and gloom, especially from creators. I'm getting whiplash here hearing someone say, a Vine employee has made me happy. It feels like this strategy from Karen seems to be going well, at least from the creator's point of view, right? Perhaps this could be a bit of an upswing for Vine?

Oh, here we go.

Oh, here we go.

Certainly Vine understood that this beast needed to evolve to keep up with the times. It's just that some of the ideas they had to do that seemed incredibly strange. Of course, it wasn't just Karen's new creative department that was making radical changes to try and turn the app's fortune around.

Certainly Vine understood that this beast needed to evolve to keep up with the times. It's just that some of the ideas they had to do that seemed incredibly strange. Of course, it wasn't just Karen's new creative department that was making radical changes to try and turn the app's fortune around.

Vine's iconically stripped-back interface, its revolutionary design choices, they've been groundbreaking back in 2013 when it launched. They gave Vine such a massive head start on mobile video, but in just two short years, it had become a very crowded space, and those features were no longer so original. In fact, they've been replicated and often improved upon.

Vine's iconically stripped-back interface, its revolutionary design choices, they've been groundbreaking back in 2013 when it launched. They gave Vine such a massive head start on mobile video, but in just two short years, it had become a very crowded space, and those features were no longer so original. In fact, they've been replicated and often improved upon.

By this point, we had video on Instagram and on Facebook and an insurgent new app called Snapchat. It'll never last. And a whole new style of ultra-quick posts called Stories. And on top of all of this, YouTube, the original online video giant, was courting creators like crazy, dangling its healthy ad-based monetization in front of them like a golden-crusted carrot.

By this point, we had video on Instagram and on Facebook and an insurgent new app called Snapchat. It'll never last. And a whole new style of ultra-quick posts called Stories. And on top of all of this, YouTube, the original online video giant, was courting creators like crazy, dangling its healthy ad-based monetization in front of them like a golden-crusted carrot.

Vine had to innovate or it was going to get left behind. And Rich Arnold was leading the major design overhauls. The first, and it actually feels painful to say this, was losing the six second limit.

Vine had to innovate or it was going to get left behind. And Rich Arnold was leading the major design overhauls. The first, and it actually feels painful to say this, was losing the six second limit.

The idea of extending the time limit was something that had already been discussed before. Creators were frequently complaining that their scope for innovation was limited by videos being so short. And perhaps more importantly for some, it also limited monetization opportunities. It's tricky to fit adverts into six seconds.

The idea of extending the time limit was something that had already been discussed before. Creators were frequently complaining that their scope for innovation was limited by videos being so short. And perhaps more importantly for some, it also limited monetization opportunities. It's tricky to fit adverts into six seconds.