Twitter May Sell Vine For Cheap Instead Of Closing It Down

A few weeks ago, Twitter upset creators and fans of its six-second looping video service, Vine, by announcing its plans to close down the app. That may not be the case, though: there are reportedly some suitors that want to take Vine off Twitter’s hands for a low price and keep it alive.

TechCrunch reports that the outpouring of sadness and affection for Vine after the announcement drew the attention of some potential buyers.

After the shutdown was announced, the New York Times reported that Vine costs $10 million per month to run, and the rumored sale price for the service is only $10 million, meaning that it wouldn’t actually make money on the deal.

What it could do is keep the brand alive, and maybe keep users cross-posting their fresh Vines to Twitter, embedding them in Tweets, if the new owner kept the links to Twitter active.

One rumored suitor is Japanese messaging company Line, which at least has a conveniently similar name.

A sale could be a liability to Twitter if the new owner does something harmful or offensive with the site, or even if it shuts down the archive and severs the links to users’ favorite video loops.

You know, like this one.

Twitter still might save Vine by selling it [TechCrunch]

by Laura Northrup via Consumerist