Facebook is the social giant which has all the features imaginable. On the opposing side, there is the smaller and simplified social media that is more straightforward.
Twitter is one of them, for example. Snapchat is another one, and so is Instagram. And let's not forget, Vine was there too.
Twitter initially purchased Vine in 2012, before its official launch. And after Twitter killed Vine, the no-gimmick video-sharing social media sphere was left in a void.
Despite short-lived, Vine was a hugely popular platform for video creators, the source of memes and a place for creative minds to showcase their works.
But since many of them have since moved on to Instagram, Twitch, and YouTube, in Vine’s place, TikTok, from a Chinese company quickly took off.
It appeals the crowd so much that the service is becoming one of the fastest growing app the world has ever encountered.
our new looping video app is called byte. launching spring 2019 pic.twitter.com/C3FMvkcIwc
— dom hofmann (@dhof) November 8, 2018
When Dom Hofmann, best known for being one of the co-founders of Vine, saw the end of Vine, he didn't see it as the end of an era.
This is why he reimagined the app, scrapped that name, and then calls the Vine successor as 'Byte'.
What it does, is allowing users to record or upload short, looped vertical videos to a reverse-chronological feed.
Byte has been launched as a closed beta to its first 100 invites. But with the aim to compete with TikTok, Byte is facing an long uphill battle, given by TikTok's massive popularity.
Here, Hofmann that launched the app “without a plan” to the beta community is for a reason: he believes that it can prove the app is compelling even before lots of creative and funny video makers join.
in his words, this is the way to garner interest in a Vine successor. And here, the project received an outpouring of support from Vine fans who’ve bemoaned the death of the app.
Hofmann said that his top priority is doing right by creators so they’ll be lined up to give Byte a try when it officially launches.
the byte beta we’ve been running with friends and family *feels* exactly like the vine friends and family beta, down to the weird but appealing randomness of the videos. that’ll change as we expand, but it’s a pretty good sign pic.twitter.com/rBbQrNtTJ7
— dom hofmann (@dhof) April 22, 2019
During the closed beta, Hofmann and his seven-person team add and subtract features to see what works and what's not necessary.
Initially, Byte only has a camera recordings feature with no uploads, and only has one feed with Likes and comments without account following functionality.
Hofmann is aware that TikTok's epic rise has changed the landscape into something that Vine has never experienced.
Hoffman that admits he’s a big fan of TikTok, sees it as one evolutionary step past Vine.
He acknowledges that Byte can never compete with TikTok in its own game. Reassuring himself that Byte can't win against TikTok with the exact same playbook, he wants Byte to bring something entirely unique to the table.
This is why Hoffman wants Byte that was formally dubbed as 'V2', to be unlike Vine, and won't be like the cringe-worthy lip-sync place TikTok is known for.