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Two Years Later, Where Is The Viner Invasion?
Mason Sands
Social Media & Digital Entertainment
Creative / Feature: Twitter Vine iPhone mobile app icon. (Photo by Hoch Zwei/Corbis via Getty... [+] Images)
In January 2017, Vine shut down. In its roughly five years, it had garnered millions of active users, aided in the discovery of Shawn Mendes, cemented itself into pop culture, and attracted a strong pool of talented creators with large followings. Vine's shutdown forced these creators to migrate to other platforms. Many Viners like Lele Pons, Jake Paul, Logan Paul, and Rudy Mancuso decided to move to YouTube, bringing their loyal fan bases with them, but their Vine content and style wasn't without controversy. They were lambasted by the YouTube community not only for their videos questionable comedic value, but their behavior as YouTube creators. The Paul Brothers, in particular, are notorious for creating drama, from assault accusations to convention riots.
Despite being excluded by YouTube creators, these former Vine stars gained a rapidly expanding fanbase on the platform, prompting fears of a "Viner Invasion" a year after Vine's extinction. Game theorist, Matthew Patrick, argued that the arrival of the Viners heralded the advent of a new generation of YouTubers. Yet two years from that date, and it appears like the Viner craze was just that, a craze. The Vine star channels are fading from the spotlight of YouTube as their viewer and subscriber growth plateau and more traditional YouTube content takes center-stage. Despite Jake Paul's 2017 predictions in "It's Everyday Bro," his 17-million subscriber channel is unlikely to surpass Pewdiepie's 80-million strong following. Despite not being conquerors on YouTube, Viners have been successful at changing its culture, particularly branding and monetization on YouTube, which is their most lasting contribution to the platform in 2019.
The biggest Viner channels owe part of their success to being on the right site at the right time. The loyalty of their fans after the end of Vine increased their visibility on YouTube. Their new YouTube channels were subscribed to by millions of their Vine followers, and, because these subscribers were new and active, they were notified about every new video that these creators posted. Thus, Viner channels had far more views than similarly sized channels that had a greater mix of new and old subscribers. They immediately hit YouTube rolling, but this starting momentum slowed as these channels became older. More of their subscribers ran the risk of being inactive. Suddenly, scandals became more serious when it came to maintaining subscriber engagement, and the same type of content stereotypical of a Viner no longer had an appeal. Throughout 2018, total monthly views and subscriptions fell or leveled off for the top former Viners.
In response, Viners became better behaved and worked on improving their content. The Paul Brother took 2018 to improve their image, with Logan still making and amends and rebuilding his channel after his "suicide forest" video and Jake's image benefiting from Shane Dawson's documentary which was unexpectedly positive about the problematic YouTuber. Rudy Mancuso and Lele Pons both improved the quality of their YouTube content, finally moving away from the short-form Vine model of comedy that didn't work on longer-form YouTube, and developed themselves outside of YouTube as singers. Pons dropped her debut song, Dicen, in May 2018. Yet, while Mancuso and Pons have popular channels, the Viner channels that are growing are from Viners who diverged greatly from their Vine content. Viner-turned-YouTuber Cody Ko's channel does YouTube and Instagram commentary, often criticizing fellow former Viners, and performs Lonely Island-esque comedy as a member of the Tiny Meat Gang with his friend Noel Miller. Danny Gonzalez uploads similar commentary videos that have attracted a loyal fanbase outside his original Vine following. Instead of dominating the platform, Viners have integrated into YouTube, finding their different audiences.
Viners have been able to influence the YouTube community as settlers, not conquerors, and in no area is this more evident than branding. Patrick describes the new generation of YouTubers, Generation IV, as the first generation that saw YouTube as a place to start a personal brand and make money. This description of Generation IV is consistent with the enterprising behavior of Viners while Vine was still active. Within a short space of time, the platform's creators managed to monetize and get sponsorships for a video platform that only showed 6-second videos. When Vine was suffering from user engagement, 18 of the top 50 Vine creators banded together to collectively request, among other things, $1.2 million each from the company in exchange for consistent video uploads and not leaving the platform to pursue other opportunities.
When Vine shut down, Viners brought this entrepreneurial spirit to YouTube, and it couldn't have come at a better time. The site was undergoing boycotts by major marketers, which decreased revenue that creators made from YouTube. As a result, YouTubers became less reliant on ad revenue and shifted to alternative sources of revenue. It was Viners who made merchandising a popular source of revenue, blatantly advertising their "merch" in videos. YouTubers had experimented with selling their merchandise earlier, but there wasn't much success, and marketing of merchandise was done subtly, the link was usually in the bio. However, former Vine stars were the first to structure entire videos and ad space around advertising their own merchandise. Although this was a small change, it quickly spread throughout YouTube to the point where selling merchandise, instead of being socially sanctioned, is actively encouraged.
The influx of Vine stars in 2017 in no way has led to the domination of these celebrities in 2019. YouTube has moved on from Jake and Logan Paul, and while stars like Lele Pons and Rudy Mancuso continue to cater to a large audience, their growth is limited. In terms of content, Vine stars have diversified just as much as the average YouTuber. Yet, unlike previous YouTube generations, Vine stars had detailed knowledge of how video platforms could be used to make money. Their exploitation of monetization and revenue systems was emulated by other YouTubers and has been their most lasting impact on the site. The invaders have turned settlers, and, slowly, Viners and YouTubers have started to accept one another and blur together. Like the namesake of their original platform, Viners have adapted to and supported their newfound environment.