Bad news for Vine fans. A potential revival of the 6-second video-sharing platform has been put on hold.
"I've made the very difficult decision of postponing the V2 project for an indefinite amount of time," wrote Vine co-founder Dom Hofmann on Friday.
Hofmann originally teased that he was building a new iteration of Vine last December, simply called "V2." But today he explained that "financial and legal" hurdles were preventing the project from getting off the ground.
"When I announced that I was working on a follow-up to Vine, I also (perhaps foolishly) announced that it would be a personal project and personally funded," he wrote. "I underestimated the amount of enthusiasm and attention the announcement would generate."
As a result, Hofmann estimates that the cost of V2 would be "way beyond" what he can personally fund. He also blamed "overwhelming" legal fees for hamstringing the project, without elaborating.
"Long story short, in order to work, the V2 project needs to operate as a company with sizable external funding, probably from investors," Hofmann said. Unfortunately, the Vine co-founder is already pre-occupied running a separate startup, and doesn't want to split his attention between the two projects.
"I'm very, very sorry for the disappointment," he added. "If it's any consolation, I think it would have been even more disappointing if this service had been developed and released incorrectly, which is where we were headed."
Vine was effectively shut down in 2016 by its parent Twitter, which struggled to generate substantial revenue from the platform, despite its early popularity. Vine let people upload 6-second, looping video clips, and creative users produced many hilarious and amusing short clips.
Naturally, some Vine fans are crushed by Hofmann's post. But the good news is that he's holding on to the computer code and ideas for V2. Media coverage about the project's indefinite delay may also drum up some investor support. In the meantime, Hofmann is encouraging users to try other video-related apps.