The six-second video sharing app Vine took the iOS by storm and now that it has been launched for Android, it has skyrocketed to stardom. The app, roughly a week after its launch, snatched the top spot on Google Play for social media apps from the photo-sharing app Instagram.
For people who might not know, Vine was released by Twitter in January for the iPhone. It works like Instagram but instead of pictures it allows users to take short looping videos.
Twitter released the Vine for Android on June 3 and the app has since climbed to the number four spot as the most sought for free app while Instagram remains on number five.
As of June 11, the analytics data from Topsy show that Twitter reported 2.24 million links leading to Vine while Instagram registered 2.03 million links.
The charts also show the steady climb of Vine since May and a big spike of links to Vine when the video-sharing app was rolled out for Android devices on June 3.
SocialCam and other video-sharing apps are struggling to keep up with the growing popularity of Vine as the latter is twice as popular.
According to Kate Knibbs of Digital Trends, it is but natural to see Vine videos flourishing on Twitter, its mother company. "And while this is definitely a good sign for Vine, since it clearly shows that the photo-looping app is gaining traction, it doesn't mean that Instagram's popularity is waning - and it doesn't mean that Vine is more popular," explained Knibbs.
Jordan Crook of TechCrunch also reported on the noticeable gain of Vine in the social media apps niche. "This could have something to do with the fact that Instagram pulled Twitter Card integration to direct more traffic to Instagram.com, but I'm not convinced that that's a conscious thought running through the minds of Instagrammers as they're deciding where to share," analyzed Crook.
Vine has about 13 million users on the iOS and will most likely beef up the numbers in no time as Android users get into the video-sharing frenzy. While Vine and Instagram battle for the top position, there are reports that Chad Hurley and Steven Chen of YouTube are planning to roll out a video sharing app this year.
