Forget 15 minutes of fame on the Internet–six seconds will do.
That’s the maximum length of a video on Vine, the social media
app that lets users capture and share looping short films–and is spawning an
entire crop of celebrity names unlikely to ring a bell with anyone over 18.
There’s high school friends, Jack Gilinsky and Jack Johnson of
Vine duo “Jack and Jack.” In a fit of boredom a year ago, the two posted a clip
called “Nerd Style Vandalism.” They dressed up in thick rimmed glasses and
buttoned up shirts, and on Gilinsky’s family SUV wrote “= 16” after the car’s
“4X4” logo.
Now, they have 3 million followers on Vine. They’ve called off
plans for college this fall, and armed with a hit single on iTunes, the two
began an 18-city concert tour this past weekend that’s sold more than 100,000
tickets.
Their die-hard fans: tweens and teens that are more likely to
get their cues from Vine and YouTube than what is on primetime TV. Youth
between the ages of 12 and 17 watch fewer hours of traditional television than
any other age group; and the figure has declined 7 percent in the last five
years, from 104 to 96 hours per month, according to a Nielsen report from the
first quarter of this year.
At the same time, more than 75 percent are on Facebook and 25
percent on Instagram, according to the Pew Internet & American Life
Project.
Analysts and some industry executive say that between Vine,
YouTube and videos on Instagram, the under-18 crowd’s viewing habits portend a
radical shift for television and traditional models like the cable bundle,
which is already under threat from the Internet.
“Children are predictors of the future and after they spend
years forming habits, they don’t miraculously change habits just become they
become older,” said David Pakman,
an investor at Venrock, a venture capital firm that has invested in social
media companies.
Teens said they identify more with YouTube celebrities such as
comedians Ryan Higa and Smosh, a “Saturday Night Live”-style singing, rapping
duo, more than Hollywood A-listers Jennifer Lawrence and Seth Rogen, according
to a July poll commissioned by Variety Magazine.
And like YouTube, Vine, which is owned by Twitter and has 40
million registered users, is producing celebrities who are getting
increasingly picked up by mainstream media.
Vine, which is based in New York, was founded by Dom Hofmann,
Colin Kroll and Rus Yusupov in June 2012. Hofmann, who left the company late
last year, told Wired that at first they tried different time limits for
Vine videos, ranging from five seconds to ten seconds. Then they added a loop
to make things more interesting. Four months after the company was founded, it
was acquired by Twitter–before the product had even officially launched.
Vine quickly caught on–and not just with
teens. The app has also been used to show the recent protests in
Ferguson, Mo. And companies such as Dunkin Donuts have capitalized on the
format for their ad campaigns.
It’s not clear if Vine makes any money. Twitter, which went
public last year, does not break out viewers or business metrics for Vine in
its public filings. There are no ads on Vine, and Twitter won’t comment on how
it plans to make money with the app.
“We’re solely focused on users and providing the best possible
experience,” said Carolyn Penner, a spokesperson at Twitter.
Vine has rated the app for users 17 and older, but many users are
far below the suggested age restriction. The company won’t disclose the ages of
its users. But its popularity is particularly fueled by tweens and teens,
Internet investors and analysts say. Young mobile phone users are flocking to
apps that help them discover new personalities; music and fashion shared by
their peers and not handed down through glossy marketing campaigns.
Vine can feel like the highlights reel from MTV’s JackAss, “What
Not to Wear” and an open mike at the county fair. The six-second limit for
clips forces video creators to tell a story, joke as efficiently as possible.
And it differs from YouTube and Twitter, which are still the
preferred platforms for big celebrities such as Kim Kardashian and Justin
Timberlake. When tweens get their first smartphones — and a majority of middle
schoolers now owns one of the devices — they are still most influenced by peers
and are relatively new to the celebrities showcased on Jimmy Fallon’s Tonight
Show or in Hollywood blockbusters.
It’s too soon to forecast the end of Hollywood–after all, the
Bieber phase spawned by YouTube passed in a flash. But as with Bieber, the new
stars of the social networking apps are attracting entertainment industry
opportunists, including record labels, talent agents and advertising executives
eager to capitalize on the latest craze.
For Vine’s stars, Bieber is the model for success. Despite a
recent run of controversy and bad publicity, in 2013 he made about $80 million
in ticket sales, merchandise and all the other opportunities that come with
stardom, according to Forbes.
Bieber has also fueled an industry of Vine talent managers and
agents hoping to discover the next social media star.
When Jeffrey Eli Miller uploaded a cover of Beyonce’s “XO”,
Vine’s editors found the clip and promoted it on their home page. The clip
quickly got 600,000 likes and revines. Soon, talent scouts reached out online
and Miller set up a business Gmail account that his parents carefully vet for
unscrupulous offers.
It’s made for a surreal summer for the soon-to-be eighth grader.
Miller, with a sweet tenor voice, gets embarrassed when he’s compared to
Bieber.
“I don’t know what to say about that. I’m Jeffrey,” he says,
laughing.
He’s was shocked to see thousands of screaming fans — some with
signs with his name — and the recent “meetup” for Vine stars in San Diego.
Jeffrey wants to do “this” — the quest to become a social
media-to-mainstream crossover star — “for a living,” said his mother, Cynthia
Miller.
Meanwhile, DigiTour Media’s Rojas is already looking at new
platforms. There’s Instagram — the photo-sharing site that’s particularly
popular among young girls — as well as Snapchat, a social media app where
photos disappear seconds after being viewed.
Are disappearing social media stars the next step? It may defy
logic, but Rojas think it has a chance.
“I have my eye on SnapChat,” said Rojas. “It will do interesting
things.”
By Cecilia Kang
Washington Post
