Twitter to shut down Vine and cut staff

Twitter is cutting about 9 per cent of its employees worldwide. It is also shutting down Vine, a mobile video app where people share short video clips that play in a loop.

Vine, which launched in 2013, never made it to the masses like Instagram or Snapchat. The company struggled a lot till failed to monetize the platform or sell it due to the tough competition from rivals Facebook, Instagram and recently Snapchat.

Shares of Twitter, which have dropped 27 per cent in the past month as possible acquiring deals have wandered away, rose to $17.63 in afternoon trading on Thursday.