[h=3]By EVELYN M. RUSLI And SHIRA OVIDE[/h]When Twitter Inc. acquired the video-sharing app Vine in October, it was largely viewed as a consolation prize after the company missed out on photo-sharing app Instagram, which was snapped up by rival Facebook Inc. earlier last year.
But now, Facebook is trying to catch up to Twitter.
At an event on Thursday, Facebook is expected to unveil pieces of its own Vine-like video service, under development for months, that would allow users to create and share brief video clips, people familiar with the matter said.
The latest contest between Twitter and Facebook shows just how hard it is for even these relatively nimble young companies to stay ahead of the curve.
At stake is more than just Facebook's credibility with tech-savvy trend setters, but rather a growing form of advertising that both rivals want to dominate: The video-ad market is expected to grow 41% to top $4 billion this year, according to eMarketer Inc.
It isn't clear exactly how Facebook's new service will work.
AllThingsD, which is owned by The Wall Street Journal's parent company, and TechCrunch earlier reported details of Thursday's expected Facebook announcement.
The Vine app, which debuted in January, is limited to short bursts of video. A user can capture six seconds of continuous footage, or put together disjointed frames with a stop-start recording tool.
Although the app seemed like a novelty at first, it has taken off in recent months, driven by celebrities and teens who use it to curate slices of their lives. "The idea of Vine, and what has made it so attractive, is that it is really short, snackable video content that works on mobile," said eMarketer analyst Debra Williamson.
According to Twitter, Vine now has more than 13 million users. That is just a fraction of Instagram's more than 100 million members. But Vine is rapidly grabbing the attention of brands and other influential users, especially retailers and fashion houses, that are trying to create new visual ads for smartphones. Michael Litman a social strategist at ad agency AnalogFolk says he has identified 50,000 brands using the service. This week, for instance, Burberry Group PLC created a Vine video of its entire London menswear fashion show.
A few months ago, TBWA\Chiat\Day, an ad agency owned by Omnicom Group Inc., created a Vine video for auto maker Nissan Motor Co. that was inspired by another Vine created by teens spoofing a Nissan TV ad. Nissan's Vine account playfully noted, "Maybe we only needed 6 secs of airtime."
Vine allowed the company to show "we're not just a company, we're human," said Tito Melegna, a TBWA creative director. He said the auto maker now is running a special Vine contest, asking users to make clips for its Versa Note. The top three Vines will be converted into a TV ad.
The Vine messages show how advertisers are tapping into new consumer habits by looking beyond traditional video ads, such as the short clips that air before YouTube clips. More people, they say, are gravitating to shorter videos and constantly dividing their attention between apps and other distractions on the Web and mobile devices.
Despite its potential, Vine has yet to generate much money for Twitter. The app itself is free and only a few brands, such as Samsung Electronics Co., have paid to promote their Vines on the microblogging site.
Facebook ad executives have been working hard to better embrace video more broadly. For the past several months, they have been pitching video ads to Madison Avenue that run on users' homepage news feeds.
Several big advertisers have signed on, according to people familiar with the matter, but the rollout of that ad product has been delayed until the fall, said a person familiar with the matter.
Michael Sippey, the executive in charge of Twitter's product features, wouldn't answer questions about potential competition from Facebook or other companies. "We're just focused on what we're doing," he said. He declined to speculate on how profitable Vine might become.
Others Twitter executives, however, are working to make Vine a money maker. Last week, some of these executives dropped by the Los Angeles offices of Deutsch Inc., a unit of Interpublic Group of Cos., to pitch the advertising agency on its new ad products. The group highlighted Vine, showing examples of popular Vines and reviewing best practices.
Winston Birch, the ad agency's chief digital officer, said that at the end of the meeting he shot an e-mail to 450 colleagues that read: "If you haven't used Vine, please download it now"
—Suzanne Vranica contributed to this article.Write to Evelyn M. Rusli at [email protected] and Shira Ovide at [email protected]
But now, Facebook is trying to catch up to Twitter.
At an event on Thursday, Facebook is expected to unveil pieces of its own Vine-like video service, under development for months, that would allow users to create and share brief video clips, people familiar with the matter said.
The latest contest between Twitter and Facebook shows just how hard it is for even these relatively nimble young companies to stay ahead of the curve.
At stake is more than just Facebook's credibility with tech-savvy trend setters, but rather a growing form of advertising that both rivals want to dominate: The video-ad market is expected to grow 41% to top $4 billion this year, according to eMarketer Inc.
It isn't clear exactly how Facebook's new service will work.
AllThingsD, which is owned by The Wall Street Journal's parent company, and TechCrunch earlier reported details of Thursday's expected Facebook announcement.
The Vine app, which debuted in January, is limited to short bursts of video. A user can capture six seconds of continuous footage, or put together disjointed frames with a stop-start recording tool.
Although the app seemed like a novelty at first, it has taken off in recent months, driven by celebrities and teens who use it to curate slices of their lives. "The idea of Vine, and what has made it so attractive, is that it is really short, snackable video content that works on mobile," said eMarketer analyst Debra Williamson.
According to Twitter, Vine now has more than 13 million users. That is just a fraction of Instagram's more than 100 million members. But Vine is rapidly grabbing the attention of brands and other influential users, especially retailers and fashion houses, that are trying to create new visual ads for smartphones. Michael Litman a social strategist at ad agency AnalogFolk says he has identified 50,000 brands using the service. This week, for instance, Burberry Group PLC created a Vine video of its entire London menswear fashion show.
A few months ago, TBWA\Chiat\Day, an ad agency owned by Omnicom Group Inc., created a Vine video for auto maker Nissan Motor Co. that was inspired by another Vine created by teens spoofing a Nissan TV ad. Nissan's Vine account playfully noted, "Maybe we only needed 6 secs of airtime."
Vine allowed the company to show "we're not just a company, we're human," said Tito Melegna, a TBWA creative director. He said the auto maker now is running a special Vine contest, asking users to make clips for its Versa Note. The top three Vines will be converted into a TV ad.
The Vine messages show how advertisers are tapping into new consumer habits by looking beyond traditional video ads, such as the short clips that air before YouTube clips. More people, they say, are gravitating to shorter videos and constantly dividing their attention between apps and other distractions on the Web and mobile devices.
Despite its potential, Vine has yet to generate much money for Twitter. The app itself is free and only a few brands, such as Samsung Electronics Co., have paid to promote their Vines on the microblogging site.
Facebook ad executives have been working hard to better embrace video more broadly. For the past several months, they have been pitching video ads to Madison Avenue that run on users' homepage news feeds.
Several big advertisers have signed on, according to people familiar with the matter, but the rollout of that ad product has been delayed until the fall, said a person familiar with the matter.
Michael Sippey, the executive in charge of Twitter's product features, wouldn't answer questions about potential competition from Facebook or other companies. "We're just focused on what we're doing," he said. He declined to speculate on how profitable Vine might become.
Others Twitter executives, however, are working to make Vine a money maker. Last week, some of these executives dropped by the Los Angeles offices of Deutsch Inc., a unit of Interpublic Group of Cos., to pitch the advertising agency on its new ad products. The group highlighted Vine, showing examples of popular Vines and reviewing best practices.
Winston Birch, the ad agency's chief digital officer, said that at the end of the meeting he shot an e-mail to 450 colleagues that read: "If you haven't used Vine, please download it now"
—Suzanne Vranica contributed to this article.Write to Evelyn M. Rusli at [email protected] and Shira Ovide at [email protected]