Twitter's video-sharing app Vine swelled from 13 million users to 40 million in two months, the company tweeted Tuesday. It's a very impressive number, especially considering Vine's face-off with new challenger Instagram video. But those 40 million users actually don't say much about Vine's success.
Vine reported the 13 million figure in early June, when the app was iOS-only. You can probably guess what happened then: Vine rolled out an Android app. As predicted, Vine's user base exploded.
Vine also didn't reveal how many of those 40 million users are active, which is a key metric pretty much every app uses to tout its success. Tens of millions of people have signed up, which is great, but how many of those people regularly post Vines? That's the number we want to know. (Side note: Instagram also took a while to start disclosing monthly actives instead of registered users.)
The Android effect
There's no denying that Vine is incredibly popular—in June, it climbed to the top of the iOS store's non-game apps, according to the App Annie Index. Instagram ranked at No. 5, but that could change when July's numbers are released—Instagram didn't add video until the end of June, and the 3-year-old app has a more established user base than the 8-month-old Vine. Instagram now has 130 million monthly active users.
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