If Twitter had the effect of truncating social network updates and making them more immediate, its new video application, Vine, is threatening to do the same for LOLcat videos and DR marketing messages. Twitter launched the iPhone/iPod-only app Jan. 24, 2013, enabling users to record videos of up to six seconds in length and share them with Twitter followers. Vine zoomed to No. 1 among free applications at Apple’s app store the following day. The buzz surrounding Vine has been slow to build, however, according to an AYTM Market Research survey of U.S. Internet users conducted a few days later; less than 2 percent of U.S. Internet users surveyed said they had signed up for a Vine account. Another 3.5 percent said they had viewed Vine videos online, and 8 percent said they had heard of the application.

Since it is closely linked with Twitter and almost all viewers of mobile video are sharers of mobile video, according to the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), the new service may produce unexpected mobile/social opportunities for marketers already pursuing television and YouTube campaigns. An out-of-the-gate issue with adult content notwithstanding, Vine’s length limitations may prove to be a challenge for marketers and consumers alike—IAB research says that the consumer sweet spot is for online videos of three to five minutes in length.