From Seth Fiegerman writing at CNN Money:

Twitter’s failure with Vine mirrors the broader struggles with Twitter itself. Despite being beloved by a loyal community of millions, Vine suffered from Twitter’s muddled product vision, inability to keep up with competitors and an unclear path to mainstream success.

Perhaps Twitter could still have justified keeping the service around if not for the incredible pressure it now faces to cut costs wherever possible and show signs of a turnaround as an independent company — assuming it’s not getting acquired anytime soon.

When Twitter bought Vine in 2012 for a rumored $30 million, there were already dozens of similar social video apps available from startups. But Vine would have access to something none of these others did: Twitter’s large user base.