The Vine app, created in 2012, was to allow people to take very short films, just a few seconds each, instantly, and to share them with friends, especially on Facebook and Twitter. In fact Twitter bought the Vine company soon after the app was created, with the idea of encouraging people to share more images on their network. It is also free to use, and has now become the #1 most popular free app in the Apple app store.
Soon after Vine became available, there was a problem over the way people were using it, as some people used it to film and send adult content. For that reason, it was at one time removed from the featured section of Twitter. However, this has now been resolved and people are mainly using it just to send snapshots of their lives etc. It has also proved very popular with advertisers and marketing firms.