Twitter is shutting down Vine, its six-second video tool. The move seems to be a combination of users losing interest and Twitter’s own cost-cutting.

For now the Vine site, apps and archive will remain online, with the app to be discontinued in “the coming months.” Though there’s no timetable, Vine says users will have the chance to download their videos before anything disappears.

Twitter bought Vine for a reported $30 million shortly before its public launch in early 2013, the theory being that its existing user base would be enough to make it a hit and that there’d be a natural crossover between the idea of short text-based messages and ultra-short videos.

In practice Vine came across as more of a novelty where the initial impressiveness of people using creative quick-cuts to tell a story in six seconds wore off. App store download figures suggest the number of people using the app soon levelled off.

That wouldn’t necessarily have been enough to spell doom, but it seems to have made Vine an obvious target in Twitter belt-tightening that’s also seen nine percent of staff laid off. That’s the latest reality hit of Twitter being hugely popular but struggling to turn that popularity into profit.