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Before TikTok, there was Vine – the six-second video app that defined a generation. Now, Vine: Six Seconds That Changed the World, an eight-part documentary podcast series hosted by digital culture expert and host of internet comedy and commentary show Scroll Deep, Benedict Townsend, peels back the layers of genius, chaos and betrayal that drove Vine’s spectacular rise… and it's even more sudden collapse.

Launching Wednesday 23rd April 2025 on Global Player and all major podcast platforms, the series explores how Vine set the stage for today’s creator economy, becoming the springboard for the likes of Logan Paul, Joe Rogan, and MrBeast, long before TikTok dominated our feeds. To understand TikTok, or the modern internet itself, you need to understand Vine.

From viral moments to behind-the-scenes boardroom drama, this is the definitive story of a platform that captured lightning in a bottle – and changed internet culture forever.

With exclusive interviews...

I’m not the biggest fan of documentaries, and with time, my dislike for them only grows. Glitch: The Rise And Fall Of HQ Trivia is one of the documentaries that I had no interest in because I had unfortunately never heard of the game, and the mouthful of a title alone makes me uninterested in what it has to say. Subjective thoughts aside, Glitch very clearly pushes a certain agenda with a singular point of view, making it hard to take seriously. It’s Quiz Daddy’s show from start to finish, and that’s possibly not what people are looking for going into the show. There’s really nothing positive to take away from the documentary, and that’s what makes it not so fun to watch, either. Tech companies and their growth are worth talking about and looking at, but this movie does so little about the...

Three months. That’s how long it took for HQ Trivia to go from unknown mobile game to household name with a record 2.38 million users at once. Now, six years later, a new documentary, Glitch: The Rise And Fall Of HQ Trivia, aims to tell the scandalous behind-the-scenes story of HQ Trivia’s journey from a zeitgeisty app to a corporate disaster. But days after the first trailer was posted, the documentary was embroiled in its own scandal online: a mishmash of accusations, callouts, and digs that director Salima Koroma...

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It was 2017, and the world was Scott Rogowsky’s oyster.

He had spent several years toiling as a comic trying to make it in New York when he auditioned for a new app-based game show called HQ Trivia. Little could he have foreseen what was to come, as the startup — from Rus Yusupov and Colin Kroll, creators of Vine, who sold their company to Twitter for a rumored 30 million in 2012 only to see it shuttered in 2016 — snowballed into a global sensation.

Millions dutifully logged on via smartphones at 9 p.m. E.T. to play along as Rogowsky posed a series of multiple-choice questions, each round more difficult than the last. Any players still standing after the final question shared in a communal pot — usually somewhere between 750 and 2,000, but, as corporate sponsorship from the likes of Wendy’s and Nike joined the bandwagon, sometimes as high as 400,000.

Dapper,...

Many people have heard of Vine, the early trendsetter for short-form video, but never used it or even knew why it failed to be a significant player in social media. While it fell out of popularity, fans of the app didn’t forget it. But now, thanks to Elon Musk, old users are feeling nostalgic and hopeful that the platform could get its day to shine again.

Musk’s acquisition of Twitter means significant changes for the social media platform. He has many plans for the buyout. For example, he mentioned his desire to develop ‘X,’ an app that would offer many services under one umbrella. But, there is one idea that Musk teased that many fans are anticipating. In a tweet, Musk asked users in a poll if he should “Bring back Vine?” Millions of users responded, and over 69 percent of them voted yes!

Bring back Vine? — Elon Musk...

Elon Musk‘s first week as the owner of Twitter has been a hectic time. Since taking over as Chief Twit, Musk has enacted a number of far-reaching changes that will affect all corners of his new company.

On Halloween morning, he presented yet another idea: Is it time for Vine to make a comeback?

Bring back Vine?

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 31, 2022

It’s been six years since Twitter announced it would shutter its short-form video platform. Vine launched many stars during its three-year run, but Twitter never figured out enough ways to monetize Vine’s impressive viewership. After Twitter pulled the plug, many Viners migrated to TikTok, and the rest is history.

Since Twitter never succeed in its bid to sell Vine, Musk probably could bring the defunct app back to life. There have been several attempts to establish spiritual successors to the platform, but none have caught on...

HQ Trivia, the livestreaming quiz show app that shuttered last month, has made its grand return -- when quarantined citizens the globe over are holed up at home seeking entertainment, no less.

Co-founder and CEO Rus Yusupov tweeted about the app’s resurrection yesterday, when a notification was also sent out to players that a game was taking place yesterday evening at its usual time: 9 pm Et. The Wall Street Journal reports that the app’s return was funded by an anonymous investor, as noted by host Matt Richards during the live broadcast yesterday.

The return game offered a $1,000 prize pool, and saw more than 100,000 players log in at the start of the game, according to the Journal. The company also announced that it is donating $100,000 to chef Jose Andres’ World Central Kitchen, a nonprofit devoted to providing meals in the wake of natural disasters that is also helping people...

HQ Trivia has reached ‘Game Over’ status; the once-buzzy quiz show app is laying off all remaining 25 employees and shutting its doors.

“With HQ, we showed the world the future of TV," co-founder and CEO Rus Yusupov tweeted on Saturday. “We didn’t get to where we hoped, but we did stretch the world’s imagination for what’s possible on our smartphones.”

Citing a company-wide email from Yusupov, CNN reports that investors pulled the plug on funding, and thus the company -- which was founded in Dec. 2017 by several of the minds behind Vine -- had ceased operations and was initiating a process of dissolution. Yusupov added that the company had hired a banker to find additional investors and even received an offer from “an established business” -- though the deal, which was set to close on Saturday, ultimately ended up falling through.

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The dream has come to an end, HQties. HQ Trivia, the popular live trivia game show app that everyone and their brother seemed to be playing at one point, is shutting down, laying off all 25 of its full-time staff. According to a statement from CEO Rus Yusupov (via TechCrunch), HQ Trivia was in negotiations to be purchased by “an established business,” but the buyer pulled out at the last minute, leaving the struggling company with investors who were no longer willing to keep the ship afloat. “...for reasons we are still investigating, they suddenly changed their position and …...

HQ Trivia host Scott Rogowsky is leaving the company for his new gig as a baseball host ... because HQ wouldn't play ball and give him the green light to work 2 jobs. For weeks, people have been wondering why Scott hasn't been popping up on their smartphones to host the daily trivia show ... and we've learned it's because the "Quiz Daddy" left HQ in the dust after striking out in his quest to add a new...

As it wades into new waters with the launch of a second game and the re-installation of co-founder Rus Yusupov as CEO following the untimely death of Colin Kroll, HQ Trivia confirmed that it has now taken in roughly $10 million in ad revenues to date.

The company just inked a $1 million deal with General Motors that will make it the exclusive auto sponsor for the first quarter of 2019, Variety reports. And to kick off the partnership on Tuesday, HQ Trivia will award a 2019 Chevy Silverado to one winner (who answers all of the quiz questions correctly). The deal will also call for HQ Trivia to run Chevy spots throughout the month of January. In addition to Gm, HQ Trivia recently inked a deal with Fox to promote its new competition series The Masked Singer, Variety reports.

HQ Trivia began selling sponsored games -- in which brands are integrated into themed quizzes -- back in March,...

Amid a decline in usership and following the tragic death of CEO Colin Kroll, HQ Trivia's parent company, Intermedia Labs, is expanding beyond its origins this Christmas with the launch of its second-ever game.

HQ Words is a Wheel Of Fortune-style title that will move the company beyond trivia. And, after being in a closed beta for weeks, the game is now available to everyone inside the flagship HQ Trivia app, which has since been renamed HQ Trivia & Words.

Words is rolling out under the tutelage of CEO Rus Yusupov -- who co-founded HQ Trivia (and Vine) alongside Kroll, and who was replaced by Kroll in the CEO role earlier this year because the company’s board reportedly felt that Yusupov wasn’t executing quickly enough on follow-up titles. Yusupov hosted the first official Words game on Dec. 23.

“Intermedia Labs introduced the world to a category-defining product, HQ Trivia,” Yusupov told Techcrunch in a statement.

Colin Kroll, the co-founder of industry-advancing video apps like Vine and HQ Trivia, was found dead in his New York City apartment yesterday of an apparent drug overdose.

Kroll -- who was recently installed as the CEO of HQ Trivia amid “a contentious boardroom battle” involving his co-founder Rus Yusupov (who also co-founded Vine with Kroll) -- was 34 years old.

The New York Police Department was conducting a wellness check on Kroll, reports USA Today, and he was pronounced dead on arrival early Sunday morning. On Twitter, both Yusupov and the flagship HQ Trivia account expressed their condolences. “My thoughts and prayers go out to his loved ones,” Yusupov wrote. “I will forever remember him for his kind soul and big heart. He made the world and internet a better place.”

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Colin Kroll, the co-founder of popular apps like Vine and HQ Trivia, died Sunday of a suspected drug overdose in New York. Kroll was 34.

HQ Trivia tweeted, “We learned today of the passing of our friend and founder, Colin Kroll, and it’s with deep sadness that we say goodbye. Our thoughts go out to his family, friends and loved ones during this incredibly difficult time.”

The New York Times reports that police entered Kroll’s apartment after receiving a phone call from a concerned woman. The HQ Trivia CEO...

Last year, two of the founders behind Vine launched a hit video quiz game app dubbed HQ Trivia, which quickly became a mobile sensation.

But now, a Recode report suggests that a dropping user base and drama surrounding co-founders Rus Yusupov and Colin Kroll has made HQ Trivia's futures uncertain as it preps the launch of a second-ever game show -- a Wheel Of Fortune-style title called Words.

Earlier this year, notes Recode, HQ Trivia was regularly within the top 10 most-downloaded free iPhone games -- though now it’s typically fluctuating between No. 250 and 500. And while daily games are still attracting hundreds of thousands of players, they are a fraction of audiences earlier this year -- which were regularly upwards of 1 million.

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Dom Hofmann, a co-founder of Vine, has revealed the name and launch timing for his next video-looping app: Byte, launching in the spring of 2019.

Details are scant, but Hofmann has indicated that the new app will be similar to Vine, which featured six-second video sequences in repeating loops.

Twitter bought Vine for $30 million in 2012. Four years later, it shut down the service, which had launched the careers of pop star Shawn Mendes and video prankster Logan Paul. “Vines,” as the videos created on the service were called are still archived on a Twitter-run site and have taken on a second life as teens and 20-somethings already have started waxing nostalgic for the mid-2010s. Vine’s original breakout personalities have moved on to Instagram, YouTube and other platforms.

Rus Yusupov and Colin Kroll, who founded Vine along with Hofmann, went on to create HQ Trivia.

Hoffman has been talking about...

Warner Bros. is back for its third sponsored HQ Trivia game — with players of the popular app competing for a prize pool of $88,888 to promote the release of “Ocean’s 8.”

The special HQ Trivia game and “Ocean’s 8” tie-in will go live Tuesday, June 5, at 9 p.m. Et. In a nod to the movie, players will only have to answer eight questions — instead of the normal 12 — to win a cut of the cash.

The female-heist film, which opens June 8, stars Sandra Bullock, Cate Blanchett, Anne Hathaway, Mindy Kaling, Sarah Paulson, Rihanna, Helena Bonham Carter, and Awkwafina. For Tuesday night’s game, HQ Trivia also says it will give give out “88 Extra Lives to 8 lucky HQties” — the term coined by host Scott Rogowsky for the app’s users — to let them stay in the game if they’ve missed a question.

WB’s deal with HQ Trivia, worth an estimated $3 million,...

HQ Trivia, the explosively successful livestreaming game show app, has raised $15 million in a just-closed funding round that values the seven-month-old startup at $100 million.

The round was led by Founders Fund, the company tells Axios, and included participation from previous investor Lightspeed Venture Partners. Reports of the round first surfaced in February, but it officially closed late last week -- despite concerns from investors about claims of sexual harassment against co-founder Colin Kroll. Kroll, who also co-founded Vine with his HQ Trivia co-founder Rus Yusupov, denies the claims.

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Popular lip syncing platform Musical.ly may be developing a copycat version of HQ Trivia -- the buzzy livestreaming quiz show app launched late last year by Vine co-founders Rus Yusupov and Colin Kroll -- targeting its avid tween user base.

Gizmodo obtained a planning document from Bytedance -- the Chinese internet giant that acquired Musical.ly for a reported $800 million in November -- indicating that a project codenamed Project F is allegedly in the works. In development by Musical.ly's new management, Project F would consist of live, twice-per-day quiz competitions distributed in vertical video format with an affable host and the ability for participants to win real money or prizes -- which is the conceit of HQ Trivia to the letter. The product could launch as soon as next week -- though Gizmodo notes that it might also turn out to be a standalone venture that does not live within Musical.

Reality TV execs and producers are keeping an eye on HQ Trivia, and starting to ask if — or how — the popular app might be adapted for television.

HQ Trivia doesn’t yet have an agent, and isn’t actively shopping for a deal. But that’s not stopping reality players to kick the tires and set up meetings with the company. According to insiders, HQ Trivia’s creators have also sat down with a handful of agents and former agents in Hollywood as they look for advice.

“We’re inspired by TV and see some ways we can integrate, but nothing to share yet,” HQ Trivia co-founder Rus Yusupov said in an emailed statement.

Almost everyone agrees that time is of the essence for HQ Trivia if it were to break into TV. If it doesn’t capitalize on the current success of the app, the company risks being upstaged by an imitator,...