Vine might sometimes be seen as playing second fiddle to Instagram, but there's plenty to like about the plucky short-form video platform.

To recap, Vine is an app that allows users to post looping videos up to six seconds in length. Vine is owned by Twitter and often butts heads with Facebook-owned Instagram, which launched its own 15 second video service in 2013.

While hard figures about Vine can difficult to unearth, we've done some snooping around to bring you the latest stats from the visionary, sometimes mysterious world of Vine.

Prepare to launch

Vine has just turned two, being founded in June 2012 by Dom Hofmann, Rus Yusupov, and Colin Kroll.

It didn't take long to turn a profit, in October that year Twitter bought Vine for US$30 million.

By April 2013 Vine was the most downloaded app in the iOS App Store. 

40 million

At last count Vine has over 40 million users. That's less than Pinterest (70 million) and more than Snapchat (30 million).

Some of these users don't get out much during the week – Vine sees its highest traffic on weekends.

Brands

Brands have started using Vine in some fairly creative ways.

In September 2013 Dunkin Donuts made history by using Vine to produce a TV advertisement. 

While Columbia Records used Vine to promote Big Time Rush's upcoming album 24/Seven, by releasing Vine videos of the track names.

Sharing is caring

Brand videos on Vine are the most shared form of online video. Another bonus: they're quick, cheap and easy to make.

Heard it on the Twitter Vine

Now that MySpace is virtually dead and buried, it seems musicians and music lovers are flocking to Vine.

80 per cent of the most retweeted Vines are from musos.

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