Dom Hofmann

Dom Hofmann
Born
Dominik Hofmann

(1986-09-27) September 27, 1986
New York, U.S.
Occupations
Years active2012–present
Known forCo-founding Vine and founding Peach and Byte
TitleCo-founder of Vine
Websitedomhofmann.com

Dominik Hofmann[1] (born September 27, 1986) is an American entrepreneur and programmer. He is best known for being one of the co-founders of Vine as well as being the creator of Peach, Byte and Loot.[2]

Career

Vine

In June 2012, Hofmann co-founded Vine, which was a 6-second video service with Rus Yusupov and Colin Kroll.[3] Twitter acquired the app in 2012 for $30 million[4] and the app was shut down by Twitter in 2016.[5][6] During the shutdown process, Hofmann went public with his disagreement on how Vine was handled.[7]

Peach

In January 2016, Hofmann introduced Peach at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.[8] The app received major media attention until Hofmann began to focus less on the app and more on other projects.[9][10] In February 2019, Peach began looking for a benefactor to support upkeep and server costs of Peach.[11] As of February 2024, Peach's domain registration for their website home page (peach.cool) expired and was hijacked by another buyer.[12] This buyer posted an announcement on the peach.cool website falsely claiming to have acquired Peach.[13] As of 2025, the app is no longer available on iOS or Android app stores.[14]

Byte

Byte (formerly dubbed v2) was a 16-second looping video app.[15][16] The app's purpose was to be the successor app to Vine after its original shutdown. Hofmann was public with his disagreement on how Vine was handled.[17] The app was released for iOS and Android on January 24, 2020.[18] It was later sold to Clash, another short-form video app, a year later.[19] Both apps thus merged into a single app called Clash,[20][21] which was then later renamed to Huddles. It was discontinued on May 3, 2023.[22]

Personal life

Hofmann was born in 1986. He has a younger brother and met Rus Yusupov and Colin Kroll while working at Jetsetter.[23]

References

  1. ^ "Dominik Hofmann". www.bloomberg.com. Retrieved 2019-01-04.
  2. ^ Hofmann, Dom. "LOOT – randomized adventurer gear – no images or stats. intentionally omitted for others to interpret – no fee, just gas – 8000 bags total opensea available via contract only. not audited. mint at your own risk". Twitter.
  3. ^ "5 Reasons Why Vine Failed". DMNews.com. Retrieved 2019-01-04.
  4. ^ Heine, Christopher (October 27, 2016). "Twitter Just Shut Down Vine 4 Years After Buying It for $30 Million". www.adweek.com. Retrieved 2019-01-04.
  5. ^ Lantz, Janessa (2016-10-28). "The Incredible Success of Vine". ThinkGrowth.org. Retrieved 2019-01-04.
  6. ^ "The career of Colin Kroll, the cofounder of Vine and HQ Trivia, who has died at age 34". nordic.businessinsider.com. 2018-12-16. Retrieved 2019-01-04.
  7. ^ Newton, Casey (2016-10-28). "Why Vine died". The Verge. Retrieved 2019-01-04.
  8. ^ "Peach Is a Great New App You Definitely Don't Need". Bloomberg. 10 February 2016. Retrieved 2019-01-04.
  9. ^ "Peach Is A Slick New Messaging App From The Founder Of Vine". TechCrunch. 8 January 2016. Retrieved 2019-01-04.
  10. ^ "How a forgotten app became the internet's secret clubhouse". The Daily Dot. 2016-12-20. Retrieved 2019-01-04.
  11. ^ Fingas, Jon (2019-02-19). "Social app Peach is looking for a benefactor on Twitter". Engadget. Retrieved 2025-12-24.
  12. ^ Dom Hofmann [@dhof] (February 13, 2024). "not real! the .cool domain lapsed (i'm really sorry about this, i lost track of it while rotating passwords after i was sim swapped earlier this year). the actual service runs from a different domain and is still good to go. i'll look into an alternate domain for the homepage" (Tweet) – via X (formerly Twitter).
  13. ^ "Announcement – Peach Social Acquired by LenosTube". Archived from the original on 2024-02-16.
  14. ^ "Not Found". Retrieved 2025-07-31.
  15. ^ Weissman, Cale Guthrie (2018-11-09). "Vine's cofounder just announced a new video looping app". Fast Company. Retrieved 2019-01-04.
  16. ^ Alexander, Julia (2018-12-18). "Byte's creator culture will make or break Vine 2". The Verge. Retrieved 2019-01-04.
  17. ^ "Upcoming Vine descendent opens Creator Programme ahead of launch – Tech News". www.thestar.com.my. Retrieved 2019-01-04.
  18. ^ Statt, Nick (2020-01-24). "Vine successor Byte is available now on iOS and Android". The Verge. Retrieved 2020-01-25.
  19. ^ Lorenz, Taylor (26 January 2021). ""A Vine Reunion? Video Apps Clash and Byte Join Forces "". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 26 January 2021.
  20. ^ App, Clash (2021-01-27). "Byte App is Joining the Clash Family". Medium. Archived from the original on 2021-02-28. Retrieved 2021-02-22.
  21. ^ App, Clash (2021-05-28). "Clash: Announcing Early Beta Testing For Byte Creators". Medium. Archived from the original on 2021-09-15. Retrieved 2021-09-15.
  22. ^ "hello friends as we continue to move the Huddles operation to its new home, we'll be removing the mobile app from both app stores so it's not just a login screen sitting there staring at you like that awkward kid in class we're beginning this process today through next week". Twitter. Archived from the original on 2023-06-03. Retrieved 2023-07-14.
  23. ^ Hartmans, Avery. "The career of Colin Kroll, the cofounder of Vine and HQ Trivia, who has died at age 34". Business Insider. Retrieved 2019-01-04.