Colin Kroll, co-founder of two notable pop culture and entertainment phenomena – Vine and HQ Trivia – passed away yesterday at the age of 34. Having developed two apps that took the online world by storm, Kroll pushed the entertainment industry in new directions and transformed the colloquial meaning of "short films." An influencer for an entire generation of entertainers, Kroll's immense contributions to the industry will be felt long after his untimely death.
Playing into the ever-shortening attention span of millennials, Kroll managed to capture the masses in his six-second video site, Vine, as well as his fifteen-minute quiz shows on HQ Trivia. Co-founders Dom Hofmann and Rus Yusupov helped launched Vine in 2013; and the site's demise brought outrage from fans in early 2017 after it was purchased by Twitter. In its prime, Vine helped to launch the careers of well-known performers like musician Shawn Mendes and the notorious Logan Paul. Kroll remained partners with Yusupov and the two went on to create HQ Trivia in 2017 - an app that allows users to compete in 15-minute trivia games for cash prizes. Both the prizes that could reach up to $400,000 and the low commitment brevity of the games successfully incentivized app downloads and user participation.
Related: The Rock Is Hosting A $300,000 Game of HQ Trivia This Week
The Wrap reported news of the entrepreneur's death, mentioning that Kroll passed in his New York apartment and was discovered after his girlfriend alerted the police. At this moment, the cause of death has not been officially reported, though drug paraphernalia was found near Kroll's body.
Before his work on HQ Trivia, the late app-creator fell into some controversy during his time with Twitter. His "creepy" encounters with fellow staff members were noted on multiple occasions, leading to the eventual termination from his role in 2014. Well before the burgeoning #MeToo movement, Twitter attempted to clearly define the meaning of appropriate workplace behavior. Although these transgressions surely don't negate Kroll's legacy, it's important to remember the positive traits as well as the flaws at the end of a public figure's life.
Kroll's business ventures helped alter the viewing practices of a generation. Without his ingenuity and creativity, the world would lack his millennial-approved six-second short form content that remains popular today, which ultimately led to many Vine videos finding a new home on Youtube. Kroll's importance to the industry will live on through his dedication to his work. That said, the world lost another great mind far too young.
More: More YouTube Drama As Ads Removed From All Logan Paul Videos
Source: The Wrap
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