Vimeo
Vimeo, Inc. (/ˈvɪmioʊ/)[3] is an American video hosting, sharing, and services platform provider headquartered in New York City. Vimeo focuses on the delivery of high-definition video across a range of devices.[a] Vimeo's business model is through software as a service (SaaS). They derive revenue by providing subscription plans for businesses and content creators. Vimeo provides its subscribers with tools for video creation, editing, and broadcasting, enterprise software solutions, as well as the means for video professionals to connect with clients and other professionals. As of December 2021, the site has 260 million users, with around 1.6 million subscribers to its services.[1]
Type of business
English, Spanish, German, French, Japanese, Portuguese, Korean
- Nasdaq: VMEO
- Russell 2000 component
November 2004
Worldwide (except blocked countries)
- Philip Moyer
(CEO)
- Vimeo OTT
- Vimeo Livestream
- Vimeo Stock
- Vimeo Enterprise
- Vimeo Create
- Vimeo Record
US$433 million (2022)
US$−83 million (2022)
US$−80 million (2022)
US$605 million (2022)
US$354 million (2022)
1,236 (December 2022)
No
Optional
300 million (2022)
November 2004
Active
The site was initially built by Jake Lodwick and Zach Klein in 2004 as a spin-off of CollegeHumor to share humor videos among colleagues, though put to the side to support the growing popularity of CollegeHumor. IAC acquired CollegeHumor and Vimeo in 2006, and after Google had acquired YouTube for over US$1.65 billion, IAC directed more effort into Vimeo to compete against YouTube, focusing on providing curated content and high-definition video to distinguish itself from other video sharing sites. Lodwick and Klein eventually left by 2009, and IAC implemented a more corporate-focused structure to build out Vimeo's services, with former CEO Anjali Sud having been in place since July 2017. IAC spun off Vimeo as a standalone public company in May 2021.
Corporate affairs[edit]
Leadership[edit]
After the departures of Lodwick and Klein, IAC brought in a more corporate structure to the company. By January 2009, Dae Mellencamp joined IAC as general manager of Vimeo.[45] She served as CEO until March 19, 2012, when Kerry Trainor joined Vimeo as CEO.[46]
Around 2016, several high-level executives announced their departure from Vimeo, including Trainor. IAC's CEO Joey Levin was named as interim CEO for Vimeo during its search for a new CEO.[47] After a year-long search, IAC promoted then general manager Anjali Sud as the CEO.[25][48]
In August 2023, Anjali Sud stepped down from the role. Adam Gross was appointed the interim CEO.[49] Philip Moyer, a former executive with Google Cloud, was named the new CEO in April 2024.[50]
Product offerings and revenue structure[edit]
In contrast with other video-sharing sites, Vimeo does not use any advertising either on its pages or embedded in videos.[51][4] Instead, Vimeo sells its services and products to content creators for revenue as a software as a service (SaaS) model.[52] The site offers a free tier of service.[53] As of August 22, 2022, a free account is limited to two video uploads monthly and 25 total videos.[53] Legacy free accounts have a weekly upload limit[54][55] and, since 2018, a total storage limit.[56] Paid subscriber tiers, first introduced in 2008,[57] provide accounts with a larger upload allowance and greater storage capacity.[4]
Starting around 2016, Vimeo has also shifted towards supporting businesses through its offerings. In September 2016 it introduced a Business tier plan to allow for intra-business collaboration as well as for businesses to host informational videos for their customers.[58] With the acquisition of Livestream in 2017, Vimeo added another tier for Premium subscribers, offering unlimited uploads and streaming events through Vimeo Live.[20] Vimeo launched Vimeo Enterprise, a set of tools designed for large organizations that allow users to manage and share live and on-demand video across workspaces, in August 2019.[59] Vimeo established partnerships with Mailchimp, HubSpot, and Constant Contact marketing platforms to allow their clients to easily integrate Vimeo videos into mail and other promotional campaigns.[60] Vimeo also partnered with TikTok to give TikTok commercial users access to Vimeo's editing tools for video content.[61]
In addition to subscriptions, Vimeo has other revenue streams through additional services to its customers. Creators could sell access to individual videos since 2013, and later could offer subscription-based access in 2015, with Vimeo taking a 10% cut of the sales.[62] Vimeo has offered a video on demand service since 2015, allowing its partners to sell Vimeo videos through their websites to their customers.[63] Via its VHX acquisition, Vimeo offers an over-the-top media service (OTT), Vimeo OTT, which Vimeo subscribers can use to create custom mobile apps to provide on-demand video to the app's subscribers, with Vimeo handling the subscriptions, billing, and content delivery.[24][64] In 2018, the site launched Vimeo Stock to allow content creators to offer videos as stock footage to be used by others.[65][66] Vimeo Create was introduced in 2020 to allow users to create videos with the help of artificial intelligence.[31]
To further promote Vimeo as a home for professional video support, Vimeo opened a "For Hire" job marketplace in September 2019, allowing companies seeking professional video services to freely post job requests for the site's users to browse and respond to.[67] Vimeo Record was launched in October 2020 to allow businesses to use recorded video messaging within their company or with their clients to aid in communications.[68]
Customer size[edit]
By December 2013, Vimeo had attracted more than 100 million unique visitors per month, and more than 22 million registered users.[69] At this time, fifteen percent of Vimeo's traffic came from mobile devices.[70] As of February 2013, Vimeo accounted for 0.11% of all Internet bandwidth, following far behind its larger competitors, video sharing sites YouTube and Facebook.[71] The community of Vimeo includes indie filmmakers and their fans.[72] The Vimeo community has adopted the name "Vimeans", which references active members of the Vimeo community who engage with other users on a regular basis.
In 2019, enterprise customers were Vimeo's fastest-growing segment in terms of revenue according to Glenn Schiffman, IAC's Chief Financial Officer.[59][73][51] CTO Mark Kornfilt said they had nearly one million subscribers as of April 2019, making up a majority of the firm's US$160 million annual revenue.[74] This had grown to over 1.2 million by March 2020,[75] and over US$200 million in annual revenue,[76] The site had also obtained 175 million registered users by April 2020.[76] and over 200 million by November 2020 attributed to increased use of Vimeo due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[32][34]
Prior to going public, the company had about 1.6 million paying subscribers.[36]
Events[edit]
Vimeo launched its Vimeo Festival and Awards program in 2010, and held subsequent events every eighteen months. The Festival allows video creators to submit their films for a small fee for consideration across multiple categories. Typically more than 5,000 videos are submitted, and these are narrowed to a field of 1,000 for select judge-panel to vote for winners across multiple categories. This culminates with a live awards presentation showing thewinning films in each category. Each category winner carries a cash prize and an overall best-in-show prize. Vimeo had established the Festival and Awards to help give video and filmmakers an opportunity to highlight their work on Vimeo's pages and gain potential work from clients.[77][78][79]
In 2008, Vimeo launched its Staff Picks, highlighting videos in a special channel as picked by the company's employees as some of the best work by its users.[80] This feature was expanded in 2016 to give special laurels to videos that the staff felt were "Best of the Month" and "Best of the Year", as well as adding Staff Pick Premiere for newly added videos to the Staff Picks channel.[81] In 2020, Vimeo invited previous Staff Picks recipients to create videos about their favorite small business owners and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic as part of its Stories in Place program.[82]
Impacts in other countries[edit]
As of March 2021, Vimeo remains blocked in China.[83]
Starting May 4, 2012, the site was blocked in India by some ISPs under orders from the Department of Telecommunications, without any stated reasons.[84][85] Vimeo was blocked in India in December 2014, due to fears that the website was spreading ISIS propaganda through some of its user-made videos.[86] However, on December 31, the site was unblocked in India.[87]
On January 9, 2014, Vimeo is blocked in Turkey without clear reasons.[88]
In May 2014, Tifatul Sembiring, Indonesia's then-Communications Minister, said on his personal Twitter account that video sharing site Vimeo would be banned. Citing Indonesia's anti-pornography law, passed in 2008, the minister said the site included displays of "nudity or nudity-like features".[89]
