October 22, 2013 E3

Vimeo: A Look Back At Some Of Its Most Important Milestones

Vimeo often lives under the shadow of YouTube. It can be so easy to push this site to the side – especially in recent months thanks to the newest shiny objects on the block, Vine and Instagram Video. But Vimeo has carved out a very important place in the world of online video. It can be the perfect platform for content creators who look at their work as more art than marketing. There is less clutter on Vimeo (and by clutter we mean animal videos), and the platform is geared toward the creators of the content, not the consumers of the content.

Let’s take a look back at some of the most important milestones in Vimeo’s history.

The Founding – And Selling Of Vimeo

Way back in 2004, Jakob Lodwick and Zach Klein founded Vimeo as side project. They were part of Connected Ventures, the force behind CollegeHumor. Shortly after, in 2006, IAC/InterActiveCorp bought 51% o Connected Ventures, and as part of that 51%, became the owners of Vimeo. The deal was struck for around $20 Million. Mogul Barry Diller and IAC still own Vimeo to this day, despite recent rumors that he was shopping the company last year.

Vimeo Pioneers HD Availability

Vimeo became the first video sharing site to offer HD playback in 720p solidifying it as the preferred site of indie and amateur filmmakers. Today we take HD for granted, but at the time, this was a major shift. After the initial announcement in 2007, the Wired blog Webmonkey said, “Vimeo, the video sharing site geared at amateur filmmakers, launched a new hi-def channel late last week, featuring some quite stunning clarity for web-based video. If you’ve come to accept the grainy pixelated quality of most online videos, these HD flicks may well get you excited about web video again.” Ah, how far we’ve come.

The Vimeo Awards

In 2010, Vimeo held their very first awards show to honor the best of the community. They scored Morgan Spurlock and David Lynch among their judging panel and were inundated with almost 7,000 entries that first year. The $25,000 Grand Prize was given to a film titled, “Last Minutes with Oden,” and several other films took home category and viewer choice awards.

Vimeo Opens Its Doors To Brands And Allows Pro Users to Profit

From its inception all the way through 2011, Vimeo was adamant that their sharing site was not a place for commercial content. In April of that year, they began to offer Vimeo Pro for brands to upload their content. For $200 a year, Pro users had access to no cap on bandwidth, advanced stats, and branded video players. This step allowed brands to tap into the Vimeo platform, but cleverly separated out a lot of the ad noise found on other video sharing sites.

Paywall and Distribution of Feature Films

Earlier this year, Vimeo On Demand allowed Pro users to set up a paywall from which they could keep 90% of the profits. This unique setup allows filmmakers to control the distribution of their content and even offer rentals of their films.

“Some Girl(s)” – Trailer from Some Girl(s) on Vimeo.

Indie feature filmmakers are also now able to be a major part of the Vimeo Family. The film “Some Girl(s)” starring Adam Brody and Kristen Bell was the first feature to debut on Vimeo after its premiere at SXSW earlier this year. Vimeo is also looking to secure the rights to the films of the Toronto Film Festival. They offered entrants $10,000 for the rights to their content for 30 day. Not enough to fund their projects, but certainly nothing to sneeze at in the bootstrap world of indie art. And once the 30 days are up, the entrants can take their films wherever they like, there is no obligation to stay with Vimeo.

Vimeo Creates Harmony Between Art And Commerce

Outside the world of filmmaking, Vimeo is often seen as the redheaded step child of video sharing websites. But as you can see from this brief historical overview, Vimeo has pioneered some of the most innovative movements in online video distribution from HD content to filmmaker-controlled distribution. They are much friendlier to brands than they have been in the past, creating an environment where artists and marketers can coexist harmoniously – and you don’t find that too many other places on the web.

What future innovations to you see on the horizon for Vimeo?

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