Vimeo (/ˈvɪmioʊ/^[4]) is an ad-free video platform headquartered in New York City, providing free video viewing services as a competitor to YouTube. In 2007, Vimeo became the first video sharing site to support high-definition video.^[5] It has launched several products that enable quality video creation at scale, most recently with the launch of Vimeo Stock in fall of 2018.^[6] Vimeo is a software as a service (SaaS) business, and offers subscription plans that service various customer segments.^[7] Vimeo was founded in November 2004 by Jake Lodwick and Zach Klein. Anjali Sud has been CEO of Vimeo since July 2017.^[8]

Vimeo was founded in November 2004 by Jake Lodwick and Zach Klein.^[9] The name Vimeo was created by Lodwick, as a play on the words video and me.^[10] Vimeo is also an anagram of the word movie.^[11] IAC purchased Vimeo in August 2006, as part of its acquisition of Connected Ventures.^[12] In January 2009, Dae Mellencamp joined IAC as general manager of Vimeo.^[13] She served as CEO until March 19, 2012, when Kerry Trainor joined Vimeo as CEO.^[14] In 2017, IAC promoted then general manager Anjali Sud as the CEO.^[15]

On July 21, 2008, Vimeo announced it would cease hosting gaming videos.

Vimeo cited several reasons, such as the unusually long duration of gaming videos, which compromised transcoder wait times.

(Existing gaming videos that had been posted on the site were deleted on September 1, 2008.) The ban was lifted, however, in October 2014.^[16] Until then, all new uploads were subject to the rule, but machinima videos with a story of their own were still permitted.^[17]

In December 2014, Vimeo introduced 4K support, though it would only allow downloading due to the low market penetration of 4K displays at the time.^[18] Streaming of 4K content launched the following year, along with adaptive bitrate streaming support.^[19] In March 2017, Vimeo introduced 360-degree video support, including support for virtual reality platforms and smartphones, stereoscopic video, and an online video series providing guidance on filming and producing 360-degree videos.^[20]

On May 2, 2016, Vimeo announced the acquisition of VHX, a platform for premium over-the-top subscription video channels.^[21]

On September 26, 2017, Vimeo announced that it would introduce a live streaming platform, and that it had acquired the existing service Livestream to bolster its associated staff and technology.^[22]

In January 2019, the Commercial Court of Rome determined that Vimeo’s video-hosting platform played an “active role” in copyright infringement and the posting of Italian television programs owned by media conglomerate Mediaset.

After Vimeo declined to remove over 2,000 copyrighted videos at the request of Mediaset, the company was forced to pay $9,700,000 in penalties.^[23][24][25]

On April 15, 2019, Vimeo announced the acquisition of Magisto, a video creation service with over 100 million users.^[26] While the deal’s terms were not disclosed, the purchase was reportedly valued at $200 million. Magisto had raised $23 million between 2010 and 2014, but had not received funding for 5 years at the time of the sale. All of Magisto’s 75 employees were absorbed with the deal. The purchase allows users to edit, publish, and monetize videos directly on Vimeo, and represents a step in Vimeo’s shift towards attracting smaller business customers, such as restaurants and retail stores, which benefit from automated video creation.^[27][28][29]

Vimeo is managed by CEO Anjali Sud.^[30]

As of December 2013, Vimeo attracts more than 100 million unique visitors per month, and more than 22 million registered users.^[31] Fifteen percent of Vimeo's traffic comes from mobile devices.^[32] 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.^[33] The community of Vimeo includes indie filmmakers and their fans.^[34] 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.^[35] The White House posts high-definition versions of its broadcasts to Vimeo.^[36]

On August 1, 2019, 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.

Enterprise users are able to measure employee engagement with posted videos and view analytics to see how they interact with posted content.

The new program represents the continuation of Vimeo’s shift in strategy toward directly serving video creators and consumers, including large businesses, and away from streaming.

In 2019, enterprise customers were Vimeo’s fastest-growing segment in terms of revenue according to Glenn Schiffman, IAC's Chief Financial Officer.^[37][38][29]

Vimeo offers different memberships:

Vimeo began its service with only free accounts, each limited to 20 MB of video uploads weekly.^[40] This limit was raised to 30 MB in 2006,^[41] then to 250 MB in January 2007^[42] and to the current level of 500 MB in October 2007.^[43]

In October 2008, Vimeo Plus launched for $60 annual fee and a 2 GB weekly allowance,^[44] which was raised to the current level of 5 GB on January 4, 2011.^[45] The latter allowance allows roughly 2.5 hours of 720p video. As of July 22, 2010, the site offers unlimited HD embeds.^[46] In April 2019, Vimeo announced Vimeo Showcase, a feature for creating channels on Roku and Amazon Fire devices.^[47][48]

On October 9, 2007, Vimeo announced support for high definition playback in 1280×720 (720p), becoming the first video sharing site to support consumer HD.^[5] Uploaded HD videos were automatically converted into 720/30p VP6 Flash video. Since August 2010, all videos are encoded into H.264 for HTML5 support. All videos uploaded before were re-encoded. Non-Plus users can upload up to 500 MB of videos per week, and up to one HD video per week (additional HD videos uploaded within the same week are encoded to SD).

Non-HD videos are re-encoded at a maximum of 30 frames per second, but suffer in image quality, which is inline with the low bit rate for videos in the 640×360 size. Usually, the video content is re-encoded to bit rate below 0.5 Mbit/s. This is not enough to reproduce the fine details that can be captured from a consumer video camera or a smartphone, for example.

Vimeo is blocked in China.^[49]

Starting May 4, 2012, the site was blocked in India by some ISPs under orders from the Department of Telecommunications, without any stated reasons.^[50][51] 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.^[52] However, on December 31, the site was unblocked in India.^[53]

In May 2014, Tifatul Sembiring, Indonesia's Communications Minister said on his personal Twitter account that video sharing site Vimeo would be banned. Citing Indonesia's controversial anti-pornography law, passed in 2008, the minister said the site included displays of "nudity or nudity-like features".^[54]

Vimeo has helped to offload traffic from Improv Everywhere's servers after new pranks are announced, and continues to host most of their videos. Vimeo was also the original location of Noah Kalina's "everyday" video, a popular viral video.^[55]