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Vimeo acquires Livestream

138 points| uyoakaoma | 8 years ago |techcrunch.com | reply

29 comments

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[+] 5_minutes|8 years ago|reply
Somehow, Vimeo seems a very sympathetic company. I know it’s just a perception, but this news is nice to hear. Perhaps they can pass on this positive vibe over their acqusitions.
[+] plopz|8 years ago|reply
I've disliked vimeo ever since they claimed videos with video game footage weren't art enough to be posted there. After Stage6 was shut down in 2008, many people started to move their content over to vimeo, only to be lost when vimeo made their stance against video games.
[+] dopeboy|8 years ago|reply
That's a really interesting observation. After reading it a couple times, I came to the same conclusion. In an attempt to explain that conclusion, my guess is:

* It's simple and clean and not spammy. It does what a video player should do - play video - and not much else.

* The artist crowd who truly care about their craft post their content on Vimeo. Thus the content I watch on it tends to be of higher quality and I may be subconsciously associating that with Vimeo itself.

[+] nebabyte|8 years ago|reply
It's absolutely "just a perception". Companies are not people. Never trust companies to always be "the company you knew". Leadership changes, and sooner or later someone purely motivated by profit takes the reins, and the "company you knew" is now just the next one in a long chain to screw consumers whenever it means more money.
[+] hardwaresofton|8 years ago|reply
I for one am really glad to hear that Vimeo is in the position of acquiring other companies. Glad their revenue model is working out.
[+] smeyer|8 years ago|reply
Vimeo is owned by IAC, the $9 billion dollar market cap company that owns Match.com, Tinder, OKCupid, Dictionary.com, and lots of others[0]. I don't think this is proof that Vimeo's revenue model is working out unless it's clear that this is being funded by Vimeo revenues and not just the broader IAC war chest.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IAC_(company)#Businesses

[+] shp0ngle|8 years ago|reply
I first read it as "LiveLeak" and that sounded as a little strange acquisition.
[+] AlexMuir|8 years ago|reply
I’m using Vimeo as the backend for my video course on how cars work. It’s working out great. They do all the storage, transcoding, subtitle hosting and provide a player. I had to code up a course player to wrap it all up with a playlist but everything else was basically solved from day 1. I even use their ‘Review’ tools to annotate the videos that my editor uploads.

It’s a great example of a business in a strong and profitable niche in an industry that is absolutely dominated by YouTube. I’m happy to give them my money.

[+] wyc|8 years ago|reply
I was investigating Vimeo's paid plans[0] as a video hosting solution for a startup client. The plans were pretty economical and compelling, and I can see why they're interested in acquiring livestreaming capabilities too.

I think this is pretty spot-on:

> Vimeo’s core business is focused around selling tools and services to professional and semi-professional video creators

Indie-produced + -distributed content is definitely a growing market that's starting to disrupt industries such as education, training, and entertainment. However you feel about Vimeo, consider that they with other companies will enable the production of brand new content that we've never seen before.

[0] https://vimeo.com/upgrade

[+] memco|8 years ago|reply
Was initially excited at this prospect as I would like an easy to use streaming tool that's not twitch or youtube for smaller personal projects, but at $75/mo. for 5 hours of streaming this is a no go for me. Can't think of a market where that pricing makes sense.
[+] mi100hael|8 years ago|reply
Makes sense for pretty much any business. $75 is a drop in the bucket if you're streaming commercial events.
[+] mathgeek|8 years ago|reply
The market here is corporate events rather than personal side projects.
[+] dberg|8 years ago|reply
I’ve known livestream since they were called mogulus with a flash app control system. Max and the team were always innovative and passionate about live streaming. Congrats to the team on years of hard work.
[+] lightedman|8 years ago|reply
I use both and this makes me fairly happy. This might mean Livestream's Procaster will get FIXED. Vimeo is known for simplicity and 'just works.'
[+] ChrisArchitect|8 years ago|reply
wow I had forgotten Livestream even existed still. Used to use it here and there for free live streaming way back in the like justin.tv ustream type days