Various Vimeo creators have noted abrupt changes to their subscription plans over the past several days. The alterations are all but a business restructuring to the company, allowing it to render the fair use policy changed due to revenue concerns. To creators, however, it's a slap in the face from a platform that at the outset seemed ideal for their varied content to thrive.
Vimeo is effectively allotting said creators an egregious ultimatum: pay up or pack up. The platform's head of communications, Matt Anchin, explains to the Verge these changes as requirements based on a user's bandwidth threshold. After exceeding a bandwidth limit, Vimeo was obligated to restructure the plan with the creator.
"Our goal will always be to provide the best video solution possible and work with our users so they can continue to reach their audiences in high quality," Anchin says. "We know there is always room to do better, and we are working to enhance our transparency and communication around bandwidth usage, both on and off our platform."
Creators like Channel 5, a popular on-the-street interview content special, and Lois van Baarle, an artist sharing individual digital creations, were struck with the abrupt change and given no prior notice. Baarle specifically has been utilizing Vimeo on an annual $200 subscription basis, providing her fans with content through Patreon. Vimeo's alteration boosted her price to $3,500 a year following a reassessment of her bandwidth level.
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Baarle, whose channel consists of 117 videos on an average of 150 views per, was sent via Vimeo with the aforementioned ultimatum of either accepting the new price point or leaving the platform entirely. She tells the Verge, "I've never had it where a platform reached out to me and was like, 'Pay up, or get off our platform,' basically."
While Baarle was asked to pay $3,500 annually, Channel 5 was given a $7,000 estimate for an annual subscription upgrade to meet Vimeo's new requirements. The popular content creation team even posted an entire thread to Patreon describing the alteration as a form of captivity to their content.
There are a myriad of factors that entail the bandwidth usage under Vimeo's platform. Main among these constraints is loading the video player, video plays, downloading, resolution, live streaming, and more. The platform has an entire help center page dedicated to "the basics of bandwidth," detailing its bandwidth usage threshold at around the monthly 2 to 3 TB mark. There are no specifics on how the overage charges can be doled out, judging by those who have come forward. It's clear Vimeo is quite heavy-headed in its selection process and charging parameters.
However, Vimeo claims that nearly 70% of those that are approached with said bandwidth overages decide on staying with the platform via lowering their bandwidth or accepting the new fee. Anichin assures that when bandwidth usage is exceeded for said creators, Vimeo does all it can to work with them to amend the constraints. Creators are, according to Vimeo, able to see the amount of bandwidth accrued over time.
Creators are now moving to YouTube in droves from Vimeo not merely due to the bandwidth issues and increasing plans, but more so due to the platform's pivot away from a YouTube counterpart. For the platform, corporate clients are the real catch-all. Vimeo CEO Anjali Sud explains the new targets best via a February-dated letter to shareholders, "Today we are a technology platform, not a viewing destination. We are a B2B solution, not the indie version of YouTube."
Thanks to a still-in-beta video hosting platform developed under Patreon, Channel 5 will begin to post content on its own Patreon page. Its previous Vimeo videos are now "wiped from the face of the earth" due to not upgrading. Baarle, on the other hand, is taking their content to YouTube instead of folding to Vimeo's absurd bump in pricing.
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