Goodbye to Vimeo
https://www.neme.org/blog/goodbye-to-vimeo
The ecosystem of online video hosting is changing, and after careful deliberation, we have opted not to renew our Vimeo subscription. The reason is that despite once being hailed as the ultimate platform by independent creators, filmmakers, analysts, NGOs, and big corporations wanting a top-quality product, things have changed. Although we have uploaded our first video there in 2008, and since, we are archiving 229 of them but the time has come to move on be it to another controversial platform. Here’s our reasoning:
- The erroneous DMCA Notice of 2015 (The Reason for Distrust)
We didn’t come to dislike Vimeo overnight, and the roots of our resentment date back to more than ten years. In 2015, we received an erroneous DMCA takedown notice for a video we have produced and uploaded in our account.
Though copyrights are very important, the way Vimeo has handled the situation highlighted a systemic issue, “guilty until proven innocent” system in operation and if our defence case did not go viral we would have had a permanent copyright strike against us. - Deletion of content
Vimeo’s aggressive policy of archiving and deleting contents from expired accounts started in 2016.
Previously, in the case of lapse of the paid subscription, the account used to just downgrade into a free “Basic” one, while the videos would stay intact.
The new policy was more tough on users:- The 500 MB Cap: If the subscription ends and the account gets downgraded to a Basic/Free plan, then the user is entitled to retain only the latest 500 MB of their video data.
- The 1-Year Deletion Archive: Videos whose storage goes beyond the 10 GB mark become automatically hidden and stored in a “private archive” belonging to Vimeo. Vimeo keeps the videos in their possession for one year, giving the creator one more chance to renew and get upgraded back to a premium plan to save their videos. Otherwise, they will be deleted forever.
- Source File Deletion: In addition to the videos, Vimeo also offers a 60-day period after which source files get deleted, which are not available anymore after a paid membership ends.
This development received widespread backlash from independent filmmakers and content creators since it came to their realization that pausing the subscription would result in losing access to their portfolio or losing the video for their viewers.
- Vimeo’s Acquisition by Bending Spoons
The catalyst was the recent restructuring of its business activities. In 2026, Vimeo has been taken over by Bending Spoons, an IT enterprise operating from Milan.
The business model that Bending Spoons has adopted is based on a practice of acquiring popular mobile applications and services. For instance, companies like Evernote, Meetup, and Filmic Pro have been purchased by Bending Spoons and the new owners followed through with radical changes including:- Sudden increases in the cost of the service for existing clients
- Mass layoffs of all original programmers and support staff
- Introduction of payment for previously free services
- Transition from “Creator Community” to “Enterprise SaaS”
Even without the Bending Spoons deal, Vimeo has long since lost its identity as the community for creators. Some time back, management made it explicit that Vimeo was not striving to be the “Netflix for indie creators,” but rather the enterprise software-as-a-service (SaaS) business tool. Community is gone. Staff Picks don’t matter anymore, and Vimeo has put corporate communication tools ahead of filmmaking skills. - Predatory Pricing and “Bandwidth Caps”
Vimeo has alienated thousands of creators with its pricing moves. According to their “commercial use” and “bandwidth” policies, after hosting videos on Vimeo for years, people were suddenly surprised by a huge bill amounting to thousands of dollars within an incredibly short time frame. If a video becomes unexpectedly popular, the creator will be immediately forced to move to the enterprise level plan.
Vimeo’s bandwidth limit notice usually arrives at the moment when content is being watched the most. Their billing model punishes growth and puts its clients in the position of hoping that their content is not watched too much, which is the opposite of what any video creator wants. - Lack of Feature Innovation
In comparison with other competing platforms, Vimeo is far behind in terms of developing new interactive features, advanced capabilities, and seamless integrations. We are now paying the price for the premium-level service that does not provide anything useful. - Organic traffic and followers
Vimeo’s pages are not search engine friendly and since 2020 our content there does not get many views. Furthermore, our follower numbers remained stagnant.
What’s Next? Our Archive Lives on YouTube
Thankfully we are not starting from scratch. Although we joined YouTube in 2008, it is only since 2020 that we have established our video channel there. The platform offers unlimited uploads and bandwidth, accessible, and global reach without unexpected billing surprises. You can find our full, ongoing video archive-featuring our past exhibitions, artist talks, performances, and seminars-on the NeMe YouTube Channel , or you can watch them in this website. We invite all of our followers, researchers, and community members to subscribe to us.
Having the stressful experience of the DMCA notice, and although our videos are uploaded using a Creative Commons license, what we like about the platform is its primary mechanisms which protects copyrighted content:
Content ID (an automated scanning system) and manual Copyright Takedown Notices. How YouTube handles an upload depends entirely on which of these systems flags the content.
Content ID Claims continuously scans uploaded videos against a massive database of audio and visual material submitted by major copyright owners using automated tools. If a match is found, the system applies a Content ID claim. This is not a copyright strike, and the video usually stays online. Instead, the copyright owner chooses one of three automated actions:
- The video is restricted from being viewed entirely, or blocked only in specific countries.
- The video remains viewable, but ads are placed on it. The ad revenue goes directly to the copyright owner rather than the uploader.
- The video stays online without ads, but the copyright owner tracks its viewership statistics.
Sustainability
As much as we are aware of the questionable practices of Alphabet Inc, knowing full well that free means that we are the product, and that there is no such thing as a permanent online digital archive, a small NGO like ours, with limited funding and resources, has limited choices. With all the criticism against YouTube, it appears that, for now at least, is the right platform that it can give us some visibility, and to archive our videos beyond our lifespan. To strengthen this, we are also preparing to upload our videos in the Internet Archive.
