YouTube competitor Vidme, popular among some for its more social aspects, is to close down.
Despite raising a significant amount of capital in funding since the site was first launched in 2014, co-founder Warren Schaeffer announced that Vidme “couldn’t find a path to sustainability” and will shut down its user-generated content section in 2018.
We’re sad to say that Vidme will be suspending services soon. Read our blog post for details: https://t.co/oAtwsn61NK
— Vidme (@vidme) December 1, 2017
“We were confident we could create a new type of video platform,” Schaeffer explained. “One that was more community-oriented, more transparent, and more equitable to creators.
“Although we still believe that the world would greatly benefit from a creator-first video platform, we weren’t able to find a path to financial sustainability.”
My last video has got like 10x the views on Vidme compared to YouTube. Obviously the competition is a lot less. Easier to get seen.
— Will McDaniel (@will_mcdaniel) March 27, 2017
The announcement has come as a surprise, with the statement and final site closure taking place within just 15 days. Subscriber billings were immediately halted and a set timeline for how the site closure will proceed was released via blog post.
Existing videos will be playable and exportable for creators until December 15. After that, all videos will be permanently deleted from the site.
While several YouTube competitors have been touted in the past, the past year for Vidme had seemed promising. Creators welcomed the more organic and less intensely populated space to grow and engage with fans.
Both. On Youtube I have 750,000 subs still so I can't waste that. But I like how non-corporate Vidme is.
— David Firth (@DAVID_FIRTH) April 13, 2017
Want more?
Look back on Vidme and their vision for building a creator-first video platform in their AMA earlier this year, or read about how new service Lickd aims to solve copyright claims on YouTube.
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