Will Vimeo Ever Sell Out? A Documentary (and the Death of Tip Jar)

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by Nino LeitnerAugust 6^th, 2015

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I recently came along a very interesting mini-documentary by IT site The Verge about our favourite online video platform, Vimeo. This has been online for 7 months but seems to have gone largely unnoticed by a wider audience so far – but it’s really worth seeing.

In it, The Verge tries to find out if Vimeo can build a big business without selling out. How can they maintain a successful online business without any ads?

It gives interesting insights from Vimeo’s CEO, about the person who actually selects the Staff Picks and how he selects them (I personally was in the lucky position to have 2 of 3 of my videos selected for Staff Picks in the past, and it’s amazing what this can do in views …). They try to define what a “Vimeo video” is, which is something that’s really hard to nail down, yet so obvious to anyone using the platform on a regular basis.

The Verge also interviewed filmmakers who create new type of content that is originally created for an online audience, utilizing Vimeo On Demand, which is the pay-per-view platform that Vimeo wants to focus on in the future. In particular, the show “High Maintenance” is covered and its creators interviewed.

Tip Jar is gone

In other Vimeo news, the platform discontinued its “Tip Jar” feature where users could pay video creators a tip if they liked their content. It’s not available anymore since July 29, only days after this email announcement to all prior Tip Jar users:

On July 29, we will discontinue Tip Jar and no longer collect tips on your Tip Jar-enabled videos. Any tips you’ve received up until then will be paid out in accordance with our Payment Addendum. You don’t need to take any action to make this happen.

While we’re sad to say goodbye to our old friend, this change will allow us to focus on tools like Vimeo On Demand to help creators like you earn money from your videos.