| Vimeo, Inc. is an American video hosting, sharing, and services platform provider headquartered in New York City. Vimeo focuses on the delivery of high-definition video across a range of devices. Vimeo's business model is through software as a service (SaaS). They derive revenue by providing subscription plans for businesses and video content producers. Vimeo provides its subscribers with tools for video creation, editing, and broadcasting, enterprise software solutions, as well as the means for video professionals to connect with clients and other professionals.
Vimeo was founded in November 2004 by Connected Ventures, the parent company of the humor-based website CollegeHumor, as a side project of web developers Jake Lodwick and Zach Klein to share and tag short videos with their friends. The idea for a video-sharing site was inspired after CollegeHumor received a large number of views from a posted video clip of the October 2004 Saturday Night Live show that included Ashlee Simpson's infamous lip-syncing incident. The name Vimeo was created by Lodwick as a play on the words video and me.
By October 2007, Vimeo was the first video sharing site to offer high-definition content to users via Flash-based high-definition video playback. While IAC's acquisition of Connected Ventures helped to target Vimeo's direction, the corporate nature of IAC created issues with many of the original staff of CollegeHumor and Vimeo. Lodwick was planning to leave the company near the end of 2007, as he said that IAC's incorporation of business processes hampered their creativity, but was fired a few weeks before that point. Klein left in early 2008.
In March 2017, Vimeo introduced 360-degree video support, including support for virtual reality platforms and smartphones, stereoscopic video, and an online video series providing guidance on filming and producing 360-degree videos.
In November 2020, spurred by growth in Vimeo's services due to the COVID-19 pandemic, IAC raised US$150 million for Vimeo in anticipation of spinning off the subsidiary as its own company, giving Vimeo a US$2.75 billion valuation. Another round of investment in January 2021 brought an additional US$300 million, raising its total valuation to an estimated US$5 billion. Vimeo's shareholders agreed to going public on May 14, 2021.
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