Vimeo has now jumped the shark

New this month…  Vimeo has changed their policy so that the original source files are only kept for one week if you are not a paid subscriber.  After 1 week, viewers will only be able to download the MP4 conversion created by Vimeo.

Their reasoning is perfectly sound.  Storing all of that footage costs a lot of money.  And like every other business in this economy, they need to cut costs and run more efficiently.

But with all of the other changes they have made since offering their paid service, Vimeo is now actually worse than YouTube to free users.  YouTube has unlimited uploading of HD video, Vimeo lets you upload a single HD file per week. YouTube has unlimited uploading with a 2GB per file limitation.  Vimeo lets you upload 500MB per week.  Average conversion time for getting a video online with YouTube is 45 minutes for a 10 minute video (the max length).  With Vimeo that has plummeted to a miserable 5 days.

If you’re a paid Vimeo subscriber, Vimeo will not delete your original files as long as your subscription is in good standing.  But in this economy, $60 is a lot for the service they offer.  And even then you still have a 2 GB over all limitation on uploads per week.

Personally, I think this is the beginning of the end for Vimeo as a serious competitor to YouTube.  I think they will continue to survive as a niche service with a very strong and loyal following among the current paid subscribers.  But there isn’t much to attract new users any more.

And as for me… I’m gonna start exploring all the new features YouTube has added over the past year.