Vidme
 | |
Type of site | Video hosting service |
|---|---|
| Available in | English |
| Headquarters | Los Angeles, California , U.S. |
| Owner | Bit Kitchen |
| URL | Vid.me |
| Launched | January 22, 2014 |
| Current status | Closed since December 15, 2017 |
Vidme was a video hosting service that launched to the public in 2014.[1] It described itself as a hybrid between video hosting website YouTube and social news site Reddit.[1] It shut down in 2017.
History
The company was founded in 2014 by Warren Shaeffer and Alex Benzer in Los Angeles, California, and was originally called Viddme. After gaining in popularity, Viddme purchased the domain for Vidme and changed its name.[2] In April 2015, the site received a $3.2 million Series A round of funding.[3][4] Investors in the seed round included Mark Suster of Upfront Ventures and Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian. As of April 2015, Vidme had 30 million unique visitors per month.[4] The following year, it received a $6 million round.[5]
Closure
On December 1, 2017, after nearly four years of operation, Vidme announced on Reddit it would shut down on December 15, 2017. Vidme stopped accepting new uploads or new members at that time. The site's closure was due to, according to the company, not finding a sustainable model and due to an increase in competition.[6][7] In particular, Google (through YouTube), Facebook, and Instagram were named by co-founder Warren Shaeffer as too competitive for Vidme.[8][9][10]
On their website, the team announced that they would be launching a new website called Digital Objects (digitalobjects.art), which later was discontinued.[11]
Vidme was acquired by Giphy[12] and shortly after Bit Kitchen was renamed to Knowable once it was launched.
In July 2021, the Vid.me domain name was acquired by a pornography company. As a result, news articles and social media posts with an embedded Vidme video instead displayed hardcore pornography. The Washington Post, New York Magazine and The Guardian were some of the major news sites that were affected.[13][14]
See also
References
- ^ a b Spangler, Todd (December 13, 2016). "Startup Vidme Raises $6 Million to Build 'YouTube-Reddit' Hybrid". Variety. Archived from the original on 2017-05-15. Retrieved 2017-05-07.
- ^ Perez, Sarah (January 17, 2014). "Vidme Brings Anonymous Video Sharing To Web, iPhone & Android". TechCrunch. Archived from the original on November 18, 2017. Retrieved 2017-10-31.
- ^ Kiberd, Roisin (June 14, 2017). "Vidme Is the Latest Challenger to YouTube's Dominance". Motherboard. Archived from the original on August 26, 2017. Retrieved 2017-08-26.
- ^ a b Perez, Sarah (April 7, 2015). "Vidme, An Imgur For Video, Grabs $3.2 Million". TechCrunch. Archived from the original on July 6, 2017. Retrieved 2017-08-26.
- ^ Weiss, Geoff (December 13, 2016). "Vidme, A Cross Between YouTube And Reddit, Raises $6 Million In New Funding". Tubefilter. Archived from the original on 2017-05-19. Retrieved 2017-05-08.
- ^ Shaeffer, Warren (1 December 2017). "Goodbye for now". Vidme. Archived from the original on 6 December 2017. Retrieved 7 December 2017 – via Medium.
- ^ Shah, Saqib (4 December 2017). "Vidme's YouTube-meets-Reddit video service is no more". Engadget. Archived from the original on 7 December 2017. Retrieved 7 December 2017.
- ^ Spangler, Todd (2017-12-01). "Vidme Shuts Down User-Generated Video Service, Citing Inability to Compete With Google, Facebook". Variety. Retrieved 2021-02-02.
- ^ "Vidme's YouTube-meets-Reddit video service is no more". Engadget. Retrieved 2021-02-02.
- ^ "What happened to Vidme".
- ^ "Digital Objects". archive.is. 2020-06-29. Archived from the original on 2020-06-29. Retrieved 2020-06-29.
- ^ Shaeffer, Warren (2019-08-06). "Goodbye for now". Medium. Retrieved 2020-06-29.
- ^ Matthew Gault (2021-07-22). "A Defunct Video Hosting Site Is Flooding Normal Websites With Hardcore Porn". Vice. Retrieved 2021-07-22.
- ^ Mia Jankowicz (2021-07-23). "Mainstream sites were left displaying hardcore porn after an expired domain redirected to X-rated videos". Business Insider.