American video hosting, sharing, and services platform provider Vimeo has announced to change its video bandwidth policy. The decision has come after Vimeo which follows the guiding principal of ‘Users First’, realised that that their policies are failing to serve the best interests of a group of users.

Anjali Sud, CEO Vimeo, has extended an apology to top 1% of users of Vimeo who faced unnecessary friction and anxiety after some users consumed large amounts of video bandwidth — repeatedly hitting the bandwidth threshold for Vimeo’s top 1% of users.

Sud has suggested a solution to the problem. Vimeo has plan to charge those who consistently or significantly exceed the video bandwidth thresholds. She also highlighted that more than 99% of Vimeo’s users don’t reach the threshold that would require the Company to charge them extra.

Sud informs that those who require an exceptionally large amount of bandwidth need to pay extra as compared to their flat subscription fees.

According to Sud, more than 70% of users who originally hit their bandwidth threshold choose to pay more to continue using Vimeo’s service, and go on to become some of our longest-retaining customers.

Sud has also clarified that they are not specifically targeting video creators while employing this model, in fact it is applicable to all users equally.

Emphasising on Company’s policy to support their core creators, Sud writes that they will continue to invest in products and programs to support them. Vimeo supports creators by offering  online program for creative professionals to help sharpen their skills through courses, network, and find work. Sud confirms that they will continue to invest in these and other initiatives to help creators thrive.

Upcoming changes

To improve clarity and transparency moving forward, Vimeo will be setting the monthly bandwidth threshold at 2TB (or 2,000 GB)—which would impact even less than 1% of our users. Users can access their bandwidth usage report directly on their Vimeo account to track usage. This decision has been taken after fully reviewing Vimeo’s existing bandwidth policy and listening to feedback from some of highest bandwidth users.

More frequent and visible alerts

In addition to the analytics dashboard that shows ongoing usage and in-product alerts, Sud has announced that users will receive notifications via email when they’ve exceeded the monthly bandwidth threshold.

Extended notice periods

Vimeo has decided to give a minimum of 30 days-notice period to respond to their team and reach an agreeable resolution if a user exceeds the monthly threshold. During this time, there will be no changes to their account, videos, or service.

Giving users more alternatives

Vimeo will continue to provide a pro-rated refund for any current paying subscriber user that exceeds our bandwidth threshold and decides Vimeo is no longer the best fit for their needs. In those instances, the Company will provide time to migrate their videos off of our platform and repay the remainder of their account balance.

Rolling out an exemption policy

Vimeo CEO has also confirmed that the Company will be rolling out an exemption policy moving forward where creative professionals would not be restricted by the 2TB bandwidth threshold, as long as they aren’t using Vimeo to monetize those videos elsewhere.

Vimeo will share more details on the same within the next 30 days. The updated information will be available on their help center.

Vimeo offers paid subscription plans that enable access to their platform to cover the costs of operations. It serves as a one platform for all your video needs such as create, manage and grow. The video platform is used by more than 260 million users globally.

Each paid tier provides different limits on usage and different access to advanced video tools and features.

In another development, Vimeo has suspended support for new customers in Russia and updating their content guidelines. The decision has come in response to invasion of Ukraine by Russia.

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