Rival video platforms threw shade at the #YouTubeIsOverParty drama
LOS ANGELES -- Digital video platforms Vimeo and Vidme are throwing some timely shade at YouTube.
On Friday -- one day after many outraged creators declared their disdain for YouTube's not-so-new "advertiser-friendly guidelines -- Vidme and Vimeo made public efforts to underscore just how different they are from the competitor and Google-owned giant.
Vimeo, a division of IAC which launched in 2004, posted a blog dedicated to "the best of advertiser-unfriendly videos."
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In it, Vimeo's head of content distribution Peter Gerard put together some of the best Staff Picks available on the platform.
"Vimeo provides an exclusively ad-free viewing experience for a number of reasons," he wrote. "Some are obvious: it’s annoying to have to sit through a commercial before watching an amazing video. But for filmmakers, perhaps the most important thing is the ability to express a vision without constraints. If Vimeo relied on advertising, then we would have to restrict the voices we celebrate to ensure our featured videos were 'advertiser-friendly.' And if the whole world of videos was advertiser-friendly, we believe it would be a boring place"
Some of the video examples include Savasana, from Brandon Daley, Obituaries, from Ryan Moody, and Cam Girlz, from Sean Dunne.
In an email to Mashable, a Vimeo spokesperson said "YouTube's revenue model continues to place narrative guard rails on creators. In contrast, Vimeo—with no interruptive advertising anywhere on the platform -- empowers creators will full creative control."
That trust has had positive results, Vimeo said. The platform cited High Maintenance, its first original which was picked up by HBO, and its first original comedy stand-up special with Bianca Del Rio, which got picked up by Logo, as examples.
"Vimeo’s open VOD platform boasts the most creator-friendly revenue share in the industry, with 90% of revenue being returned to creators," the platform said.
Video hosting site Vidme had a different approach to mocking the YouTube drama.
Many outraged YouTube creators on Thursday complained that the platform is cracking down on censorship with its ad guidelines.
So Vidme created a short, funny video advertisement specifically highlighting the censorship issue.
“Vidme doesn’t censor content for bad language or controversial subject matter,” reads the ad’s description. “We like weird.”
The final shot is of a waving American flag, with the message: “START YOUR F*CKING AWESOME CHANNEL TODAY."
YouTube did not immediately respond to Mashable's request for comment about the Vidme video and Vimeo blog post.
However, in a statement sent to press on Thursday, the platform said the following: "While our policy of demonetizing videos due to advertiser-friendly concerns hasn’t changed, we’ve recently improved the notification and appeal process to ensure better communication to our creators."
UPDATE: July 23, 2021, 11:22 a.m. AEST Vidme's video has been removed from this story as it is unfortunately no longer available.
Topics Social Media YouTube
Saba was a Los Angeles-based reporter who covers all things digital entertainment, including YouTube, streaming services and digital influencers. Prior to that, she spent two years at the Los Angeles Times covering entertainment for the Calendar and Company Town sections. Saba grew up in Santa Monica and graduated from Boston University with a B.S. in journalism and B.A. in political science. When not reporting, she is usually binge watching shows online or looking for new coffee shops to frequent.
