Vidme

The YouTube alternative for creators fleeing the adpocalypse, out of money in December 2017; its domain now points at porn

Shut down
19902026

Vidme was a video-sharing site and app launched in January 2014 by Warren Shaeffer and Alex Benzer as an "Imgur for video", which grew into a YouTube alternative with a voting community, creator tips and subscriptions during YouTube's 2017 advertising crackdown. It raised about $9 million and reached tens of millions of monthly viewers, then announced on 1 December 2017 that it would shut down on 15 December for lack of money.

Timeline [edit]

  1. 2014
  2. 16 January 2014 Launch
    Viddme launches

    Anonymous video links for Reddit.

  3. 2015
  4. 7 April 2015 Funding
    $3.2 million; rebuilt as a community

    Profiles, upvotes, categories.

  5. 2016
  6. 13 December 2016 Funding
    $6 million round

    A YouTube-Reddit hybrid.

  7. 2017
  8. March 2017 Peak
    The YouTube adpocalypse sends creators to Vidme

    About 30 million monthly users.

  9. 1 December 2017 Shutdown announced
    "Goodbye for now"

    Shutdown set for 15 December.

  10. 15 December 2017 Shutdown
    Vidme closes
  11. 2021
  12. 23 July 2021 Incident
    vid.me becomes a porn redirect

    Old embeds on news sites show adult content.

The site through time

Browse vid.me as it was, via the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine:

2014 2015 2016 2017 Full archive →

Ownership [edit]

Vidme Inc. 2014–2017 Founded Founded by Warren Shaeffer and Alex Benzer; about $9 million raised

Why it shut down [edit]

Official line: On 1 December 2017 Vidme announced it would shut down on 15 December 2017, saying that as a small start-up it could not compete for advertisers with Google and Facebook, that its infrastructure costs were rising with its traffic, and that it had failed to raise a further round or find a buyer. Creators were told to download their videos. Its domain, vid.me, was later bought by a pornography site, so that thousands of old embedded links on news sites now show adult content.

Our analysis: Vidme was the right idea at the right moment, a creator-friendly video host with a Reddit-style community when YouTube was demonetising channels, and it grew fast on exactly the creators YouTube was upsetting. It could not turn them into revenue: video is expensive to store and stream, advertisers buy scale, and its tipping and subscription features made pocket change. It closed with about 30 million monthly users and no way to pay for them.

History [edit]

An Imgur for video

Vidme (at first Viddme) launched on 16 January 2014 with a web uploader and iPhone and Android apps: drop a video, get a link, no account required. Warren Shaeffer and Alex Benzer had built it as the video equivalent of Imgur, and it found its early audience on Reddit, where its short links became common. In April 2015 it raised $3.2 million and rebuilt itself around a community: user profiles, upvotes, categories, comments, and in 2016 tipping and a paid subscription that let viewers support creators directly.

Its moment came in 2017. YouTube's "adpocalypse", the demonetisation of channels after brand-safety scandals, sent creators looking for somewhere else to post, and Vidme, which promised human curation, no algorithmic burial and a share of revenue, took a great many of them. Traffic rose to about 30 million monthly users, it raised $6 million more in December 2016 and its apps were on Roku, Apple TV, Xbox and Chromecast.

Goodbye for now

The growth was the problem. Every viewer cost bandwidth and storage, advertisers would not buy a video site of that size when they could buy YouTube, and tips and subscriptions did not close the gap. On 1 December 2017 the founders published "Goodbye for now": the site and apps would close on 15 December, creators should download their work, and the company would look for a buyer for the technology. None came. In 2021 the vid.me domain was sold and began redirecting to a pornographic site, and because Vidme embeds were scattered across news sites, from the Washington Post to Fox, those articles briefly displayed adult content in the space where the video used to be.

The domain today

vid.me redirects to an adult site unconnected with the company.

Similar projects

Vine Six seconds, looped forever 2013–2017 Periscope Live from anywhere, until the money ran out 2015–2021 Mixer The $100 million assault on Twitch 2016–2020 Quibi $1.75 billion, six months, gone 2020–2020 Justin.tv One man's life stream that became Twitch 2007–2014 Musical.ly The lip-sync app that became TikTok 2014–2018

Sources [edit]

  1. Vidme brings anonymous video sharing to web, iPhone and Android TechCrunch 17 January 2014 [archived]
  2. Vidme, an Imgur for video, grabs $3.2 million TechCrunch 7 April 2015 [archived]
  3. Startup Vidme raises $6 million to build YouTube-Reddit hybrid Variety 13 December 2016 [archived]
  4. Vidme shuts down user-generated video service, citing inability to compete with Google, Facebook Variety 1 December 2017 [archived]
  5. Vidme's YouTube-meets-Reddit video service is no more Engadget 4 December 2017 [archived]
  6. Porn displayed on sites like Fox, WaPo, after Vidme links redirected Business Insider 23 July 2021 [archived]

Last verified: 16 August 2026. Spotted an error? Suggest an edit (corrections with sources are reviewed and applied).