Video sharing website, Vimeo has announced the acquisition of Livestream and at the same time added a live streaming feature to its platform named Vimeo Live. The details of the deal were not disclosed by parties.
With Vimeo Live, users will now be able to stream live from anywhere and videos will be automatically archived when the events are ended.
On this acquisition, Vimeo CEO, Anjali Sud, said: “Ultimately, Vimeo is a creator-first platform and live video is what our creators are asking for – this was the #1 request from our community, and it is critically important for us to deliver on what our community needs, while also ensuring that what we produce is founded in quality and reliability, which is why we’re so proud of Vimeo Live and this acquisition.
“A big reason for doing this acquisition was the opportunity to bring Livestream’s expertise and institutional knowledge in live video to Vimeo. This combination is not about cost-cutting, it is about growth and attacking a massive opportunity in the market together.
“Finally live video contributes to our goal of offering an end-to-end solution across a creator’s entire video workflow, from broadcasting live events to archiving and hosting videos, to distributing and monetizing them anywhere.”
As part of the deal, Livestream co-founder and CEO Mark Kornfilt will report to Vimeo CEO Anjali Sud as General Manager of Livestream. His focus will be on growing Vimeo’s combined live offering and integrating Livestream’s capabilities into Vimeo.
Livestream’s 180 employees worldwide will be offered jobs at Vimeo, where they will work on Vimeo’s products and platform, including the integration that will allow streaming from Livestream’s video products to Vimeo Live.
Livestream presently streams over 10 million events per year for over 10,000 paying subscribers like Dow Jones, Philadelphia Eagles, Tough Mudder, and Spotify. Nearly 50 million viewers tune in to watch the hundreds of thousands of live events powered by Livestream every month.
With this Livestream’s robust figures, Vimeo will no doubt take advantage of it to boost their business portfolio to enable it to compete with YouTube its main rival.
