Vimeo Overhauls Its Most Important Product: The Video Player

Any of the service’s 22 million registered users can now buy a movie straight from the Vimeo player. “While people are accustomed to purchasing through Amazon or iTunes, you have to yet to see it be distributed at web scale,” CEO Kerry Trainor tells TheWrap

Vimeo has revamped its video player so that viewers can watch their favorite videos faster and more easily on mobile devices – and buy them if they are so inclined. The player has long been one of Vimeo’s best features, providing high-quality video that both consumers and filmmakers are happy to use.

CEO Kerry Trainor told TheWrap a top to bottom rebuild would improve the experience for both of those camps.

Once you press play, you will now see video 50 percent faster, and you can also buy a video available via the Vimeo on Demand pay service straight from the player.

Vimeo launched its on demand service at South by Southwest last year, and recently hired Greg Clayman to help grow its audience and improve the product. Vimeo now boasts a library of more than 5,000 titles, and its 22 million registered users can all purchase videos straight from the player rather than going to Vimeo.com.

Also read: Vimeo Hires Top News Corp. Executive to Build Its VOD Store

“Any Vimeo player becomes a point of sale,” Trainor said.  “While people are accustomed to purchasing through Amazon or iTunes, you have to yet to see it be distributed at web scale. You can’t embed iTunes or Amazon on a website. To think now that you can, we’re very excited.”

The updates also target two key areas for growth – mobile and global. Because the player now defaults to HTML 5, it will be a smoother viewing experience on mobile devices. Mobile views constitute 40 percent of the views on Vimeo.

For those watching in other countries or the hearing-impaired, the new player now has subtitles and closed captioning support.

“The change isn’t about fixing things but constantly updating,” Trainor told TheWrap. “The HTML5 default makes the player much nicer with Android devices. That’s a massive population, particularly as mobile usage continues to explode.”

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