• GigaOm, Monday, August 1, 2011 11:49 AM

Until now, Vimeo has been known as an ad-free platform for semi-professional videos. Now, challenging Brightcove and Ooyala, IAC-owned site is getting into the video hosting business. "With a new Vimeo Pro product priced at $199 a year, [Vimeo] is hoping to undercut the competition and add a whole new revenue stream to its business," GigaOm writes. (Brightcove's lowest-price offering, which allows users to manage up to 50 videos and includes just 40 GB of bandwidth, is $99 a month.)

Rather than be part of Vimeo.com, Vimeo Pro videos will be hosted on customers' own sites. The service will also offer features that aren't available to free users, including customizable "portfolio" Web sites and players, review pages that can be shared before a video goes public, advanced reporting and analytics, social media sharing tools, and advanced privacy settings.

"Vimeo's announcement follows a trend of companies offering ultra-cheap -- or in some cases free -- video hosting to capture the small and medium-sized business market," GigaOm adds.

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