Vidme

The company was founded in 2014 by Warren Shaeffer and Alex Benzer in Los Angeles, California, and was originally called Viddme. After gaining in popularity, Vidme purchased the domain for Vidme and changed its name.{{Cite news |last=Perez |first=Sarah |date=Jan 17, 2014 |title=Vidme Brings Anonymous Video Sharing To Web, iPhone & Android |url=https://techcrunch.com/2014/01/17/viddme-brings-anonymous-video-sharing-to-web-iphone-android/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171118165944/https://techcrunch.com/2014/01/17/viddme-brings-anonymous-video-sharing-to-web-iphone-android/ |archive-date=November 18, 2017 |access-date=2017-10-31 |work=TechCrunch |language=en}} In April 2015, the site received a $3.2 million Series A round of funding.{{Cite web |last=Kiberd |first=Roisin |date=June 14, 2017 |title=Vidme Is the Latest Challenger to YouTube's Dominance |url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/vidme-is-the-latest-challenger-to-youtubes-dominance/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170826153145/https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/wjq48w/vidme-is-the-latest-challenger-to-youtubes-dominance |archive-date=August 26, 2017 |access-date=2017-08-26 |website=Motherboard |language=en-us}}{{Cite web |last=Perez |first=Sarah |date=Apr 7, 2015 |title=Vidme, An Imgur For Video, Grabs $3.2 Million |url=https://techcrunch.com/2015/04/07/vidme-an-imgur-for-video-grabs-3-2-million/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170706085854/https://techcrunch.com/2015/04/07/vidme-an-imgur-for-video-grabs-3-2-million/ |archive-date=July 6, 2017 |access-date=2017-08-26 |website=TechCrunch}} Investors in the seed round included Mark Suster of Upfront Ventures and Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian. As of April 2015, Vidme had 30 million unique visitors per month. The following year, it received a $6 million round.{{Cite news |last=Weiss |first=Geoff |date=2016-12-13 |title=Vidme, A Cross Between YouTube And Reddit, Raises $6 Million In New Funding |url=http://www.tubefilter.com/2016/12/13/vidme-youtube-reddit-raises-6-million-funding-round/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170519233732/http://www.tubefilter.com/2016/12/13/vidme-youtube-reddit-raises-6-million-funding-round/ |archive-date=2017-05-19 |access-date=2017-05-08 |work=Tubefilter |language=en-US}}

On December 1, 2017, after nearly four years of operation, Vidme announced on Reddit it would shut down on December 15, 2017. Vidme stopped accepting new uploads or new members at that time. The site's closure was due to, according to the company, not finding a sustainable model and due to an increase in competition.{{Cite web |last=Shaeffer |first=Warren |date=1 December 2017 |title=Goodbye for now |url=https://medium.com/vidme/goodbye-for-now-120b40becafa |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171206153652/https://medium.com/vidme/goodbye-for-now-120b40becafa |archive-date=6 December 2017 |access-date=7 December 2017 |website=Vidme |via=Medium}}{{Cite news |last=Shah |first=Saqib |date=4 December 2017 |title=Vidme's YouTube-meets-Reddit video service is no more |url=https://www.engadget.com/2017/12/04/vidme-video-shut-down/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171207004941/https://www.engadget.com/2017/12/04/vidme-video-shut-down/ |archive-date=7 December 2017 |access-date=7 December 2017 |work=Engadget}} In particular, Google (through YouTube), Facebook, and Instagram were named by co-founder Warren Shaeffer as too competitive for Vidme.{{Cite web |last=Spangler |first=Todd |date=2017-12-01 |title=Vidme Shuts Down User-Generated Video Service, Citing Inability to Compete With Google, Facebook |url=https://variety.com/2017/digital/news/vidme-shuts-down-video-app-1202628367/ |access-date=2021-02-02 |website=Variety |language=en-US}}{{Cite web |title=Vidme's YouTube-meets-Reddit video service is no more |url=https://www.engadget.com/2017-12-04-vidme-video-shut-down.html |access-date=2021-02-02 |website=Engadget |date=December 4, 2017 |language=en}}

On their website, the team announced that they would be launching a new website called Digital Objects (digitalobjects.art), which later was discontinued.{{Cite web |date=2020-06-29 |title=Digital Objects |url=https://digitalobjects.art/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://archive.today/20200629184014/https://digitalobjects.art/ |archive-date=2020-06-29 |access-date=2020-06-29}}

Vidme was acquired by Giphy{{Cite web |last=Shaeffer |first=Warren |date=2019-08-06 |title=Goodbye for now |url=https://medium.com/vidme/goodbye-for-now-120b40becafa |access-date=2020-06-29 |website=Medium |language=en}} and shortly after Bit Kitchen was renamed to Knowable once it was launched.

In July 2021, the Vid.me domain name was acquired by a pornography company. As a result, news articles and social media posts with an embedded Vidme video instead displayed hardcore pornography. The Washington Post, New York Magazine and The Guardian were some of the major news sites that were affected.{{Cite web |last=Gault |first=Matthew |date=2021-07-22 |title=A Defunct Video Hosting Site Is Flooding Normal Websites With Hardcore Porn |url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/a-defunct-video-hosting-site-is-flooding-normal-websites-with-hardcore-porn/ |access-date=2021-07-22 |website=Vice}}{{Cite web |last=Jankowicz |first=Mia |date=2021-07-23 |title=Mainstream sites were left displaying hardcore porn after an expired domain redirected to X-rated videos |url=https://www.businessinsider.com/porn-displayed-on-sites-fox-wapo-vidme-links-redirected-2021-7 |website=Business Insider}}

• BitChute
• Vimeo
• Odysee

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• {{Webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250328073001/https://knowable.fyi/ |date=March 28, 2025 |title=Knowable}}

Category:American entertainment websites

Category:Internet properties established in 2014

Category:Internet properties disestablished in 2017

Category:2014 establishments in California

Category:Former video hosting services