Vimeo's new player is 50% faster

While video sharing service Vimeo's viewer numbers may currently be dwarfed by YouTube's, it's determined to become the platform of choice for creative professionals to showcase their work.

To that end, Vimeo today announced that it's rebuilt its video player from the ground up to provide a smoother and faster viewing experience.

Key elements of the rebuild include the following:

• The new player is much faster with 50% reduced load and click to playtimes.
• The player now defaults viewers to HTML5 to provide a more elegant viewing experience possible on desktop, mobile, and tablet.
• It also employs responsive web design to provide dynamic loading of design elements
• Viewers who encounter Vimeo On Demand content embedded off Vimeo.com can make purchases directly from the video player.
• The new player also increases viewer accessibility with screen reader and voiceover compatibility, while creators can now add closed captioning and translated subtitles to their videos.

“Vimeo takes great pride knowing that creators worldwide use our platform to ensure their content is showcased in the highest-quality possible,” said Vimeo's chief technology officer, Andrew Pile. “And we’re excited to take a leading role in support of open web standards by defaulting to HTML5.”

“Since launching the Vimeo On Demand platform last year, we’ve continued to add new features that empower filmmakers to sell directly to their audiences on their own terms," added Vimeo CEO Kerry Trainor. “The addition of in-player transaction support allows creators even further control by making any embedded Vimeo player a point of sale, be it on a creator's own website or any page across the web."

For more information regarding the new Vimeo player, see vimeo.com/player.

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