Simply 4 months after Italian tech agency Bending Spoons accomplished its $1.38 billion acquisition of the pioneering video platform, as we had been fearing simply over per week in the past, Vimeo has laid off what former workers describe as “virtually everybody” on the firm, together with all the video engineering staff. The transfer follows a well-recognized sample from Bending Spoons, which beforehand gutted the groups behind Filmic Professional, WeTransfer, and Evernote.

For filmmakers and cinematographers who’ve relied on Vimeo for greater than 20 years as a premium various to YouTube, the information raises pressing questions in regards to the platform’s future and the destiny of numerous portfolios, shopper tasks, and the infrastructure powering providers from the Criterion Channel to Dropout TV.

What we all know in regards to the Vimeo layoffs

Bending Spoons confirmed to a number of retailers that layoffs had been introduced at Vimeo on January 20, 2026. The corporate declined to specify what number of workers had been affected, citing privateness considerations. Nonetheless, former employees members have painted a stark image throughout LinkedIn and social media.

Dave Brown, Vimeo’s former Vice President of World Model and Inventive, wrote on LinkedIn that he was impacted together with “a big portion of the corporate.” Former software program engineer Steve Dixon described being laid off alongside “a huge quantity of the corporate.” Maybe most tellingly, Derek Buitenhuis, a 13-year Vimeo veteran who had left in November, shared that “virtually everybody” was terminated, “together with all the video staff.”

A number of stories point out greater than 1,000 workers had been affected globally, with Israeli outlet CTech reporting that Vimeo laid off “most” of its workers in that nation. This marks the platform’s second main workforce discount in lower than six months; Vimeo reduce roughly 10% of staff in September 2025, only one week earlier than Bending Spoons introduced plans to accumulate it.

A well-known sample

The Milan-based Bending Spoons has developed a well-documented playbook: purchase struggling however recognizable tech manufacturers, slash their workforces dramatically, and coast on present know-how whereas elevating costs. For the filmmaking group, this sample ought to ring alarm bells.

In 2023, Bending Spoons acquired Filmic Professional, the once-ubiquitous cellular video seize app featured in numerous Apple keynotes. Inside months, all 22 authentic staff members had been let go, together with founder and CEO Neill Barham. The app has acquired solely minimal updates since, with no main function improvement regardless of rising competitors from Blackmagic’s free Digicam app.

WeTransfer adopted an identical trajectory after its July 2024 acquisition. Inside two months, 75% of employees had been terminated. The corporate then tried to make use of uploaded information to coach AI fashions earlier than reversing course after backlash, and capped its free tier considerably. Evernote, Meetup, and extra just lately AOL and Eventbrite have all joined Bending Spoons’ portfolio, every experiencing substantial layoffs.

A Bending Spoons spokesperson offered the identical assertion to a number of retailers: “Going ahead, Bending Spoons stays dedicated to rising Vimeo to fulfill the wants of its various person base.”

Why this issues for filmmakers

Vimeo has occupied a singular place within the filmmaking ecosystem since its founding in 2004, predating YouTube by a yr. The place YouTube prioritized viral content material and algorithmic discovery, Vimeo constructed its popularity on high-definition streaming, ad-free viewing, customizable embeds, and a staff-curated method that elevated technical craft over uncooked view counts.

The platform’s Workers Picks program launched careers and led on to tasks like HBO’s Excessive Upkeep, which started as a Vimeo-exclusive internet collection. Documentarian John Wilson developed his distinctive observational type via Vimeo uploads years earlier than How one can With John Wilson premiered. Administrators together with Spike Lee and Don Hertzfeldt discovered an viewers via the platform’s curation.

Past portfolios and keenness tasks, Vimeo’s infrastructure powers important components of the skilled video ecosystem. The Criterion Channel depends on Vimeo know-how, as do company shoppers together with Starbucks and the UK’s Nationwide Theatre. Dropout TV, the profitable streaming service that emerged from CollegeHumor, makes use of Vimeo’s backend. For working cinematographers, Vimeo’s video evaluation instruments have served as a substitute for Body.io for shopper suggestions workflows.

Simply final October, Vimeo introduced formidable updates at its REFRAME convention, together with a rebuilt Evaluation system, AI-powered library search, and help for Apple Immersive Video and VR180 content material. Whether or not these options will proceed to develop beneath a skeleton crew stays unsure.

A platform that misplaced its manner

The acquisition didn’t come out of nowhere. As CineD reported intimately following filmmaker Matt WhoisMatt Johnson’s video essay on the topic, Vimeo had been bleeding creators for years earlier than Bending Spoons entered the image.

Self-serve subscribers, the person creators and small companies who embodied Vimeo’s authentic group, collapsed from 1.5 million in 2022 to roughly 53,500 by Q3 2024. A 2022 bandwidth cap of two terabytes month-to-month made the platform untenable for working professionals whose viral content material may successfully shut down their accounts. Copyright purges eradicated archives, and the Workers Picks program that after launched careers was quietly discontinued in EU and UK areas by late 2024.

When Vimeo spun off from IAC as an unbiased public firm in 2021, it was valued at $8.5 billion. By the point Bending Spoons acquired it in November 2025, that determine had cratered to $1.38 billion, an 84% decline. The corporate had stabilized financially, reporting $417 million in income and $27 million in revenue by 2024, however the creator group that after outlined its identification had largely moved on.

What occurs now to the platform after the Vimeo layoffs?

The speedy concern for a lot of filmmakers might be their present content material. Vimeo hosts 20 years of portfolios, shopper work, and archived tasks. Whereas Bending Spoons has said its dedication to the platform’s various person base, its observe file suggests aggressive cost-cutting will proceed.

Historical past gives some steerage, none of it reassuring. Filmic Professional stays obtainable however functionally stagnant. Evernote survived however with drastically decreased options and elevated pricing. Whether or not Vimeo follows the identical path, or whether or not the sheer scale of its hosted content material and infrastructure dependencies forces a unique method, stays to be seen.

For cinematographers who’ve constructed their skilled presence on Vimeo, now could be the time to make sure native backups of all content material and take into account various platforms for brand spanking new work. The period of Vimeo as a filmmaker-first platform seems to have ended definitively with these layoffs.

Are you presently utilizing Vimeo for portfolio internet hosting or shopper work? How do you intend to reply to these modifications? Tell us within the feedback beneath.