Viddler vs. Vimeo

Two of my favorite video services are Viddler and Vimeo. Similar names but different strategies. I thought it would be fun to look at the differences and why each one is succeeding. Vimeo is based in NYC and Viddler is in some small town in Pennsylvania. Let's look at several characteristics for comparison.

Video Player

This is a no-brainer -- the clear winner is Viddler. Viddler has the absolute best video player on the market today. They recently even cleaned it up a bit and made it a bit prettier. Vimeo's player is functional but boring. And when embedded on another site, it offers no clickable links back to either Vimeo or the content creator. It's a dead end. I can only imagine how much traffic and sheer numbers of users Vimeo is losing out on by only offering such a basic video player.

Community

Both services have very passionate and interactive communities. Vimeo seems to skew a bit more affluent and to younger executives while Viddler is more mainstream and picks up a wider range of audiences. Viddler also hosts more corporate videos and content from around the world while Vimeo has, what appears to be, a larger U.S. percentage of users. Vimeo is more about community within the Vimeo Web site, while Viddler seems to be suited to sharing/embedding across the Web.

Signature Viral Element

Vimeo uses the "lip dub" as it's signature viral element - this is where you make believe you are singing to a song but you really aren't. There are some great ones and the one of the best is from an actress on All My Children.

Viddler's signature viral element is the "MeToday" - this is a simple concept where you film either what you are going to do, what you are doing or what you did during the day.

The edge here goes to Vimeo as I find the lip dub's to be fun and interesting.

Celebrity Power

Viddler gets its top star power from two people: the Wine Man, WineLibraryTV host Gary Vaynerchuk and iJustine. Here is a sample video from each:

Vimeo gets its star power from the Star magazine Editor, Julia Allison (who apparently is dating the Vimeo founder). Here is a sample of her work:

Traffic and Revenue Model

Vimeo uses banner ads currently and Viddler hasn't shared their revenue model as of yet. Traffic is nearly impossible to compare based on what I have listed above as Vimeo is site-centric and Viddler is sharing-centric.

Conclusion

I actually like both services a lot and find that in the end a winner is too close to call. Viddler wins on tech, Vimeo on community but even those are so close. Please check out our previous Viddler coverage and I am in the process of contacting Vimeo for an interview in the coming week.

Do you have a preference? Are there other video services you like? Let me know!