Vimeo wants to power Facebook, Twitch and YouTube livestreams

Vimeo made clear its focus on its creator community last year when it introduced livestreaming tools, now it's expanding its efforts with new distribution features that will help creators grow and expand their audiences. Announced today are "Simulcast" and "Publish to Social", both designed with creators in mind and, no doubt, to help the platform develop its visibility beyond a single destination.

First up, Simulcast. This lets creators simultaneously stream live video from Vimeo to any RTMP-enabled destination, such as Facebook, Twitch, Periscope and of course, its main competitor, YouTube. The feature only needs a single input stream regardless of how many places the video is being streamed to, which means lower bandwidth costs and simpler workflow, which is handy for instances where bandwidth uplink is limited, such as conferences or outdoor events. Streams are automatically archived on Vimeo.

Next, Publish to Social. Here, creators can publish their videos directly from Vimeo to other platforms, natively, with one click. This means less time spent uploading content in various places, as creators will have a single hub where they can manage their distribution strategy, but also greater visibility for content, since platforms such as Facebook look favorably on native uploads. Publish to Social also comes with stats and a performance dashboard, so creators can see at a glance how their videos are performing across platforms. Both features are available to members of specific Vimeo payment plans, and more social platforms are slated to be added soon. Vimeo has struggled a little with the static, singular nature of its platform, so opening it up like this could make it an attractive alternative, especially to creators that are unsure of YouTube's relationship with its users.