Vimeo launches short-form social video editing platform powered by Magisto

Vimeo has debuted a new AI-powered platform designed to help creatives produce shareable, short-form videos in minutes.

This is part of a broader pivot by the New York-based video-streaming company, which is a subsidiary of IAC. Vimeo is working hard to ditch its “YouTube alternative” status and position itself as a place for creatives and businesses to access tools and make videos.

Against this backdrop, Vimeo Create soft-launched in beta today to attract companies that want to create “high-impact” videos for their social channels.

Vimeo Create

Underpinning the new platform is a stock video marketplace Vimeo launched back in 2018, with users able to search for relevant videos (or photos) by keywords. They can also upload original creations, of course.

Users can then add text, music, and various stylistic animations before sharing their creation with the masses.

It’s worth noting that Vimeo acquired Qualcomm-backed AI-powered video-editing service Magisto last year for a reported $200 million, and Vimeo Create represents the company’s first major implementation of Magisto’s technology.

Once you’ve selected all your footage, audio, images, and so on, Vimeo Create automatically assembles everything into a clean edit. The underlying AI’s role is to make it as easy as possible for the user to create slick, engaging videos with minimal effort — it automatically detects key moments in the content, for example where the objects, characters, and text are positioned, and makes sure all the audio and visual content is neatly aligned.

Based on our brief tests, Vimeo Create is really simple to use in its current form and should garner some fans. You can basically go from a blank template to a reasonably professional-looking video in less than a minute, though of course that doesn’t factor in the time required to create any original video content from scratch.

If nothing else, it serves as a reminder that Vimeo is still very much alive and kicking. While there are plenty of other tools to help people quickly create promotional spots on the fly, Vimeo has nearly 15 years experience in the video platform sphere and boasts significant reach and brand recognition. With Magisto in tow, Vimeo now has powerful automated video-editing smarts at its disposal too.

Though Vimeo Create is now widely available on the web, it is still very much a work in progress. The features and functionality will likely change as it evolves through its beta phase, and there are plans to launch mobile apps in the next few months.

Vimeo Create is available today for anyone with a Vimeo account, however only paid members (Pro, Business, and Premium) will be able to save and distribute their videos across the web.