Improving its policy regarding video bandwidth

At one of our guiding principle is "Users first." We strive to improve our service through making the community's needs issues our own. I am convinced that, over the span of 17 years in history, we have consistently done this. But, it's becoming clear that one of our practices isn't serving the interests of a number of our users.

If you are one of the users who uses massive amounts of video bandwidthfrequently exceeding the bandwidth threshold of's top 1% of people using the service -- we've tried to apply old policies that are not properly explained and are creating unneeded stress and confusion. We have been too slow to respond to the feedback of users, and as a consequence, caused distrust among the users. This is extremely painful for me and doesn't do justice to the dedication and dedication of our staff. I'd like to make an apology as well as some solutions.

 We charge for bandwidth

To give you a quick overview: Our business model is completely ad-free this means we do not pay any of our content delivery expenses via advertisements, but instead we simply charge a flat-rate subscription fee. It means that, if a single user requires an enormous amount of bandwidth, likely due to the sheer number of people who are viewing their content-- then their costs can quickly scale above the amount our flat subscription rates were designed to accommodate.

We generally try not to set limits or any additional charges to consume bandwidth, and most of our users -- over 99% -- don't reach the amount that could require us to charge them extra. For those who frequently or substantially over these thresholds objective is to provide them with fees they are able to pay and that are lower than those they'd be charged for ad-free delivery elsewhere. We trust in the effectiveness of this service because it is validated by the behavior of our customers: more than 70% of users who initially hit their bandwidth threshold decide to pay more to continue the service, and go on to become the longest-lasting customers we have.

 Upcoming changes

• We are shifting our bandwidth threshold from a percentage level to a flat 2TB. The past has shown that users within the top 1percent of bandwidth users will be charged for bandwidth. In order to improve transparency and clarity moving forward, we will be setting the monthly bandwidth limit to 2TB (or the equivalent of 2,000GB)-which is 2,000 GB - which would impact even fewer than 1% of our users. Customers can check their report on bandwidth usage directly within their account for tracking the usage (see here for the steps to get gain access).

• Giving users more frequent and visible alerts. Alongside the dashboard for analytics that displays the current usage of the product and alerts in-product users will also receive alerts by email when they've reached the monthly bandwidth threshold.

• Extending our notice periods. If users exceed the monthly threshold the company will allow them a minimum of 30 days from the time of the initial communication to reach out to us and come to an agreement. During this time, there will be no changes to their account, videos or the service.

• We offer users more choices. We'll continue to offer the pro-rated amount of refunds for users who are currently paying subscribers who exceeds our bandwidth limit and then decides it's not the best fit for their needs. In such cases we'll give them time to migrate their videos from our site and repay the remainder of their account balance.

• The company is rolling out an exemption policy. We will be out with an exemption policy moving forward where the creative community won't be restricted by the bandwidth limit of 2TB for as long as they aren't using to monetize those videos elsewhere. More details will be available which we'll release within about 30 days and then you'll get that information from our help page.

The platform was created to enable the user to utilize video. Our platform has surely changed since its inception, but only to serve the needs of more companies and people all over the world. We will never create friction, but to eradicate it. There will be a lot of mistakes, and we will make errors as we expand. However, we'll always be honest about our shortcomings and will never cease to strive to build a company which puts the user first and innovates in making video available to everyone.

We stay focused on our mission and are committed to serve our customers.

Sincerely,

Anjali