Loom is coming for Wistia. Maybe. 🤷♂️
Loom likely has fewer companies as customers than Wistia. I don’t know the exact numbers. My assumptions are based on my experience and data gathered from GetLatka.com. More below.
Wistia might be ahead but there is likely a lot of overlap between the two companies.
Let’s get started.
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Table of Contents
What is Loom?
Loom is a small piece of software installed on your internet browser or computer that records your screen, camera, and microphone. It’s as easy as clicking a button to record.
As soon as you stop the recording, Loom generates a shareable link for your video and adds it to your clipboard (just press paste anywhere to add the link).
Loom notifies you when someone views your video. Viewers can of course comment with text but they can also react with emojis and record their own Loom as a comment. The text comments are visible to everyone and so are the emojis making the videos fun and interactive.
Videos can even be embedded in blog posts, help articles, emails, etc.
And it’s only $10 per month per user for UNLIMITED videos.
Loom positions itself as a tool to communicate ideas.
What is Wistia?
Wistia started as a customizable video hosting service for companies that did not want their audience to be targeted with ads via Youtube. And Vimeo’s UI was getting a bit stuffy.
Wistia gained popularity with SaaS startups. Especially as more SaaS startups began using videos to educate their customer base instead of text articles.
Wistia offered almost a white-glove experience with brandable pages, customizable widget colors, and affordable pricing. They charged by a number of videos which was a downfall. Businesses needed to make decisions to upgrade or remove a video.
They also were the only hosting service. You needed Camtasia or something similar to record your screen, video, and audio.
A couple of years ago, Wistia launched Soapbox. I believe as a way to protect their business from Loom. Soapbox allows users to record their screen, camera, and audio from their browser window. A shareable link is generated when the recording is stopped and the user is able to edit the video similar to Loom before sharing.
Wistia positions itself as a video hosting software for professional videographers. Wistia is for edited videos.
So where’s the threat?
The threat is I’m seeing more companies embed Loom videos on external-facing documents such as blog posts and landing pages. It’s no longer used for only internal communication and knowledge base articles.
I have not seen companies upload explainer videos created by a videographer on to Loom. But it’s only a matter of time with Loom’s high-quality playback and unlimited video quota.
For example, Wistia charges $99/mo for 10 videos then $0.25 per additional video per month. If you have more, you’ll need to get in touch. Wistia’s Soapbox starts at $25/mo (and you have to pay annually).
Why wouldn’t cost-conscious businesses who are already thinking of using a video communication tool like Loom not just move everything to Loom?
If the video is edited off Wistia, does it matter where it’s uploaded?
Videos can be uploaded to Loom and embedded on a page. It seems like the best bang for your buck and a great way to centralize your internal and external communication.
Based on Latka, Loom ended 2021 with $35MM in annual recurring revenue (ARR). And Wistia ended the year at $60MM ARR.
Wistia’s average revenue per customer is $1,200 a year. Based on their Pro plan selling for $99/mo and their enterprise customer base, they have a cohort of customers who only use their Soapbox feature (and maybe the free Wistia account).
I believe Wistia has customers grandfathered in at their old rates. I don’t think they force them to migrate unless they want some of the new features.
The customers only using Soapbox and paying for it are a great target for Loom. Only if they knew how to effectively target them.
What about Youtube?
I did not include Youtube in this article as the intent of videos on Youtube is distribution. Youtube could care less about this use case. However, Youtube is an excellent video hosting service for internal videos. And it’s free.
Examples from the internet
A favorite site of mine, MoneyLab.co, publishes Loom videos to his blog. The videos are a how-to type video or short update video. Matt from MoneyLab.co has a growing Youtube presence but those videos are highly edited. And he publishes them to Youtube for distribution.
Levels Health, another example. I’m a big fan of the problem they are solving and how they run their business. Levels Health breaks down the barrier to tracking your personal health. You can see how the food you eat affects your body with their blood glucose monitor and mobile app.
Levels creates videos for Youtube but the goal with them is for distribution (growing their audience).
Levels is a huge user of Loom, mostly for internal communication. They also upload their internal team meetings to Loom and publish them on their public Notion documents.
Sam Corcos, one of the founders of Levels and the CEO, publishes Loom videos to his Twitter account. (If you’re interested in learning how distributed companies work or how to be more productive, give him a follow.)
And finally an example of a Loom advocate using Vimeo possibly due to Vimeo’s embed options. Loom is still new to embedding their content outside of the shareable link.
Wrapping it up
Excited to see where Loom goes in the next 5 years. And excited to see where the video space as a whole goes. Wistia has led the adoption of video as an education medium for businesses. Loom is transforming the way we communicate as a team and in business.
Wistia and Loom both offer free trials. Give Wisitia a try here and Loom a try here.
Did I miss something? Disagree? Shoot me an email.