StockPhotoTalk | Special Interest Blog

New Fotolia Microstock Subscription

A few first details:

• Subscription downloads will be limited to the L standard license. Customers who want to purchase an XL or larger size will be required to purchase credits and pay per download.
• By default, all non-exclusive images will be available as part of the subscription service but it will be possible to switch off this option for exclusive images.
• Fotolia is offering the market value for subscription sales from 23 - 30 cents, with respect to the contributor ranking.
• Fotolia will continue to offer a pay per download model and "we do not anticipate that many of our current customers will use it [subscription] but new customers will".
• "We needed to get those customers who do pay $200 a month and the only way to do this was through subscriptions."
• It is apparently an image-based subscription service, not a credit-based one.

123RF: Customized Corporate Microstock Photo Intranet

Another day and more news from the microstock trenches: following  distantly similar moves from its competitors, 123RF is about to unveil what the microstock agency calls CSI, Corporate Stockphoto Intranet accounts.

The new service starts at 2500 Credits (€ 1.750/~$ 2.700), and a demo is available here.

Update: here´s the full press release.

BAPLA Fair: A Happy Island

 

Maybe it´s too late to talk about the BAPLA Fair, but I hope it´s not.

This event is a very special event. Being there you have the impression that the Brits have a blind faith in the future of photography.

The atmosphere among the participants was friendly and positive, you could feel the british humour and it helped a lot in these very difficult moments.

New York Photo Festival: Much Ado About Nothing

 

Even though I´m in favour of anything which can help photography I don´t feel to say that the New York Photo Festival has been a big deal.

New York should have done something more important and lasting.

A city like New York with ten millions people living in that area and with millions of tourists coming from all parts of the world, should have offered something that every visitor would have remembered.

To start with, 4 days it´s a too short time. I would like to remember to the curators that the Perpignan Festival lasts 2 weeks.

To be honest from what I´ve read I daresay that the NYPF has been very little advertised and that the content seems not very attractive.

Fotolia launches Reseller API enabling Subscription: YourMicrostock.com

After the launch of the Infinite Collection in late 2007 Fotolia does it now the other way round and introduces the Reseller API shortly before the CEPIC congress:

• "An additional way of co-operating with the classic image agencies, Fotolia now offers other image banks the chance to easily run a microstock company under their own brand, or to simply resell Fotolia images - in any language, in any currency."

 

 

iStockaudio by iStockphoto

• iStockphoto to launch iStockaudio:
  Getty Images acquired PumpAudio, Jupiterimages acquired RoyaltyFreeMusic.com.
  The difference? iStockphoto creates iStockaudio. More details.
  Livingstone: "With audio in the mix, we will have the most complete offering of multimedia files available for designers anywhere. We´ve seen what people have done with our stuff, now we can´t wait to hear it".   

  

   
  Related:
  The potential conflict for content owners, however, is having to decide which content remains within a royalties-based structure, and which content should be included for direct-payment options through a third party vendor. Having partnered with services like Pixsy and SceneCaster it´s clear that iStockphoto is looking for ways in which to distribute its content across the web as well.
  (Mashable)

Alamy Q1/2008 numbers

   

Alamy has released its quarterly financial statement for Q1 2008.

More details over there.

QuickLinks For 2008-05-14

• Pixsy Powering Ditto:
  Media search platform provider Pixsy has sealed a distribution partnership with visual search engine Ditto which will utilize Pixsy´s media search platform to power consumer image search on destination search property Ditto.com and across its network of partners and affiliates.
  Duncan Riley on The Inquisitr.

• Reuters Frees Content with New API:
  In a pretty significant move, Reuters is making its news content available to the developer community through the use of a non-commercial API offering, through Reuters Labs. This means that you can now take Reuters news and create applications around it, or better fit the content into your existing applications and sites. [...]
  But what does this mean for existing third-party partners like Mochila, that act as conduits for spreading Reuters content across the web? As the new API offering is non-commercial, there shouldn´t be too much of a conflict of interest.
  Mashable.
  Related: Reuters´ web content tracking deal with Attributor (Mar. 05).

• New Shutterstock Contributor Earnings Schedule:
  Here are the new facts and the vivid discussion.

QuickLinks For 2008-05-10

• 2008 Stock Photo Market Crash?
  Essay by Phil Nealey, the stock shooter who contributes to Getty/Veer (Somos).

• Shutterstock will be "announcing the details of your 2008 raise on Tues, May 13th".
  Shutterstock forum message.

• From Getty Images´recent 10-Q SEC filing, quite interesting:
  

  

Jupitermedia Conference Call

• Revenues (rounded numbers) per segment for Jupiterimages in Q1/2008:
  • Single Images: $12.6 million (Q4/2007: $12.7 million)
  • Subscription: $7.5 million (Q4/2007: $7.5 million)
  • Distributors, Other: $6.1 million (Q4/2007: $6.6 million)

• Consequently Alan Meckler said that "the weakness came from the distribution side of the business".
• Unfortunately no answer to a direct question about the revenues of Stockxpert.
• "Three to seven micropayment sites will be very successful over the next years".
• "The [microstock] revolution is [still] going on" in a "challenging environment".
• "The RM business is not growing as it used to be".
• The "digital Superstore" (Jupiterdigital) is likely to launch on Sept. 1st.

Jupiterimages Q1/2008 Results

Jupitermedia, the parent company of Jupiterimages, released yesterday the results for Q1/2008. Currently at the time of writing no new JUPM SEC filings are available, and shares closed yesterday at $2.31. The Conference Call will follow today. More details in the press release.

Jupiterimages´ Q1/2008 revenues ($26.142 million) were the lowest in the last two years:

• Y-o-Y down -6,35% or -$1.772 million from $27.914 million in Q1/2007.

• Down -2,39% or -$641.000 from $26.783 million in the previous quarter Q4/2007.

 

(1) Jupiterimages Rev.  (2) JUPM Rev.  (3) Jup.images Rev. in % of JUPM Rev.

Y	2005	Q1/06	Q2/06	Q3/06	Q4/06	2006	Q1/07	Q2/07	Q3/07	Q4/07	2007	Q1/08
1	80.66	26.565	26.807	26.177	27.087	106.64	27.914	27.383	26.824	26.783	108.904	26.142
2	113.75	33.941	35.026	33.784	34.779	137.53	34.771	34.699	34.766	36.128	140.334	34.546
3	70.9%	78.27%	76.53%	77.48%	77.88%	77.54%	80.28%	78.92%	77.16%	74.13%	77.60%	75.67%

 

Alan Meckler said that "revenues from our JupiterimagesUnlimited high level royalty-free subscription offering grew over 100% from the first quarter of 2007 to the first quarter of 2008. We are also starting to see significant growth from our recently launched Stockxpert.com microstock subscription offering".

The business outlook for the whole Jupitermedia Corporation for Q2/2008 expects quarterly revenues of $35.0 million - $36.0 million, like in the previous quarter.

Idée Inc Launches Image Search Engine TinEye

On Tuesday, local tech startup Idée Inc. will publicly launch a search engine [TinEye] that its co-founders boldly say will do the same with images as what Google Inc. does with text. [...]

With a small, dedicated staff and several years of R&D work, Idée has managed to develop a set of algorithms that takes an image, compares it to about a half-billion indexed pictures, and returns a list of similar looking pictures along with their online URLs within milliseconds. [...]

The service could be a blessing for publishers, brand marketers and copyright compliance officers who want to track how products are being distributed on the Web. [...] 

Idée's [other] existing service is used by about two dozen clients which tracks down publishers who use their copyrighted pictures and bills them accordingly. The service brings in about $15,000 to $75,000 per client and is growing at a rate of about 10 new customers per month.

Changes at Getty Images

More details in this recent SEC filing here and here:

QuickLinks For 2008-05-05

• Ahead of the Bel, Blair cuts Getty Images on price:
  An analyst downgraded shares of Getty Images late Friday, predicting the stock photography provider has little room for growth as the shares close in on their buyout price.
  William Blair analyst Troy Mastin lowered shares of Getty to "Market Perform" from "Outperform" in a note to investors. The stock finished at $33.15 on Friday. Mastin said shares are fairly priced ahead of an expected buyout from private equity firm Hellman & Friedman LLC. [...]
  "Shares no longer offer an adequate upside to justify the rating," he said.
  In addition, the analyst noted Getty's first-quarter results reported Thursday were above his estimates, and said the positive earnings make the completion of the buyout very likely.
  AP Story on Forbes. -More new events here.
  Related:
  
  • Getty’s Numbers Suggest Buyout Is on Track (NYT, Deal Book, May 05, 2008)

Getty Images Q1/2008 Numbers (Light Version)

Full quarterly metrics, like in Q4/2007, are understandably missing this time. More here.

Revenue in Total (T), with Sequential change (S) and Year-over-Year-change (Y):

PER	2005	Q1/06	Q2/06	Q3/06	Q4/06	2006	Q1/07	Q2/07	Q3/07	Q4/07	2007	Q1/08
T	$733.2	$200.4	$204.6	$197.9	$203.5	$806.6	$212.7	$218.0	$208.9	$218.1	$857.6	$233.2*
S	-	8.1%	1.9%	-3.3%	2.7%	-	4.4%	2.5%	-4,17%	4.40%	-	6.92%
Y	17.9%	12.8%	10.5%	7.4%	9.5%	10.0%	6.1%	6.5%	5,56%	7.07%	6.32%	9.64%

• Income from operations was $44.7 million:
  • compared to $55.7 million in Q1/2007
  • compared to $47.8 million in Q4/2007

• Net income was $23.9 million:
  • compared to $38.0 million in Q1/2007 (- 37%)
  • compared to $28.5 million in Q4/2007 (- 16%)
    

Assuming another 4% loss in revenues in Q3/2008 and results in Q2 and Q4 at the least like in Q1/2008, Getty Images could be good for 2008 revenues of around $923 million (for various reasons a highly speculative conclusion ...). The company itself expects revenues for 2008 of approximately $900 million.

*The initial projection for Q1/2008 was "approximately $220 million".