Photobanks (microstocks)

How photo banks earn

Microstock receives images from tens of thousands of photographers and agencies. And sells them to design studios, publishing houses, various media, advertisers and others. Depositphotos earns fees from each file sold. Usually, a microstock takes 50-75% of the transaction amount. If compared with such Internet intermediaries as eBay, Booking.com and Airbnb, the gap is striking: the commission of other services does not exceed 10-15%.

True, the amount of transactions in microstocks is usually small: the average price of one photo is $3-5.

Services

Free:

• Pexels.com
• Pixabay.com
• Unsplash.com
• ru.freepik.com
• Negativespace.co
• Stocksnap.io
• Startupstockphotos.com
• Burst.shopify.com

Others:

• Unsplash
• Burst
• Gratisography
• iStockphoto
• Shutterstock
• Fotolia
• Dreamstime
• Bigstock ( owned by Shutterstock)
• Depositphotos

History

2013: $2bn sales forecast

According to the forecast of the research company BCC Research, in 2013 the volume of the global online trading market for photos and videos will reach $2 billion. The revenue of the largest microstock library Shutterstock in 2012 amounted to about $170 million. iStockphoto and Fotolia also earn over $100 million^[1].

2009: Launch of Ukrainian Depositphotos

In 2009, the Big Five had a competitor originally from Ukraine - Depositphotos. In terms of the number of photos as of September 2013, he is ahead of some participants in the top 5. According to the rest of the parameters, it goes right behind them.

2003: Big Five Formation

The demand for digital photos and videos on the Internet was growing rapidly, and other microstocks reached for iStockphoto. In 2003, Shutterstock appeared, and a year later, Fotolia. Together with Dreamstime and Bigstock (now owned by Shutterstock), these services formed the so-called Big Five Microstocks.

2000: Emergence of iStockphoto

The business of selling photos via the Internet originated in the early 2000s. The first service was the American iStockphoto, founded by Canadian Bruce Livingston in May 2000. At first, it was a free online photo library, which gradually began to form collections of pictures for sale. iStockphoto changed the market paradigm: if before the advent of the service, photos were sold at a high price and on an exclusive basis, then iStockphoto began selling the same picture many times to different customers, which significantly reduced prices. This type of photobanks began to be called microstocks. Before their appearance, you had to pay about $100 for a high-quality picture on the Internet, after - $3-5.

Notes