IStock 'Changes Nothing' . . .
Stock Asylum Staff Report
February 10, 2006
The acquisition iStockphoto by Getty Images will have virtually no impact
on photographers who supply work to regular Getty brands, company spokesperson
Deb Trevino said Thursday afternoon.
"At the same time that this announcement was being made, we posted a message to the photographers," Trevino said. "The basic message is that this changes nothing."
"I think we will be asking them (photographers) to look at our track record over the last ten years. When we purchased Photodisc (a regular royalty-free brand) there were some of the same concerns. But over the years we have increased the price we collect per image and increased the quality of the collection," said Trevino.
Like JupiterImages before it, Getty Images is clearly concerned that the move into the world of micropayment stock photography will alienate some photographers who see inexpensive photography as a threat.
In January, JupiterImages purchased almost half of Haap Media, a Hungarian company that runs a free photography web site and a micropayment site similar to iStockphoto.
Getty said Thursday that it will pay $50 million for the iStockphoto operation in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Both Jupiter and Getty executives have been careful to point out that they believe micropayment stock photo distributors are opening up new markets for stock imagery, not undermining traditional markets.
Many professional photographers have not been so sure, especially after hearing stories about clients like IBM and Time Magazine using images from web sites selling low-priced imagery.
IStockphoto has been the most successful of several micropayment distributors. Micropayment companies sell royalty-free stock photography for very low prices, often charging as little as a dollar an image.
The Calgary company has about 600,000 images online and claims to be adding about 12,000 images a week, many from amateur photographers and artists. With a few exceptions, image creators receive 20 percent of the revenue collected from licensing their images.
The iStockphoto web site was recently upgraded to improve download times and add new features, including one that lets customers hire photographers.
Following the announcement of the Getty acquisition, Trevino said the iStockphoto operation will remain entirely independent of regular Getty Images operations.
"They won't receive art direction or creative resources from us," she said. "There is not going to be any integration of the two businesses."
Trevino believes "social media," a trend that includes blogs, podcasts and image exchange web sites like Yahoo's flickr and, of course, iStockphoto, is a healthy development.
"User generated content is becoming an important part of the fabric of the web," she noted. In the case of iStockphotos, it's about "individuals coming in and sharing their own content and learning about photography. There's been an explosion in digital photography that has brought a lot more people in who don't have the skills of professional photographers."
"The customers using iStockphotos are not the same customers we get at Getty Images," Trevino asserted. "We really think that these are folks who would not have legally licensed images. It brings them into the fold."
Trevino would not speculate about how much revenue iStockphoto will generate for Getty Images. She said the acquisition is as much about maintaining industry leadership as about profits.
"We believe that over time it will be profitable for us," she said. "We wouldn't have acquired it if we didn't expect it to be profitable."
"But, this is more about taking leadership in a part of the business that is growing very rapidly and is not going away," Trevino added.
(To read previous story about the iStockphoto acquisition, click here.)
Getty Images can be found at: http://www.gettyimages.com
IStockphoto is at: http://www.istockphoto.com
JupiterImages is at: http://www.jupiterimages.com
