Comments on: The Photo Marketplace That Never Launched: Flickr Stock

By: Snapixel Lets You Share, Sell Photos

Snapixel Lets You Share, Sell Photos — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 10:54:58 +0000

[...] offers: a marketplace where users can go to buy and sell photos. Sure, Yahoo-owned Flickr once had serious plans for such an embedded service – it made, and still makes a lot of sense – and has a [...]

By: Adography Offers A Way To Cash In On Your Amateur Photos

Adography Offers A Way To Cash In On Your Amateur Photos — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 11:05:36 +0000

[...] are plenty of web services out there with a similar proposition. Even Yahoo’s Flickr was once considering launching its own marketplace dubbed Flickr Stock. The problem with most of these is, evidently, marketing the service and getting the scale needed [...]

By: Technical Links | Programmer's Log

Technical Links | Programmer's Log — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 21:30:13 +0000

[...] The Photo Marketplace That Never Launched: Flickr Stock An interesting article about a photo marketplace by Flickr that never got off the ground. [...]

By: Flickr: A Wasted Opportunity for Innovation in Stock Photography | Taylor Davidson

Sat, 14 Feb 2009 17:56:16 +0000

[...] Arrington, The Photo Marketplace That Never Launched: Flickr Stock In late 2007 Flickr was strongly considering creating a marketplace where users could buy and sell [...]

By: Joe the Stocker

Joe the Stocker — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 13:13:05 +0000

Case in point.. http://www.isto...?threadid=82858

Uploads and apparently downloads broken. What a world-class stinker of a site, considering they only paid 29% of revenues to contributors last year you have to wonder where the rest of the money is going to, obviously not IT.

Guess it is just another write-off for Getty.

By: eas

eas — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 06:44:08 +0000

I think Stewart Butterfield actually said a little bit about this in a CNBC interview in the first half of 2007.

By: Strategic Internet Marketing

Strategic Internet Marketing — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 20:01:33 +0000

Good point!

By: Was wäre wenn: Flickr Fotos verkaufen würde? « Alltag eines Fotoproduzenten

Was wäre wenn: Flickr Fotos verkaufen würde? « Alltag eines Fotoproduzenten — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 11:09:12 +0000

[...] Stock? Dass das kein Hirngespinst ist, sondern Anfang 2008 fast genau so passiert wäre, beweist diese Meldung hier im [...]

By: Joe the Stocker

Joe the Stocker — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 13:34:49 +0000

LOL @ “FlickrStock will probably be rolled out based on istockphoto’s technology, as a niche platform.”

Istock runs on creaky LAMP code from 2000. They got the best people in MySQL to try and help them repair their basic architecture problems and just barely got it hobbled together for the Getty-infused growth spurt.

How many other $51 million websites (with funding by Getty) do you know that have daily reports of outages by users?

Yahoo engineers are some of the best in the business and they wouldn’t touch that maple-syrup tainted code with a ten foot pole.

iStock admin: “Sorry xxx system went down again yesterday”
The iSheep: “Ohhh thank you! You’re the best!”

By: devolute

devolute — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 18:57:57 +0000

Biggest missed opportunity ever. Oh woe.

@Dan Misener Thanks for clustershot.com

By: Flickr Collection Coming Together, Failed Demo Site Revealed

Flickr Collection Coming Together, Failed Demo Site Revealed — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 18:39:44 +0000

[...] TechCrunch has posted screen grabs from a test version of a Flickr stock marketplace that never saw the light of day. We have been [...]

By: Magne Land

Wed, 14 Jan 2009 00:49:18 +0000

As a long-time Flickr member, this is disappointing, not to mention a lost opportunity to capitalize on “the long tail” of photos. There are lots of great photos on Flickr that will never be “discovered” if there is a gatekeeper between the buyer and seller. Some amateur photographers may only have one or two photos that are truly outstanding. On the other hand, a potential buyer may be looking for something very specific and unique. It’s my understanding that it’s not cost-effective for Getty Images to stock such a photo.

By: Phil Guindi

Phil Guindi — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 00:24:17 +0000

Great article! And yes, there is no doubt this is where the market is heading. Unfortunately market leaders don’t always act as leaders, and that’s when they get into trouble (e.g. does anyone see Adobe in this space?)

To some extent iStock already provides this, but it just isn’t as mass-market oriented as Flickr. If Flickr doesn’t move here, others will. The web is reducing the friction between creators and consumers, and there is no reason why some middle party needs to play a major gatekeeping role in facilitating that transaction. Let the web facilitate community interactions that help validate the talent, and create the right kind of marketplace. Whether or not the creators are “officially Pros” is something no one will care about if the content is great. And just like we routinely see in the Olympics, large pools of talent (e.g. China, U.S., Russia) do help produce greatness.

By: Getty Images takes off where Flickr Stock was supposed to | Startup Meme - Technology Startup and Latest Tech News

Tue, 13 Jan 2009 23:02:24 +0000

[...] 2008 and partnered with Getty Images instead. Sarah Cooper, an ex-employee working on the project states: The concept of Flickr Stock was to create an online marketplace where existing Flickr users could [...]

By: T

Tue, 13 Jan 2009 22:10:16 +0000

You don’t deserve a buck, amateur. Get good at your craft and the money will follow.

By: Chaka

Chaka — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 18:20:23 +0000

Well, some of us amateurs just want to make a buck. That’s all.

By: johnny

johnny — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 18:13:17 +0000

Flickr could pull this off, or they would have. Copyright for stock photography is quite a big deal. You can’t just sell any photo you shoot with your SLR….

Getty has all the processes in place and a team of lawyers to make sure both they and the photographers are protected.

get a clue…

By: Kandi

Kandi — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 18:02:57 +0000

I agree wholeheartedly.

By: Chaka

Chaka — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 17:32:03 +0000

I use SmugMug. The community’s not as large, but I can set my own price and know I’m not getting either filtered or told by someone like Getty what I can or can’t sell. Plus, I want to have full rights and control overall.

By: Alvis Brigis

Alvis Brigis — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 17:17:52 +0000

Jeez, what an all-time dropped ball. It’s like Tesla going through GM to sell their line-up.

I want better/cheaper stock photo!!! Now!!!!!!

Btw, Mikey, don’t you think a stock photo marketplace could eventually become a solid revenue driver for Facebook? Sure, it’d rile up the locals in the near-term, but long-term it could really pay off and also do some damage to flickr adoption.

By: Jason

Jason — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 17:07:39 +0000

Just a shame. I think Yahoo would have dominated social photo sharing by letting often unseen, talented photographers shine. Keeping the good man down.

By: P. Lee

P. Lee — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 16:50:21 +0000

The professional never want to allow the amateurs into their turf. Tough! Times are a changing and if it isn’t Flickr then someone else…And that is where I’ll take my dollars to.

By: William Blanchard

William Blanchard — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 15:31:57 +0000

I guess the big news these days happen when companies decide NOT to do something great that makes money.

How does Flickr not do this internally? I would be interested in buying from a Flickr marketplace.

Flikr, reconsider your position before someone gets fired over this bad move with Getty.

By: matt

matt — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 14:25:39 +0000

“The barrier between professional and amatuer photography has steadily been eroded exactly because of sites like Flickr.”

Wow…. really? This statement is a pretty big insult to professional photographers who have trained/devoted their careers to this skill and profession.

Why would you make such a blatantly cutting statement, Mr. Arrington? Unless of course, something different was intended from “barrier”?

By: Mike Montano

Mike Montano — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 14:03:32 +0000

Same spammer seems to be targeting a few blogs over the last month: http://www.back...orgehu1@live.cn