Micro-stock photography is alive and well. Fotolia tells us they have just reached their one millionth registered member and now have 5 million stock images for sale, for as little as 14 cents, and typically a dollar or two. Of those one million registered members, 860,00 are active (defined as having made at least one credit card purchase or uploaded content within the past three months). Fotolia says it is registering new members at a rate of 3,000 per day (86,800 per month)
ComScore also shows some health growth, with 2.3 million unique visitors a month (the vast majority of which are obviously not registered members). Competitor iStockphoto , which was purchased by Getty Images for $50 million in 2006, has about twice as many monthly visitors (5.2 million). But on ts Website, iStockphoto says it only has 4 million images.
Another interesting stat the company shared with me: the number of uploads is very close to the number of paid downloads. People upload 40,000 images and other content every day, and download 50,000 images a day. That download rate translates to 1.5 million paid downloads a month. Fotolia takes 20 to 50 percent of the sales price.
Next up, Fotolia will begin selling stock video (something iStockphoto has been doing for a while). Fotolia already has 20,000 videos uploaded, and plans to roll out the new category generally in March or April.
I have been following fotolia since start and i have to admit that the quality of their database has increased a lot. It has become my favoring ressource for stock imagery .
5 million seems like natta compared to the 5 billion photos on the public web. See http://search.tearn.com/ – the right brain photo, video, chat search.
Thanks for introducing me to this site. Prices look good and they even have vectors!
i used to use istockphoto, but their prices have risen ridiculously this year (a simple vector illustration will now cost you around $20-25 which is just crazy!)
i now use vectorstock for my vector graphics (they don’t have as much content, but at least it’s realistically priced) and will now check out this site too, thanks
Erick: Proof-read before you post! Please.
“ComScore also shows some health growth, … But on ts Website, iStockphoto says …..”
It will be cleaned up, give it 10 minutes. Erick has to get this out as fast as possible, so a few typos are part of the game. Read for content, not to be the grammar nanny.
one million strong.
congrats to fotolia, a premier micro stock licensing destination…looking forward to more growth
fascinating
Great article ~ Glad to be turned on the stock photo site.
I know a big concern as the digital era progresses and copyright information on digital art (photography being part of that) is an issue. When I internally tag my photographs as being mine I want to make sure that that information is digitally secure.
Additionally, in the stock photo business I don’t want anyone else profiting from my photos other than myself and the service.
Been browsing http://www.justaskgemalto.com and found some answers there.
Would you be willing to expand on that topic at some point in an article?
Erick:
it should read 860,000, not “860,00″, which, as a number, doesn´t make any sense.
=.-)
Looks like the world of stock photos just took a price cut. We us istockphoto.com at work and the cost is starting to add up. Thanks for the tip!
Used Fotolia a number of times and I highly recommend givng them a try. Nice to see them getting some recognition.
I keep trying to comment on the new U2 album thing and go to THIS every time?
Communist plot or bad link?
i prefer photobucket: much better!
Erick: Proof-read before you post! Please
It would be very nice if Fotolia takes the fee you mentioned above
“Fotolia takes 20 to 50 percent of the sales price”
The truth is – in march they will lower the income of the fotografers.
They will pay 30 to 44 percent to the normal contributer.
So they take 54 up to 70 percent of the sales price. And this sounds a little bit different – doesn’t it????
Photobucket is much better. Agree?
Video (I think) will be less popular than images. It is difficult to imagine how stock video selling could be rentable.
> Photobucket is much better
There are more interesting photos
Great site, It’s the prices are fair enough. The question is what the different between that site and Picasa?
However, I’m waiting for the Video feature of that site.
Impressive traffic growth. A measly 14 cents/download (minimum) can add up quickly when you’ve got that inventory + people visiting.
And of course there always is the http://www.sxc.hu for the free conscious
Great post!!!!
This is what i come to TechCrunch for!
Well, I just might end up using these guys… looks like they have some good images. Thanks!
A French company backed by Russian money who has been busted time & again lying about their numbers. Until there is a way of auditing them, I wouldn’t believe a word they said.
Rumor has it they’ve been sold, so maybe we will see some real data soon.