Patrick Lor, co-founder of iStockphoto, a Getty owned-online marketplace for microstock photography and video, has joined rival Fotolia as the President of Fotolia North America. iStockphoto and and Fotolia, which were both launched around the same time and serve the same purpose, have a long standing competition in the microstock photography space for the best images, the most talented contributors and customers. Lor retired shortly after Getty Images, one of the leaders in stock photography, purchased iStockphoto in 2006 for $50 million.
According to Lor, his non-compete contract expired with Getty recently, which left him available to get back into the stock photography business. iStockphoto was initially launched to democratize photography and let all people use images, Lor says. He was disappointed to hear of iStockphoto’s aggressive price increases following the Getty acquisition and maintains that Fotolia’s prices are much more fair for consumers. Lor says that Fotolia has a lot of potential for growth, which may be true. According to ComScore, Fotolia reached 3.7 million unique visitors worldwide in March, up from 2.3 million in January. iStockphoto had around 5 million unique visitors in March, dropping slightly from 5.2 unique visitors in January. Lor hopes to launch some new services in the future but won’t reveal what those are just yet.
In February, Fotolia reached its one millionth registered member and has 5 million stock images for sale, for as little as 14 cents, and typically a dollar or two. Images at iStockPhoto start at $1.50 per image and go up from there. Fotolia says it is registering new members at a rate of 3,000 per day (86,800 per month). Fotolia also started recently selling stock video (something iStockphoto has been doing for a while).
Right on Patrick. You’re making it happen.
Stock photos have been for quite a bit of time. But I find it difficult to understand if they are able to monetize them properly.
Stock photos are good to use though.
Congrats to Patrick on the the new job. I know him from many events here in Alberta. I think he has it spot on regarding the market situation with iStock vs. Fotolia. iStock used to be everybody’s darling but after the Getty acquisition the business seems to be working against the community more then it’s good for the long term success of the company. My guess is that Getty still tries to protect it’s old business models of high priced royalty free and licensed images.
Patrick is a fierce competitor and an avid business strategist. Now iStock is up for a real fight – which I’ll enjoy watching.
“iStockphoto and and Fotolia, which were both launched around the same time and serve the same purpose”
So is this a press release? Nice reporting TC. Even in your company summary, it says they launched 5 years apart, and it’s well known that the people behind Fotolia were longtime iStock members.
I thought that, good to see someone else is on the ball.
well said
Congrats to Patrick and Fotolia. I wish a long life to this brillant company whose I met the founder, Mr Elziere, four years ago in Paris. At that time I already knew that this company will have an amazing destiny !
Loic
RIght on. Go Patrick. Used iStock a lot, and was very faithful to it. Then the Getty purchase, and prices went through the roof (relatively speaking). I’m pretty sure Getty did this to diminish pricing pressure on original Getty.com images.
Now the game is on again. I’ve bookmarked Fotoia, and will be using it again. Price/Quality proposition is outstanding again.
Patrick — hope you’ve made enough with the Getty sale. Can you keep Fotolia committed to the original biz model??
Thanks.
You must work for corbis or fotolia. excellent advert. either way
Leena, you wrote “iStockphoto and and Fotolia, which were both launched around the same time”.
Sorry, you’ve gotta be kidding iStockphoto (since 2000) is way longer in business than Fotolia (since 2004/5).
It won’t be too long before Google and Microsoft invade this territory. My suspicion is based on recent availability of image search similarity capabilities from both Google and Microsoft which are quite sophisticated. This means that Image archiving , search & retrieval is already available from the 2 software titans, it is only a matter of time before they branch out and do what Getty Image & Fotolia are doing. I have seen some published research papers coming out from Microsoft on this area, ie, image, video archiving, search & retrieval. This means that they have a few researchers dedicated to doing R&D in this domain for commercial application.
Bill Gates from micorosoft already invaded, it’s call corbis (the #2 stock photo company).
When I worked in this industry, I always Flickr (yahoo) and facebook/myspace could complete take over with a monetization model for their members.
Congrats, Patrick!
Great move for Fotolia! Meet Oleg Tscheltzoff, CEO and co-founder, in this interview http://bit.ly/1AhvZ
Congrats, Patrick. We’re look forward to the competition!
Congrats Pat! We’re thrilled for you.
Here’s why i don’t (cannot) use Fotolia..
All files available on Fotolia must comply with the following rule: For security reasons, in a web use, files must not be displayed in a size bigger than 640×480 pixels
Congrats Pat!
Retirement didn’t suit you!
I’m looking forward to you innovating and kicking butt in the stock photo space again.
Congrats Pat!
I’ve been using a lot of stock photography lately and iStock does have a better set of images compared to Fotolia, but they are pricey.
Looking forward to your “new features”… Kick Getty’s ass!
AWESOME news! As a photographer contributor to both sites, I see GREAT things happening at Fotolia! WTG !!!!!
Patrick! Congratulations, man. You made iStock into a giant with smart decisions and were personally involved in contributors lives……you are going to do well. Cheers, man.
Go Flames….Go!
-dustin steller
Any photographer that deals with these clowns is not going to make the same kind of living that the greedy designers and developers do on the other side. Hey, devs, want to work for $1 a day? Prob not, huh…It’s a good thing I have web skills because I refuse to sell photos through these people. I sold 6 through iRipoff, and my net was $5, none of which I’ve seen yet, because they dont pay you until you reach $100. Plus they dont tell you where the image goes, so you dont get a tearsheet. Of course Getty had to raise prices, their photogs are screaming bloody murder. Yes, there are some pictures that are good, but not worth much. Guess what, I’ve got better things to do than upload them. It takes time to process, check, clean, upload, and keyword images, to say nothing of what it takes to get the shot, especially of people with signed releases. I’m glad some jerk thinks $5 is too much to pay for an image. Great. That’s how much you’re gonna make soon, graphic designer….Go to photographers direct and sell images for what their worth – starting $50. Every photog needs to remind these geeks what photography costs to produce. Or link to the microstock websites. You’ll make more money off of webhits, and it’ll cost THEM money, a fair turnaround.
And anyone who sells images royalty-free is asking for some Chinese printer/predator to put them on a poster and make a million copies. There used to be this thing called ROYALTIES, based on how many are SOLD. I made $2k off a poster this way. These days, I would make $50. BITE ME. Go and set up a pro shoot and see what it takes, DESIGNER LOSERS…
watch the agreements you sign with these microstock predators – THEY OWN YOUR MATERIAL OUTRIGHT AND FOR PERPETUITY…