17³Ô¹ÏÔÚÏß isn’t a Microstock company, or is it? What defines a Microstock company? Some may suggest it’s all down to the price point and in the early days they were probably right. But the world has moved on, Microstock grew up and now the question isn’t so straightforward to answer.
Microstock came around at a time (2001) when the photography world was in a state of flux. The traditional big players were acquiring or consolidating, some were looking forward, some were entrenching their position but were they looking over their shoulders? If they had they would have seen that challengers were lining up.
17³Ô¹ÏÔÚÏß had been around for a couple of years before iStock actually started charging for images, previously iStock had been more of a swap shop where cool designers designed cool designs for each other, all for free. Here at 17³Ô¹ÏÔÚÏß we were the first to really open up to all, to not complicate the process for the photographer and not second guess the customer in terms of the imagery they wanted to see and buy. We’d love to say we invented crowdsourcing, maybe not, but certainly in the stock world we led the charge.
We started to build a community and enjoy a loyal following to this day, but Microstock took that ethos to the next level. They rode the wave of community based start-ups that tapped into the desire for people to communicate, share and collaborate over the internet.
While we became very successful by disrupting the stock world with our twist on the traditional stock agency model, Microstock turned everything on its head. Yes the prices were very, very cheap, that was the first big change, but also for the first time buyers and sellers were operating side by side on the same site. A community of users who needed each other.
Microstock has proved very successful and it would be naïve to suggest it’s all down to the price. So what’s the magic recipe and how has it helped others selling imagery?
- They brought an entrepreneurial drive to the Photo Industry, It was OKÂ to try new things
- They brought new customers into the market, designers who may have relied on bespoke created work more happily embraced stock
- They made everyone up their game, on workflow, on user interface, on search, the list goes on
- They made it easier for customers to buy images and raised awareness that imagery isn’t ‘free’
So maybe there’s a little bit of Microstock in all of the successful business in our industry now. 17³Ô¹ÏÔÚÏß appears in the , we didn’t ask to be put there, users put us there. Getty ‘’ and were so impressed with iStock they bought the company.
But let’s stop the love in and take stock (sorry couldn’t resist it). Does everything about Microstock make sense? Forcing customers to buy credits may simplify the process on one hand, but can lead to customers paying too much, forgetting they have credits available and in some cases have them expire before they can use them. Microstock companies are not immune to placing restrictions on exactly how customers can use imagery and sometimes that’s not entirely clear. Average price points are still very low and this is coupled with low commission rates for Microstock photographers that have historically been more in favour of the agency than the photographer.
So is 17³Ô¹ÏÔÚÏß a Microstock business? Not in the conventional sense of the word (wow suddenly Microstock is conventional) but we do share some common and beneficial traits.
We like sitting in the middle ground, but we want our photographers to get a fair return, both in terms of commission and through strong price points. We also feed off the atmosphere of community and innovation. As a technically agile business we can look and learn and act quickly, and there’s much to admire.