Comments on: iStockphoto, the “David” to Corbis’ “Goliath”

By: lucia

lucia — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 19:04:08 +0000

I would imagine because of the delayed revenue streams you would need to be Bill Gates to see it through but it could be a very lucrative business in the future I can see similarities with holding artwork in general

By: Notes on Design » Blog Archive » Good Design on a Budget: How to Get the Most for the Least

Fri, 27 Apr 2007 14:03:38 +0000

[...] 2. Photography doesn’t have to cost an arm and a leg. There are plenty of great stock photography venues online that have professional looking pictures at a very low cost. For some ideas, see Nomi Altabef’s recent post about iStockPhoto.com: http://www.notesondesign.net/?p=253. [...]

By: Brad M

Brad M — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 16:01:51 +0000

They really gobbled it up.

First they eliminated iStockpro and then the Getty Goliath started plucking Diamond photographers from iStockphoto’s cozy community and putting them under Getty contracts.

http://www.stockphototalk.com/phototalk/2006/12/this_is_not_bas.html

Getty has said iStockphoto will be a minor part (under 10%) of their gargantuan business. That will protect the high prices they get for their professionals.

By: nomi

nomi — Mon, 23 Apr 2007 21:56:33 +0000

Did they really gobble it up? Yes, Getty bought into the crowdsourcing/microstock movement by buying iStockphoto, but they are not trying to merge the two sites or cannibalize the communities– they’re leaving iStockphoto alone to continue developing and doing its thing. Here’s a quote from an article on Photo District News:

“It’s important for our professional photographers to understand that it’s completely separate,” says Getty director of photography and filmmaker relations Paul Banwell, adding, “It effectively means nothing changes. It’s business as usual.”

Similarly, iStock CEO Bruce Livingstone and vice president of marketing Kelly Thompson say their day-to-day operations will not change as a result of the sale to Getty.

“They want us to keep our culture. It’s what makes our site great,” Thompson says.

View article:
http://www.pdnonline.com/pdn/newswire/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001994651

By: Brad M

Brad M — Mon, 23 Apr 2007 21:35:30 +0000

But now iStockphoto is benefiting from the $50 million dollars Getty paid for it.

The Getty Goliath faced the same “unexpected” competition and gobbled it up.

By: nomi

nomi — Mon, 23 Apr 2007 17:15:36 +0000

True, but they were bought by Getty to get in on the microstock business; iStockphoto wasn’t conceived by Getty.

By: Brad M

Brad M — Mon, 23 Apr 2007 15:42:39 +0000

How can you call istockphoto a “little guy”? They’re owned by the biggest of Goliaths in the business: Getty Images.