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Author Topic: Fotolia D-Day (Deactivation Day) - May,1  (Read 305662 times)

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« Reply #475 on: May 01, 2014, 14:48 »
+2
For me there is one fact.  TWENTY FIVE CENTS.

I am a supplier.  I am supposed to set the prices.  What other wacked market lets the "stores" decide what they are going to pay their suppliers?  Do you think Walmart says "I'll pay you 25 cents for each pillowcase in the box" and then in 6 months say "I changed our arrangement - I've raised the price on the pillowcases, but I've actually cut your wholesale price to 10 cents".  And furthermore, they have not paid for my content so they should not be able to share it with their partners, take a cut, change licenses and make any decisions.

Rant over.

I think Walmart actually does things like this when they can get away with it, but that doesn't make it right.  In fact it's a good comparison - it shows what happens when a market becomes controlled by a small number of middlemen and producers have lost all leverage.

Unfortunately we, as contributors, have a real supply & demand issue that has been building for some time. SS are now up to nearly 300K new images approved each week and that number is still steadily increasing. Whenever there's a massive imbalance between supply and demand it usually results in the price changing.

You can bet the other agencies will be examining FT's move very carefully indeed. Judging by the monthly sales reports IS appear to have been haemorrhaging customers by the bucket-load for over 2 years now. At what point will they be tempted to try a 'new business model' if they have little left to lose with their existing model?


steheap

  • Author of best selling "Get Started in Stock"

« Reply #476 on: May 01, 2014, 15:09 »
+6
I've written my own little piece on this on my blog: http://www.backyardsilver.com/2014/05/boycott-fotolia-stock-agency/

But quick question - I have been deleting images by hand, but can we not just ask Fotolia to delete the whole account? Would that not be easier? Sorry if I have missed a discussion about this option.

Steve

PZF

« Reply #477 on: May 01, 2014, 15:12 »
+11
Opted out of DPC and started deleting.
Obviously we have to be careful that we don't just add extra advertising to the fact that people can get great stock photos in large sizes for a dollar.....
Really unhappy!

ShadySue

  • There is a crack in everything
« Reply #478 on: May 01, 2014, 15:15 »
+1
Judging by the monthly sales reports IS appear to have been haemorrhaging customers by the bucket-load for over 2 years now. At what point will they be tempted to try a 'new business model' if they have little left to lose with their existing model?
They were excited to announce "image subscriptions, a 'new' way to license photos and illustrations on iStock."

PZF

« Reply #479 on: May 01, 2014, 15:19 »
+2
Re FT DPC
can't we just get onto as many sites as poss (FB, FBfanclub, Steve's digicams etc) and point out that one way FT manages to do well is by paying contributors extremely low rates - even for the microstock industry? And push Fair Trade type ideas?
Just a thought, probably way too simplistic......and such tactics don't seem to deter shoppers from Primark etc in the UK......
:(

« Reply #480 on: May 01, 2014, 15:54 »
+10
More important than deleting a portion of your portfolio from Fotolia is to opt-out of the DPC. Those of you who have not done so already, please consider doing it. You will do yourself and the whole microstock community a huge favor.

My Account > My Profile> Contributor Parameters > Sell my files on DPC - Modify. (Make sure the text now reads Dont sell my files on DPC.)

I can see that some contributors are expressing their discontent with Fotolia's move, some are deleting files from Fotolia (and notifying those deletions here), but they are not opting out of the DPC. I can't understand why.
« Last Edit: May 01, 2014, 17:46 by brisoca »

« Reply #481 on: May 01, 2014, 16:12 »
+2

« Reply #482 on: May 01, 2014, 16:17 »
+6
Officially watching from the sidelines :)

ShadySue

  • There is a crack in everything
« Reply #483 on: May 01, 2014, 17:42 »
+6
27,935,717

Congratulations to all involved.

« Reply #484 on: May 01, 2014, 17:52 »
+8
27,935,717

Congratulations to all involved.

Around 425,000 files deleted today so far!

stocked

« Reply #485 on: May 01, 2014, 18:26 »
+5
Could someone of the native speaker here write a short generic text that we could send directly to contributors which still have their images in the Dollar Photo Club, to let them know there is a option out for it and about the foul game Fotolia is playing?
I've found some important contributors that I already researched for contact address and would love to write them a message about this.

ShadySue

  • There is a crack in everything
« Reply #486 on: May 01, 2014, 19:31 »
0
27,934,474

Goofy

« Reply #487 on: May 01, 2014, 19:37 »
+3
Keep pounding them until you see    00,000,000 and a 'RIP' Sign on the front page than the mission is fully completed... 8)



« Reply #488 on: May 01, 2014, 19:44 »
+21
If you mean native English speaker, how about this (edited Fri May 2 to add suggestion to suspend uploading).

Earlier in 2014, Fotolia introduced the Dollar Photo Club, a stock site with all Fotolia's photos and illustrations but with very different pricing. Although Fotolia is presenting this site as exclusive and targeted at high volume buyers, the reality is that for just $10 a month you can sign up for a 10-image "subscription" - $1 per  image, all sizes. Anyone can sign up - and some contributors who had never purchased a single image were sent the offer e-mail!

And the contributor makes a subscription royalty for each sale. Subscription prices without a requirement for the buyer to commit to a high volume of purchases is very very bad news for contributor income.

Contributors were not notified about the drastically different pricing and were initially told there was no way to opt out of this sales channel - except by leaving Fotolia. With the encouragement of a group of contributors pledging to remove their files if things didn't change, Fotolia has relented and provided an option to opt-out of sales at Dollar Photo Club (referred to as DPC in the Contributor Profile)

You can read Fotolia's intentions in their own words in this TechCrunch article:

http://techcrunch.com/2014/04/29/dollarphotoclub-expands-into-more-markets-hits-11000-users/

"In an effort to take on the entrenched players in the States, namely Shutterstock and iStock, he created DollarPhotoClub as a pricing play to break into the US." and "Its disrupting the business model of the two big U.S. players..."

If Dollar Photo Club succeeds, what will get disrupted is contributor income - this is replacing higher royalties with lower, not opening new markets or finding new buyers (and early responses on Twitter and Facebook indicate that's exactly what's happening).

So for your own sake, at a minimum opt out of Dollar Photo Club - on Fotolia, when logged in, it's in Profile, then Contributor Parameters. Another step to take is suspend uploading to Fotolia - subscription sites need a steady stream of new uploads to keep buyers coming back (and advertise the weekly/monthly number of new items). You could also consider whether or not it makes sense to continue with an agency that treats its contributors so shabbily. Remember, the opt out only became available as people started deleting work from Fotolia.

It was 28 million plus images; today, it's 27 million and falling.
« Last Edit: May 02, 2014, 09:37 by Jo Ann Snover »

« Reply #489 on: May 01, 2014, 20:37 »
+4
If you mean native English speaker, how about this.

Earlier in 2014, Fotolia introduced the Dollar Photo Club, a stock site with all Fotolia's photos and illustrations but with very different pricing. Although Fotolia is presenting this site as exclusive and targeted at high volume buyers, the reality is that for just $10 a month you can sign up for a 10-image "subscription" - $1 per  image, all sizes. Anyone can sign up - and some contributors who had never purchased a single image were sent the offer e-mail!

And the contributor makes a subscription royalty for each sale. Subscription prices without a requirement for the buyer to commit to a high volume of purchases is very very bad news for contributor income.

Contributors were not notified about the drastically different pricing and were initially told there was no way to opt out of this sales channel - except by leaving Fotolia. With the encouragement of a group of contributors pledging to remove their files if things didn't change, Fotolia has relented and provided an option to opt-out of sales at Dollar Photo Club (referred to as DPC in the Contributor Profile)

You can read Fotolia's intentions in their own words in this TechCrunch article:

http://techcrunch.com/2014/04/29/dollarphotoclub-expands-into-more-markets-hits-11000-users/

"In an effort to take on the entrenched players in the States, namely Shutterstock and iStock, he created DollarPhotoClub as a pricing play to break into the US." and "Its disrupting the business model of the two big U.S. players..."

If Dollar Photo Club succeeds, what will get disrupted is contributor income - this is replacing higher royalties with lower, not opening new markets or finding new buyers (and early responses on Twitter and Facebook indicate that's exactly what's happening).

So for your own sake, at a minimum opt out of Dollar Photo Club - on Fotolia, when logged in, it's in Profile, then Contributor Parameters. You could also consider whether or not it makes sense to support an agency that treats its contributors so shabbily. Remember, the opt out only became available as people started deleting work from Fotolia.

It was 28 million plus images; today, it's 27 million and falling.


Couple small edits but, I borrowed this for

Hi Robert,

I'm not sure if you've heard the news about quite a number of us microstockers boycotting Fotolia because of the "Dollar Photo Club" launched earlier this year. We've already dropped somewhere around 500,000 images at the time of writing off of Fotolia including many accounts that have been entirely deactivated. The protest started in Russia and as such many other countries didn't catch wind of it until just a few days ago. In an effort to help expand our approach and brighten the outcome of a relatively successful deactivation day I thought I'd contact you, as you and your sites are influential in the microstock community.

Just in case you haden't heard about it yet,


Earlier in 2014, Fotolia introduced the Dollar Photo Club, a stock site with all Fotolia's photos and illustrations but with very different pricing. Although Fotolia is presenting this site as exclusive and targeted at high volume buyers, the reality is that for just $10 a month you can sign up for a 10-image "subscription" - $1 per  image, all sizes. Anyone can sign up - and some contributors who had never purchased a single image were sent the offer e-mail!

The contributor makes a subscription royalty for each sale. Subscription prices without a requirement for the buyer to commit to a high volume of purchases is very very bad news for contributor income.

Contributors were not notified about the drastically different pricing and were initially told there was no way to opt out of this sales channel - except by leaving Fotolia. With the encouragement of a group of contributors pledging to remove their files if things didn't change, Fotolia has relented and provided an option to opt-out of sales at Dollar Photo Club (referred to as DPC in the Contributor Profile)

You can read Fotolia's intentions in their own words in this TechCrunch article:

http://techcrunch.com/2014/04/29/dollarphotoclub-expands-into-more-markets-hits-11000-users/

"In an effort to take on the entrenched players in the States, namely Shutterstock and iStock, he created DollarPhotoClub as a pricing play to break into the US." and "Its disrupting the business model of the two big U.S. players..."

If Dollar Photo Club succeeds, what will get disrupted is contributor income - this is replacing higher royalties with lower, not opening new markets or finding new buyers (and early responses on Twitter and Facebook indicate that's exactly what's happening).

If there is anything you can/or are willing to do to assist us in our efforts it would be greatly appreciated. You can find out more and read the arguments of the community at
http://www.microstockgroup.com/fotolia-com/fotolia-d-day-(deactivation-day)-may-1

http://boycottfotolia.org/en/answer.html#.U2LxiPldV8H

« Reply #490 on: May 01, 2014, 21:10 »
+1
Sean Locke brings up and excellent example of what happens when suppliers deal with discounters in the cautionary tale of Vlasic, Walmart and the giant jar of pickles.

After one has their giant bargain jar of pickles there is no need to buy them again for a very long time.  And when the supplier comes back again to negotiate.  Walmart says, make it cheaper.  After all they have to maintain their reputation as a deep discounter.

« Reply #491 on: May 01, 2014, 21:20 »
+23
More important than deleting a portion of your portfolio from Fotolia is to opt-out of the DPC. Those of you who have not done so already, please consider doing it. You will do yourself and the whole microstock community a huge favor.

My Account > My Profile> Contributor Parameters > Sell my files on DPC - Modify. (Make sure the text now reads Dont sell my files on DPC.)

I can see that some contributors are expressing their discontent with Fotolia's move, some are deleting files from Fotolia (and notifying those deletions here), but they are not opting out of the DPC. I can't understand why.

I just opted out of DPC(14,145 files) - I don't want to undercut my sales elsewhere. And the fact that nobody was even notified about it is not cool.

« Reply #492 on: May 01, 2014, 22:30 »
+11
I opted out of DPC as soon as the switch has been sneaked in. Deleted 400+ so far today. Going to delete another 400 or so later tonight. - Thanks to everyone involved stirring this up!

« Reply #493 on: May 02, 2014, 00:50 »
+10
Opted out. We should stay together or the next DPC will sell images for 25 cents.

Ron

« Reply #494 on: May 02, 2014, 01:37 »
+2
27,929,133

Ron

« Reply #495 on: May 02, 2014, 01:39 »
0
If you mean native English speaker, how about this.

Earlier in 2014, Fotolia introduced the Dollar Photo Club, a stock site with all Fotolia's photos and illustrations but with very different pricing. Although Fotolia is presenting this site as exclusive and targeted at high volume buyers, the reality is that for just $10 a month you can sign up for a 10-image "subscription" - $1 per  image, all sizes. Anyone can sign up - and some contributors who had never purchased a single image were sent the offer e-mail!

And the contributor makes a subscription royalty for each sale. Subscription prices without a requirement for the buyer to commit to a high volume of purchases is very very bad news for contributor income.

Contributors were not notified about the drastically different pricing and were initially told there was no way to opt out of this sales channel - except by leaving Fotolia. With the encouragement of a group of contributors pledging to remove their files if things didn't change, Fotolia has relented and provided an option to opt-out of sales at Dollar Photo Club (referred to as DPC in the Contributor Profile)

You can read Fotolia's intentions in their own words in this TechCrunch article:

http://techcrunch.com/2014/04/29/dollarphotoclub-expands-into-more-markets-hits-11000-users/

"In an effort to take on the entrenched players in the States, namely Shutterstock and iStock, he created DollarPhotoClub as a pricing play to break into the US." and "Its disrupting the business model of the two big U.S. players..."

If Dollar Photo Club succeeds, what will get disrupted is contributor income - this is replacing higher royalties with lower, not opening new markets or finding new buyers (and early responses on Twitter and Facebook indicate that's exactly what's happening).

So for your own sake, at a minimum opt out of Dollar Photo Club - on Fotolia, when logged in, it's in Profile, then Contributor Parameters. You could also consider whether or not it makes sense to support an agency that treats its contributors so shabbily. Remember, the opt out only became available as people started deleting work from Fotolia.

It was 28 million plus images; today, it's 27 million and falling.


Is this to share? Do I need to credit you or post it as orphaned article?

« Reply #496 on: May 02, 2014, 02:11 »
+5
It's fine to share. Perhaps just link back to this post in the thread as the source?
« Last Edit: May 02, 2014, 02:33 by Jo Ann Snover »

« Reply #497 on: May 02, 2014, 02:23 »
+4
I trust that everybody has noticed the contradiction between the claim that the DFC is aimed at high-volume photo users and the official statement Fotolia provided for photoarchive news
"First of all, I would like to clarify our intention here. Our aim has always been to democritize this market and its now to take microstock to the next level: going after the millions of companies around the world who dont purchase yet any license for the images they use, especially in new markets. "
Of course, the claim that it is targeting entirely new users also contradicts the claim that it is acting to "disrupt the business model" of SS and iStock.
If you fit it all together they appear to be claiming to want to disrupt iStock and SS by gaining customers who steal large volumes of images from somewhere.


« Reply #498 on: May 02, 2014, 02:34 »
+9
My translation of your analysis?  They're not very thoughtful liars :)

Ron

« Reply #499 on: May 02, 2014, 02:35 »
+2
It's fine to share. Perhaps just link back to this post in the thread as the source?
perfect. Thanks.


 

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