I found the CNN B2B Article:


Photo wars: A $2 billion business gets rough
http://money.cnn.com/magazines/business2/business2_archive/2007/04/01/8403372/index.htm?postversion=2007040405

One thing I find interesting and that I've started to address with relation to how I do business is the comment:

"While the big two offer exclusives on great photos at prices that range from a few hundred dollars to more than $10,000 apiece, these startups sell pretty good pictures for a good deal less--often just a dollar or two."

Surely someone is going to recognize that there are two completely opposite poles and there isn't much attention being paid to the middle market in between.  My thoughts are either the micros are going to raise prices and eventually fill that middle market leaving behind places like Flickr to address the low end, or the macros are going to have to stoop down to the middle market level.

...and while we're on topic about articles and markets, I'm not sure how many saw the editorial blog post on Black Star Rising about addressing the Chinese market and how Shutterstock is the only agency really doing anything about that market segment:

http://rising.blackstar.com/feature-1-18.html

I think that the following quote from Fotolia President is quite interesting:

"As he describes it, the microstock model is the picture of efficiency. Submissions pour in electronically from photographers, who get 50 percent or more of the proceeds of each sale."

I know that I'm not getting 50% from Fotolia!  Are any of you?

Yeah I do not get the 50% or more too. Maybe we should inform Ft, that they have a bug in their system and we only get 33% instead as we should get: 50% or more  We can send them the quote of their president 

They still seem to stick to their too high number of images on their site..

For their age I would say they are quite good, but I do not like it at all that they are so dishonest.

Fitting to this article here is another link I found by following endicotts link: http://rising.blackstar.com/getty-photographers-pessimistic-about-the-future-5.html

Do FT pay 50% for an exclusive image?

...and while we're on topic about articles and markets, I'm not sure how many saw the editorial blog post on Black Star Rising about addressing the Chinese market and how Shutterstock is the only agency really doing anything about that market segment:

Interesting, because I thought 123RF would be ahead - they have a Chinese version of their site, don't they?

Regards,
Adelaide