MicrostockGroup

Why have a pseudo currency for buying stock photos when almost everything else you buy on the internet is a simple real currency transaction?  I note that SS deals in actual money.

I agree. The more smoke and mirrors added into the equation, the less people will be able to track their own hard-earned money.

Someone may be paying 50c a credit, someone else $1 a credit and someone else 2 Euro a credit. (total fabrication, but you get the idea) They can sell special packages and have discounts or give "free" credits. Simple enough there's no one to one relationship with any currency or value.

I also agree with the smoke and mirrors factor so we are kept in the dark about what's really going on with our work and sales.
 

Mostly I think it started as a way to eliminate lots of little transactions and to reward/encourage large purchases of credits. The smoke and mirrors is just a bonus for sites like Fotolia that play exchange rate games etc. etc. (or for DT that pay lower %ages for different level pics).

Agreed.  Also, it creates a disconnect - you may be more likely to spend 10 "credits" then 10 dollars, as well as being able to raise the credit prices in addition to raising what the credits can purchase.

Credits can go unused and the EXPIRE. Cash never expires. Credits work out well for the agencies.

Essentially it's a way to decouple the "currency" of a site from the currency of the shopper. Tinkering a few percent with credits is easier, and you can skim here and there without anyone noticing. Any site in any industry will benefit from using a "currency" of it's own creation/choosing to subtly manipulate.

Here's what I was getting at, no conspiracy theory, but that part plays well on it's own.

Customer a buys 100 credits for $100, Customer B gets an introductory offer and gets 100 credits for $50, customer C buys a huge annual package and pays 25c a credit for the whole year, D pays 50 pounds for 50 credits and E pays 50 Euro for 50 credits. That way, photos are not priced at any currency but credits. That's why they have credits! Variable pricing, without making a new price list for every oddball customer in their local currency.

Now about commissions. up in the air, they win, and can dangle credits or anything else vague and we don't know what someone really paid for a download. Yes it does muddy the waters for us, but for running an international website, it makes life easy!

Correct. But the system had other advantages that were obvious from the start. It completely eliminates cash flow problems, bad debt problems and the need for account-chasing, while providing working capital for the company. It turns the normal business sequence upside down. Instead of: raise capital > buy stock > hold stock > find buyer > wait 30 days for payment (> pay debt collector)  the sequence is  collect money > wait for a long time before having to supply goods > wait for a long time before paying supplier of goods 

It's the fact that it is capitalism without the requirement for significant initial capital that allowed the original sites to take off. It's vastly superior to any pay-on-demand system as a generator of working capital.

The sneaky smoke and mirrors accounting tricks didn't appear until several years after the creation of the system.

This should explain credits, points and coupons well enough..

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vHNkmZOM5xU" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vHNkmZOM5xU</a>